This Alaskan Life

Hang tough, sailing friends. The Galactics will put to sea again this boreal summer, everything going more or less to plan. We're waiting to hear the fate of a proposal that we wrote to work from the boat this summer before we decide on a destination, but I think the consensus is strong that: 1) we would all very much like to go sailing for a few months this summer; and 2) we can probably make some coin renting out the house while we're off, which sweetens the deal a bit.

After a November and December of endless rain, we've finally gotten some winter weather

Meanwhile, we're happily going about the business of being Alaskan.

We have two cords of wood stacked and waiting to go for the rest of the winter. Alisa and I just spent the week in Anchorage for the Alaska Marine Science Symposium, and we took the opportunity to go skiing there every chance we got, which was a lot. And we were greeted by snow when we returned to Kodiak, and have just clocked a two-days-of-skiing weekend, that sweet spot which is rarely experienced at the intersection of undependable low-altitude Kodiak snow and the boys' five-on, two-off schedule.

Oh yes. There was that tsunami warning as well. We were awoken by the earthquake in our hotel in Anchorage, but it was Alisa's aunt, who was watching the boys while we were away, who had to deal with the situation on the ground. The earthquake was around 1230, and the tsunami warning was for around 0145. The sirens went off and people started driving out of our neighborhood and Aunt Noe had to figure out where to go in a hurry.

There was a nice Alaskan answer to that question, in the form of our neighbor whom Alisa was able to get on the phone just as she was evacuating, and who stopped by our house to scoop up the kids and Noe to take them to a friend's house on higher ground.

Thanks, Mary. Thanks, Noe.

The boys have graduated to skiing with poles.

Please...don't need braces.