Well actually, I am 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. But this is my thermometer tonight and "the real cold" is expected to hit us this weekend.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...95674864_n.jpg
Most of us that live her are staunchly independent. Well, we feel like we are anyways. But in these temperatures, we are so very dependent on each other. I live in what is called a cabin patch. It's several dry cabins grouped together, out of town. Mine is 8 cabins along one back road. I'm just going to copy and paste this from another post I made because I am tired and on my way to bed.
My Alaska Karma is giving me ample opportunity to help others lately. Along with my job and opportunities made available through it, I am thankful these others have reminded me of being so humbled a bit over a year ago and all the people who came together then to help us. I was driving into town and saw a young man walking away from an old pick up on the side of the road, gas can in hand. I was on my way to work but pulled over and picked him up, brought him into town, gassed up his jug and brought him back to his truck and young love there waiting for him, in the cold. The young couple in the cabin next to us who moved in about the same time as we did, and whom I have yet to meet because they are students and also work full time so are as busy as I am, forgot to plug their car in. All cars here have at least a block heater that we plug in each night to keep the motor and fluids from freezing up. If you don't plug in, your car does not start in the morning! She was late for work and he was late for class, but I got them going again before their car totally froze up. My gas light had come on while idling with jumper cables connecting our cars, but I knew I had enough to get to the gas station on the edge of town. He offered me $5 but as I looked at the cabin next to his, was reminded of my neighbor there that had just come and crawled under my cabin last Wed. to help me clear an ice blockage from my grey water outlet pipe. I told him I'd take a rain check on a jump at some other time. Both of these things made me a bit late for work. I was happy to work over to make up the time and thankful for having a job in which I do not fear to be a few minutes late for a good cause. Then last night on my way home from work, after 8:30 and long since dark, I saw someone hitch hiking out by my place. It was several miles out of town and about -30. Now these are always "opportunities" that women driving alone must think twice about. It's cold. People can and do die in these temperatures. But picking up hitch hikers, even here were it is really fairly common is a danger. Also I think about having to be extra careful now that the kids only have one parent left. But I did anyways because it was so freaking cold out and he was a long ways from anywhere. He had missed the bus and was just trying to get home. Anyways, thanks to my friend Lara for reminding me to share these opportunities as a reminder to my friends and family to pay it forward. You get what you give and it feels good to give of oneself, even in little ways that help people in their day to day lives. It's one thing to be independent, to want to run off to the wilderness. But it's a really good thing to have even a tiny bit of help now and then.
