First, the smoke rolled in. It lasted nearly a week. We were confined to the indoors, where the ventilation system kept us healthy. I didn't even feel like going places in the car, because it was choking, dark, and depressing. I contemplated going back to Minnesota, but didn't want to ride the plane alone for 7 hours with my 16 month old. My husband, who was upset that he could not ride his bike to work, considered driving to Anchorage for the weekend, something we would not ever consider doing normally because it's a 7 hour drive. My play group did a toy swap, so the kids would be entertained while indoors. And then it, the smoke, left when a moist cold front came in and hasn't been back in over a week.
Wildfire fighting is a major deal up here. Instead of just putting the fires out immediately, to save tax dollars and to keep it natural, they allow the fires to burn, controlling their size and protecting structures. A lot of it is done with bulldozers. It's a nasty job. At any given time during the summers, hundreds of millions of acres have burned and hundreds of millions of acres are burning. It's usually just a single lightening strike, a spark from a chain saw, once it was a man who dumped his burn barrel ashes out into has back yard. But, usually it's just the lightening, and let me tell you I NEVER see a thunderstorm or lightening here. It's just too dry for that kind of precipitation. So, it doesn't take much to ignite a spruce forest or tundra.
Smoke blowing by the front yard, high in the sky, before sunset
Then, I started to become more sick, pregnancy sick. I couldn't go into the kitchen without vomiting. Pretty much any smell whatsoever made me heave. I layed down a lot, while playing with my son. His favorite toy is these knock-off Legos we found for $5 at a garage sale down the road.
He is like a stacking pro and keeps me quite entertained.
In other news, we went to see Food, Inc., and it was fantastic. My husband went grocery shopping and bought all organic. I still don't, because of the cost, but I do a better job than before I started reading books like Omnivore's Dilemma.
My cousin Christina had a beautiful baby girl, and I embroidered her a blanket. I also started a quilt for my cousin Jennie who's expecting in February.
My husband and I figured out our school schedules. He's teaching an intro course to Process Technology Monday nights (not during normal work time), which means he'll still get his alternating Fridays off of work. I will take a statistics course in scientific sampling three days a week. Alek will go three different places, by my choice, so that even though we won't be able to play outside this winter, he'll still be able to get out and see new things.
My sister-in-law returns to law school in Minnesota today. We had her and her grandmother over for dinner last night. Our son really showed his true colors. He is going to be quite a piece of work at least until he turns two.
