To me, and I'm sure the rest of town, it is the colour of everyday. I suppose it could be worse. White after all is a neutral colour, a blank slate. It's not like I'm saying I see cotton candy pink ALL THE TIME. Although......at this point I'd rather see aqua blue water...beige sand......orange towels.....and maybe even a yellow beverage.
See what I mean:
That's a whole lot of WHITE.
Over the past 3 weeks (sorry everybody, it's been far too long) we have had three blizzards, one lasting for 3 days. School has been cancelled at least one day every week, planes have been cancelled, mail disrupted, and people house bound.
I am from the east coast. I know a good storm when I see one. I was in NS during White Juan. We lost power for days and shovelled out for just as long. The difference between a good NS storm and a Paulatuk blizzard is.....the blizzard. It is just insane. I'll try to explain it but unless you are here it just won't be the same. The wind is insane, it just doesn't give up. I'm not entirely convinced it actually snows alot, I think it just blows around. Like a snow tornado.
During the three day blizzard the town shut down. The store (yes the only one) closed down, school closed, the town building was closed, the post office closed, NOTHING in town was moving, not even the snow machines. The reason - you could not see a single thing. Nothing, I could not see my neighbours house, I couldn't see the lights up the road let alone across the bay, heck I couldn't even see out my living room window.
Once it stopped this was the neighbours house:
and we shovelled off the window, yes, shovelled.
We had to take extra precautions because we didn't know how long we'd be living in white out conditions. So when heard a blizzard was coming we filled up on water, made sure our flashlights were working and were where they were suppose to be. N has added flashlight adventures to his daily activities so sometimes their location is questionable.
Initially I was concerned about power. If we lost it how long would we be with out? That would suck. Then I thought about water.....no roads = no water truck and ummmmm if the water truck wasn't coming that also meant the sewer truck wouldn't be making the rounds either. I crossed my fingers, hoped for the best and figured what would be, would be.
In the end it was fine. No we didn't get water for 4 days, we did the ol' if it's yellow let it mellow thing, and our power stayed on the entire time. The satellite was sketchy for awhile, but I thought that would be the first thing to go. Overall we came out unscathed.
Once the storm was over the grader and loader hit the roads to make them passable. I walked up to play school and chuckled a few times at the "roads". I felt like I was walking in a tunnel at a few places. The drifts were over my head.
We were the only ones at play school. A 5 to 1 teacher student ratio isn't so bad. They were just as happy to be out of the house as I was. One of the teachers was telling me about a big storm (this one was just considered normal) that blew the steps right off her house. We were all talking about loading up on water to get ready and the teachers told me about how they also keep their parkas, boots, mitts etc close by. No kidding. In case the roof blows off or the house blows away. It kind of sounds like the big bad wolf story but I guess their is a legitimate concern. All of our house are built on stilts because of the permafrost. There is not a single basement in town. So we are up on stilt, some are open to the elements and some people have enclosed the area to create a storage area. I suppose if it's on stilts.....there is a chance it could blow off the stilts.
R came home from work telling me that he was talking to a man who had suggested keeping our outdoor gear close by. So I chuckled and we exchanged stories. Turns out the storm that the stairs blew away is the same storm that had people in town dressed IN their outdoor gear because they really thought they might end up outside. Lets just say I'm glad I wasn't here for that storm!
We also had our first day of -50. There is no way to explain it other to say -50 is really cold.
I was heading over to the school one afternoon and figured I'd skip my snow pants because it's just extra hassle and I wasn't really going very far...just to the school. I started out walking. Progressed to a jog and ended up running and cursing that if I got to the school and it was locked I was going to each persons house that was suppose to be there and cursing them out.
I was relieved to get to the door and it was open. I was greeted by a friend saying "it's cold out there". Yup, I'd agree with that. She went on to tell me it was -48. No freaking wonder I was freezing. We were at the school to do a little circuit training in the gym. Only problem was the gym door had blown open over night and it was freezing in the gym. Have you ever seen people doing circuit training in parkas, fur hats and seal skin mitts? I'm sure it would have been a funny sight, but even all geared up and working out, we all still had red noses. Not so enjoyable, but a good chuckle.
-52 is great for a good old science experiment. Some of you might have seen the video on Utube that went viral last year. A lady in YK dumped boiling water outside in -30 and it turns to snow. Neat. So we decided we should do it too. Just because we could. Some of the teachers decided to advance the study and add food colouring to the water and see if they'd get coloured snow.
It was fun. More white! The food colouring didn't work. It did show up on the snow after it landed, but white, more white.
The days have been getting noticeably lighter. I would say it is light during the day. Maybe I've kind of lost my base line as to what "light" is because I'm sure without the sun it can't be just as light as your light is. It does seem light though. From about 10 ish it starts getting "light" and then around 4 ish it starts getting darker. Right now it is almost 5pm and is dusk out. About as light as daytime was a month ago. Definite progress.
January 26 was the BIG day. The day the sun came back. I had been eagerly anticipating it's arrival and for the previous three days N and I had been reading his Northern books that tell stories of the sun coming back. They are nice stories. One tells the story of how a raven stole the sun and the new sun would come back bigger than the last one so the raven couldn't steal the new one. The other is about a little Inuit boy who goes with his parents for a walk to the ocean. Along the way they meet a polar bear, a walrus and a fox all going to the ocean. Once they get there the sun comes up.
We'd read these stories before nap time then come to the living room to look out the window, because surely the sun would be there then. Nope. Then on the 26th I noticed what I thought might be the tip of the sun:
Then about a half hour later I saw someone in front of the house taking pictures:
THIS HAD TO BE IT!!!!
Sure enough
THE SUN
Happy day in our little community. This sun is big - I'm pretty sure the raven won't be able to steal this one ; )
I took this one today - it was only up for about 20 minutes
With every sunrise there must be a sunset. The sunset on January 26th at 3:00 in the afternoon was awesome! Cotton candy pink!
By total fluke I made red velvet cake yesterday for a pot luck. I didn't have any red food dye, but I had pink. Close enough.
Sure looks like cotton candy to me.
That's playdough by the mixer, not
food colouring......
And there we have it. The past three weeks updated.
Onto tomorrow, a blank slate.
A white blank slate.....
Here's a few of N - too cute not to share.
-50c that is just INSANE!!
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