Alaskan Spring

Sipping coffee on this early Sunday morning, I am enjoying the peaceful quiet of the white foggy mist that has settled around the birch trees. Varying shades of dirty white to grays hides the fallen branches from the last windstorm. It seems that even the wildlife have gone back into hibernation; no prints in the snow, no scurrying in the bushes. It must be warm outside; the dripping from the roof reminds me that it is an Alaskan spring day!
It snowed 22 inches in NE Anchorage starting early Friday morning and lasting well into the night. Our area had a mere 14 inches coupled with multiple electrical outages. Travelling the roads yesterday to work was easy, but parking anywhere was a challenge. Like little boys in a sandbox, both the Municipality and Fort Rich had put away their winter toys, replacing them with heavy construction noisemakers. Scrambling and grabbing the closest item with a blade was the order of business for the day.
The Garrison Commander brought inspection teams in on Saturday to walk through all barracks. It was a facilities maintenance verification not a check on Soldiers as some young recruits seemed to think; Saturday morning party eyes were evident on many faces. It was a mandatory site inspection as directed by Department of the Army. Some of you that scour the internet for headlines may have read about an incident at Fort Bragg where soldiers coming home from Iraq were moved into barracks in questionable condition. It was brought to the attention of Congressmen by a soldier’s father. Housing provided three inspection teams with cameras and vehicles. Of course the day started with coffee and donuts and ended five hours later much the same way after our briefing to the boss.
I went from work to a housewarming. Wanita Sweet had just moved into a wonderful condo with zero lot lines; i.e. no maintenance and lots of covenants in this development. In her typical style of food preparation “Take Out” or “Take Me Out” she had assembled a wonderful luncheon. She surprised the Hoochies by fixing a sweetened meatball dish. the secret ingredient was grape jelly. Wanita had downsized from a four-bedroom house to this condo in january. We had helped with her garage sale last fall and a couple of people had helped move the furniture. She is always the perfect hostess!
Special Note to the Bundy Clan – I enjoy your Blog as well. I tried to comment yesteday and failed miserbly twice…more evidence that I lack in computer communication. :-)