26 October 2015

You Know You Live in Alaska When ...

From the Alaska Dispatch News:

You know you live in Alaska when ...

You never use an umbrella.
You name your children after landforms, tree species or snowmachine parts.
You wear fleece, wool and down year round.

You don’t get into “fender-benders”; Alaskans “roll in the ditch.”

You’re into shooting stuff.

You eat reindeer for breakfast.

You stack firewood for the intellectual challenge.

You are proficient in the use of Visqueen.

You shave with ulu knives.

You toss fish scraps out in the yard and call it a “bird feeder.”

You hunt moose from your deck.

You get married wearing Carhartts.

You’ve conceived a child wearing Carhartts.

You’re born wearing Carhartts.

Whether you drive a Subaru, a rusty Toyota, a behemoth American 4x4 or a crazy homemade Frankentruck with massive spotlights and built-in gun mounts -- the front fender’s dented and the windshield’s cracked.
You name your 16-foot cabin cruiser with a bad boating/fishing pun like “Hot Ruddered Bum”.
You drink a double mocha latte with extra whipped cream and sprinkles with a loaded .44 strapped to your leg.

You’re so vitamin D deficient, you’ve contemplated mainlining fish oil.

You’re notoriously averse to paying state income tax, but have no problem shelling out $500 to the DMV for a vanity license plate no one can understand.
You strap on crampons for your morning commute.

You consider 60 degrees “hot.”
You no longer suffer from seasonal affective disorder -- indeed, you’ve grown so used to lacking natural UV light you’ve developed seasonal affective disorder disorder.
You appreciate a fine tarp.
 You always take off your boots whenever you go inside, without necessarily removing your bloodstained fly-fishing vest.

You eat cinnamon rolls. A whole lot of cinnamon rolls.

You simultaneously complain about things not being like they were back in the good old days and, in the same breath, about your 4G LTE running slow lately.

You’ve had at least one dangerous wild animal in your garage.

You give your kids ammo for Christmas.
You complain about all the snow until it suddenly stops for a few weeks, at which point you start complaining about its absence.

You can’t resist a sale on ice cream.
You start preparing for winter in July.

You start preparing for the Fourth of July in January.

You’ve patched at least one piece of outerwear with duct tape and would do the same with underwear, too, if duct tape didn’t so readily adhere to body hair.

You covet thy neighbor’s arctic entry.

You’ve become desensitized to scraping bear scat from your shoe treads.

You absolutely can’t conceive of living anywhere else. Well, except maybe Hawaii for two weeks in February, but even then you’ll never quite shake feeling like you’re missing out on whatever’s going on up here. 

Follow the link to see the whole list.

11 comments:

Peter said...

BWAAAHAHAHAHA!

I wouldn't have believed half of them, until I came up to Alaska several times to court my wife. Now . . . I'd believe any and all of them!

(Although I have to say, actually conceiving a child while wearing Carharrts sounds like a slander against the makers of those fine outdoor clothes . . . )

:-D

Rev. Paul said...

Peter, I left out some of the less-flattering items, but know what you mean about not believing them until you've experienced 'em.

deb harvey said...

60 degrees! how about 30 degrees is boiling hot?
lived in winnipeg one year. 60 below forever.
went out one day and had to throw off my parka. people were in their t shirts.
husband said what do you think the temp is.
i said 90 easy.
he said it is 30.
well, the diff between minus sixty and thirty is 90.
i was sweating all day.
summer happened over night that year!!
if you think 30 degrees is summery!

deb harvey said...

p. s.
what is an 'arctic entry'?

JFM said...

An Arctic entry is a sort of airlock so the door doesn't open directly outside.

Ajdshootist said...

Those made me snort cold milk out of my nose over the keyboard and im still laughing at them as i type.

drjim said...

MMmmmmm....cinnamon rolls!!!!!

With icing?

Rev. Paul said...

deborah, I hear you, and know what you're talking about. It's whatever you're used to, and everything is relative. We had the same syndrome on Adak, when at 50 degrees we were laying out in swim trunks in the sun.
And an arctic entry is two entry doors, with a room in-between to form a temperature barrier so that the outside air doesn't get inside.

Ajd, I guess she should have issued a warning. Sorry. :)

drjim, sticky, thick gooey icing.

Chickenmom said...

LOL! That duct tape works in Joisey, too!

Anonymous said...

PRICELESS!
I did have to research what Visqueen was, though. :-)

gfa

Rev. Paul said...

Chickenmom - as Red Green says, it's the handyman's secret weapon. :)

Guffaw - most folks just call it a tarp - or a drop cloth, depending on thickness. Kind of like referring to all vacuum containers as a "Thermos".