The Morning After

Our snowfall total for the weekend, from Friday morning through 6:00 a.m. today, is 12 inches. At least, that's how much we received at my place; your mileage may vary.

The highway was in bad shape this a.m., probably due to the wet snow which fell at mid-day yesterday, which has since re-frozen; there were seven cars off the road in a two-mile stretch. That's more than usual for the middlin' amount of snow that fell. I'm guessing there's black ice on the bare spots.

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Joated mentioned in a previous comment that the expanse of Alaska is the reason for the abundance of small aircraft up here. He's right; we have more aircraft than automobiles, although with the recent influx of transplanted people into south-central Alaska, the disparity is shrinking. But it's a fact that 95 per cent of Alaska is not accessible via the limited road grid, and can be reached only by air, or by ocean-going vessel (in the case of coastal communities).

Since you may not have seen the comparison, here's a graphic to give you a better idea. I said it stretched from L.A. to Miami, but how about San Francisco to Charleston?













Alaska is 586,400 square miles, or larger than Texas, California and Montana combined. My friend Duane in Killeen, Texas, doesn't like me to talk about how much bigger Alaska is. The saying here is, "If Texans don't like being the second largest state, we'll divide Alaska in half - then they can be third largest. If they don't like third place, we'll wait until low tide, divide Alaska in thirds, and they can be fourth largest."














Come to think of it, I can understand why he gets annoyed ... heh.