Web Log Entry #0014, Monday, November 25, 2002: Day 7

Anchorage Sunrise: 9:30am Sunset: 4:01pm High Temp: 38° Low Temp: 35° First workday commute from new place. The drive was DRY. I guess I was wrong about the permamuck, although the Alaskans swear that this is a highly unusual year. There should be three feet of snow. My fault. At lunch, the sky was clearing and sun was out. I decided to walk to the post office. It took about ten minutes each way. By the time I got back the sky was almost cloudless, and deep, deep blue. A really beautiful day. Here's a picture: Out of the blue, I got the call saying approval came through for a company car for me. Ironically, both Stan and Jim were gone. Jim was in meetings, and Stan had said he was going to "run an errand" about 2:00, and wasn't back. So I took the rental car back myself, and caught a taxi back to the office. I was relieved to have car with studded snow tires. Ironically, there's no snow. (Before you get all impressed that I get a company car, it's a Chevy Cavalier, about ten years old, with mushy seats and some unidentifiable yellowish drips down the driver's side door. Stan was jealous because mine has FM on the radio, not just AM.) When I returned around 5:00, Stan wasn't back. Jim got a call. Stan was in the Emergency Room. It turned out to be nothing serious, but it did make me think that I'm 2,400 miles from civilization. (Yes, there are doctors, hospitals, and emergency rooms here, but I don't want to encounter any of them. Mostly because Alaska is out-of-region for Kaiser Permanente, my health care provider, so all expenses are out-of-pocket and billed back to Kaiser. Since they still owe me for expenses incurred in Arizona LAST JANUARY, I'm not thrilled at the prospect of dealing with that process.) I resolve to stay healthy for my entire trip. That night I wrote another round of post cards from the safety of home.

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© 2002 Evan M. Nichols