Fast Change

When the temperature drops so fast like that, it means someone has died or is dying on the tundra. Just today a man was reported missing from one of the villages. --Roxanne, Behavioral Health Clinic, Bethel, AK

Where yesterday was easily negative thirty without windchill (they're saying it was -50 with), today the temperature has again shot back upwards to near 30. I had heard it raining last night for the first time since my arrival in Bethel and awoke to find everything coated in 1/8" of dense ice. I half walked, half sailed my way to the hospital this morning, hearing the thin layer of ice on the snow shatter under my feet with every step. I didn't find the temperature change annoying--more amusing, since I'd never experienced a sixty-degree temperature change in fourteen hours.

The wind and rain didn't really come across well in this video, but I thought I'd experiment and post it anyway.

With Eric's persistence motivating me, I had called the internet provider up here to see if we were supposed to have service. They claimed we were, and sent someone out yesterday to repair it. It's not a fast connection, yet it is faster than at the hospital, so I'm hoping to be able to upload things easier. At any rate, I should at least have more opportunities to get online, which will make email, my PharmD project, and general communication much easier.