Ha Ha. What did I say about snow?

Click on my Dawson Weather Link on the sidebar to see the forecast for tonight. Of course, we're in Whitehorse and the weather here is much warmer. Our drive back tomorrow could be interesting though.

On the way down on Thursday night we saw three foxes within about 50 metres of each other at sunset. We also saw a huge buck (deer) as well as a group of elk, the one the lights caught had a giant rack! Oh and a moose with calf also. Very exciting.

On another note, I'm stuck in a motel room while Scott's off being a responsible citizen representing his school at a YTA conference all day. Lot's of homework to do anyway.

Funny story about yesterday: We arrived in Whitehorse around midnight on Thursday and were woken up Friday morning by massive construction outside before 7am. So after Scott left for his meeting I asked the front counter if we could change rooms, if it wasn't too inconvenient, of course (I'm so damned polite). "No problem" they said. I explained that I had an appointment shortly and I'd be out of the room by 11:15. Again, "No problem." So ten minutes later I'm leaving my room when a cleaning lady way the hell down the hall (I couldn't even tell you what she looked like) yells at me, "When are you going to be out of your room". I explain that I'm moving rooms and that the front desk said I could move rooms just after 11, after my appointment. She gets super snotty and says that she needs to clean the room. It's the only pet room left. I thought for a minute (I'd be late for my appt if I move all my stuff right then) and tell her that all of our stuff is in one spot if she wants to clean around it. She totally gets mad at me and yells, "Fine then, I'll do it tomorrow" I mean, she's yelling at me; giving me shit. So I go out to the van and put the dog in and decide I better say something to the boss, because this lady was sooo rude. The boss is with another customer so I explain what happened to the other lady at the counter and she's really nice. Tells me, "That's bullshit. You didn't deserve that." Anyways, I tell them we'll just stay in the damned sucky room but that we're never coming back here. So, when I return from my hair appointment (Joseph always makes me feel gorgeous) the manager stops me and says that the cleaning lady was out of line and that just before she'd yelled at me, they'd told her I would be moving rooms. She also said the cleaning lady gave her a totally different story and that she was really, "Bitchy today". The other lady later, after I had switched rooms to a much nicer one, said that the cleaning lady was getting fired as this wasn't the first time she was so rude to a customer. Moral of the story: if you are in the hospitality business, be nice to the people who are responsible for your paycheque. We always tip the cleaning ladies, too. That bitch sure as hell won't be getting a tip.

The day was supposed to get better, we'd seen a sign saying that Tanya Tagiq was playing...at the motel we are at! I'm so excited. I love her. Huge fan. (Inuit throat singer, if you didn't already know). So, after Scott gets back, we go for a drive up Fish lake road to walk the dog, planning on meeting people at the bar just after 9:30pm. We get there ten minutes late and the sign says...."Sold Out". Damn! I sure would have like to have seen her live.


We're going for sushi tonight! So today will be a better day. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned on our blog that Scott and I met online. Best match ever. And now we seem to be making friends online! lol. Welcome to the twenty-first century.

Our Low Tonight is Supposed to Be -6!!

that's about 24 degrees for you Americans.

One more. It got even better later on but we were too lazy to get out of bed to take pics. And yes...we can see them from bed. Windows behind our heads and to our left covering most of the walls.

What a wonderful evening.

This is how light out it was a few minutes ago when we took the pic-this is to the south. the aurora is in the northeast.

Look! Look!

a good night to see the aurora

everybody should be looking up tonight-even those of you down south-its still light out here and we can see them. Use the aurora sentry link in my sidebar to see how far south.

Are you listening?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092000893.html

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. Don't listen to the news. Read his UN speech yourself. He doesn't really sound reasonable at the beginning, but the bulk of his speech is truth. People need to listen to our intellectuals like Noam Chomsky. Not greedy politicians.

(And I'm not saying Canada is any better than the US. We too have a greedy politician for a leader.)

Just a reminder that WINTER IS COMING!
I know the rest of you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about : though technically fall is just beginning it's clearly on it's way out here. The leaves are nearly all off. Overnight the temp is dropping to the minus's. LET IT SNOW. LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!
Anyways, things are good here. Busy, but winding down in many ways. All of the tourists are gone except the few die hards you can't help but respect. Most of the restaurants are closed or are closing on Sunday. We're off on our quarterly trip to Whitehorse not this weekend but the next: I can't wait for SUSHI! And a haircut! The tourists will be gone there too, which will be nice. Scott has all his clubs going: skills (they are building a solar bike for the solar challenge), and drama, and he's sharing Breakfast program duties with me this year since I'll be out of commission for a chunk of the winter due to my upcoming surgery. He's also going to be the YTA rep for the high school part of the school which should prove interesting. It's turning out to be an awesome year. Anyways, sorry for the short rambling post-try not to curse me for wishing winter on-I have to go prep for my next job of the day: I'm out at the musher's place again.
I hope everyone is doing well. We hope to hear from you all!

Fondue Party

Check out the feast. We need a bigger table! Last night we boned up on our fondues and our fondon'ts.
Do: have cheese fondue! Yummy.
Don't: use your deep fryer for oil fondue! Ouch-see look on Scott's face.
We had both with such delicasies as tofu, yams, mushrooms, shrimp and scallops, bread, brie, and some other stuff. And then we had blueberry pie. And we were stuffed.
Fondue is a recipe for fun! (<-yet more cheese)

Perfect Boyfriends

This is going to be a feel good post so if you don't want to feel good you need to go away. This post was inspired by last night's evening of fondue (next post) and amazing aurora. It's really suprising just how romantic standing under the northern lights can make you feel:) It's no wonder really, how easily Northern Exposure (best show ever-it's why I live here) started the rumour that the Japanese flock to the north to concieve their children under the aurora. Anyway...

I've been reading some other blogs in the rare moments I take to myself. It's interesting to get a good look into strangers heads. One of the things that leaves an impression is that some people think that they are not going to get the person they dream of (or the job they dream of )and so they go off in different directions and end up settling. This is just wrong! I've had a different boyfriend for almost every year of my adult life. Not because I can't keep a man but because I figure I don't want to waste my time with someone that doesn't feel right.(same goes with jobs). But look at me now. I got off my butt and found the man I was looking for (internet dating is brilliant) and I really could not have done any better. Really. Most of you know that I hurt myself pretty badly a couple of years ago...to the point where I had to become dependent on someone else to do many things for me. And Scott has never complained-which is amazing when you consider just how much wood one must chop to get through a winter in Dawson. He doesn't see me as less of a person and he just patiently waits for me to get fixed. But you know, even if I never get fixed I think he would love me anyways. He's watched me put on more than 40 lbs, be terribly depressed due to my body's inabilities, and still he loves me. And he's hot, too. I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet. So today's post is a tribute to the best boyfriend ever. Don't ever settle, ladies. If you keep your options open the right one will come along....wait! Let me rephrase that: He might come along but more likely you have to go find him. And then you can move to Dawson and live happily ever after! lol.

Our view this evening. The leaves are falling. Life is good.

The wasps nest that got Ashland. Glad to have it gone.

Our van after our trip up the Dempster last weekend

Our view about a week ago

Here's Milo.

A week or so ago walking by the Yukon River in the morning.

Coming to Vancouver

Hey Everybody. FYI: Lynne will be in Vancouver for a few days over Oct 16. If you are able to help with rides (to/from airport, to/from appt) or want to just to meet up for lunch or whatever -email us! Your help will be appreciated

I warned you guys we were gonna do the sour toe. Check this out. Click on it. I dare you.

Here he goes...

Yay Scott! You're the man!

Here I am. Nobody can say that I don't have balls!

here's Kim doin' it, too. A brave girl, this one.

Yesterday we...

... went up the Dempster.

To see the Porcupine Caribou! Too bad we didn't see a bigger chunk of the herd. These bucks were lucky...some hunters had stopped not a km before where some more were a little further from the road.

Going to see the Caribou

So, instead of going to Inuvik with the Vet, I traded jobs with his previous assistant so he could go (I have a lot of schoolwork to do, not to mention getting the Breakfast Program up and running this year). So I've spent the last couple of days "babysitting" for the folks who won the Percy DeWolfe (big dog sled race) this year. How cool is that? Nobody's really sure how many dogs they have...around 40 right now is a pretty good guess as they have another musher's dogs there and also 7 puppies. It's all very exciting...oh yeah, they have two great kids, too! It's somewhat intimidating to have to feed all those dogs and "scoop their poop" but it's a really neat experience.

So, because I didn't go to Inuvik, we have a three day weekend! We're going to go see the Caribou herd that we missed last year up the Dempster. This is really important as it may not be around much longer if the US decides to drill for oil on their calving grounds. Really sad...there's only enough oil there for about 6 months but they are so greedy they are going to do it anyways, even if it means wiping out the last giant herd of Caribou (140,000..I think). This is ANWR I'm talking about if anybody wants to look it up. It's a pretty big deal up here. The first nations groups require the Caribou to maintain their lifestyles. Anyways....we're going to go try and see them while we can. My boss was up a week ago and brought pics. There were 6 grizzlies follwing behind them at that time. I can't wait...but it's gonna be cold.

So there will be lots of pics to come on Tuesday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. And I'm sorry if any of you are feeling ignored: it's just a busy time of year here. We still love you. :)

Monorail! Monorail!

That's what some Dawson residents will be demanding next but the issue of the day is cell phones.

I was 25 km out of town at 6:30 yesterday when I found out that the information session for the public about said cell service was taking place at 7pm in town. I drove perhaps slightly faster than I should have but we made it just in time.

YTG and Lattitude Wireless set up this information session last night because Dawson has been their coldest reception in the Yukon so far. The tower was supposed to be up and we were supposed to have service by now but there are so many of us that are up in arms about it that the town has not yet granted them the lease for the tower. The room was definately split, it seemed, three ways. Those who want cell phones (only one woman spoke up about it though), those of us who don't want cell phones, and those who want "the best bang for the buck" (I'm not sure of the man's name who said that).

Proponents for the service argue that it would be good for business and tourism, but the arguement against that is that the service will be so limited (due to our hilly terrain? and our tin roofs?). There is one very good arguement for cell service and that is that apparently it will improve our emergency services in that they will be able to do things like take pics of the patients and send them ahead, as well as cardiac info, etc. This is a good arguement, but even some of those on the ambulance team don't see it as being a huge benefit. One lady argued that they are within 5 minutes of the nursing station anywhere that the service would work anyway.

Then there are the miners. They want the service, and with good reason. They are often in the middle of nowhere up the klondike valley but....with the one tower we are getting the Klondike Valley won't get service. And honestly, with less than 2000 residents, are they going to be able to generate enough revenue to build more? YTG is subsidizing this one for the emergency services.

Then there's the rest of us. If you'd been listening to CBC north on the radio this morning you would have heard both Scott and myself saying that we don't want it! We moved here because Dawson is one of the last places left without cell phones and the like. We have boardwalks and unpaved streets. We're a National Historical Site for goodness sake! We are not the only ones who feel that way. There were a few, much better spoken, people there last night who agreed with us (they should have been interviewed for the radio): We just don't want them.

We live in a wonderful community with the key word being community. Cell phones contribute to an individualized society. We don't want that. Where are we gonna go? Old Crow is on the list for Cell Service! I don't understand: why can't they leave just us few northern communities who don't want it (I'm making an assumption about Old Crow). People who desperately want cell phones have an infinite amount of choice as to places to live. What about those of us that don't want it?

Please comment with your opinion. Would the world be a better place without cell phones? Should we have to have them? Are the proponents right? That if we don't want them then we just shouldn't buy them? That implies that it won't affect us but when the car accidents increase and our kids stop talking to each other because they can talk to other people on their cell phones; when we are in a restaurant or a meeting somewhere and the stupid sound of someones phone being turned on to take pictures or just ringing is driving us nuts, that surely affects us. Some of you may recall that I worked at a call centre for AT&T wireless taking technical support calls. I know the hassles that come with those things. And in case nobody in town noticed- there's a free phone behind the school! Who needs cell phones at $35-$200 a month? Not to forget the roaming charges. They didn't touch on that at all. Funny.

JUST SAY NO TO CELL PHONES!!!