This actually happened...well most of it anyway
….it was one of those rare Alaskan winter nights when the storm howling outside my cabin window seemed, after two days, like it was never going to end. I had to shovel a path to the generator shed and outhouse every few hours or else it would be above the knees and way to deep for my old bones to dig out. Now raging snow storms tend to happen here more often than not but this one took place during an extended cold snap and tonight could end up being the coldest I have ever experienced since I arrived in Alaska.
I had just finished eating dinner by the oil stove because when the wind is blowing and it is this cold it is one of the warmest places in the cabin. I tried using my Coleman camp stove to warm my fingers, after I washed my dish off, but the temperature must now be in the -50 degree range because that's when propane in outside tanks turn to liquid and will no longer light. However since my generator was still running I threw a blanket on the floor under my chair and as I sat down to watch some DVD's I wrapped my upper body in my old sleeping bag, I figured I'd might as well entertain myself while trying to stay warm.
Though my generator was a tried and true Honda which has never failed me I decided to cut my TV time short and head up to bed. The loft has always been the warmest place in the cabin as long as the wind is not blowing, but when it does it finds its way in the few cracks that missed our building inspection. In fact there is one crack near the head of my bed that when the wind is really strong my hair will blow around while I lay in bed! Getting in bed was in itself an experience because even under all those blankets both the top and bottom sheets were like layers of ice. In any event wrapped in almost every blanket I had and topped off with a quilt and sleeping bag I laid down and tried to fall asleep.
Sleep of course was hard to come by with the constant howl of the wind and the cold that had settled in my bones that even all of these blankets could not erase, but sleep did come in fitful snatches punctuated by dreams best forgotten.
Why write about this now...
Well since the rest of this nation
and for that matter the rest of the world
struggles to deal with the heat
I thought it would be a nice break
to go back in time
and remember fondly
that which at the time
was quite miserable weather
and just maybe
take some comfort
in it not being
-50
