On One Hand...

ON ONE HAND... living in Alaska in the spring is awful. The snow banks, epically high after seven months of build-up,  still line the roads but instead of being beautiful and white, they are brown with mud and sand. If you look closer, the melting snow reveals months of litter and decomposing detritus, ripe in the new-found sun. And the dog poop. Alaska has a lot of dogs, and of course no one bothers to scoop when it's 30 below and dark on your daily walks... Getting down to our beach is like running a gauntlet of soft piles in various stages of decay. Our shoes and boots all live outside our front door and heaven forbid you forget and accidentally walk into the house with your treads thick... 

Dismal.

And Ice Cream Newton. A single sad wiper smear on the windshield is the only transparent glass on his whole body. The rest of him is covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt, kicked up from the unpaved roads. Every gas station squeegee is ripped to shreds and the buckets of wiper fluid are all dry; the attendants don't bother to fill them anymore. 

Ice Cream Newton's backside.

Mind you, Ice Cream Newton's glass is more than just dirty, it's shattered in that eerie windshieldy way. Rocks kicked up and thrown over the winter took their toll and, like just about every other car in town, Ice Cream was riddled. No one bothers to get them fixed yet; another day, another bulls-eye.

Another bulls-eye.

ON THE OTHER HAND... living in Alaska in the spring is amazing. Sunset is already past 10 o'clock PM and continuing to get later. Beluga whales are expected to swim past our house any day and chase salmon up the Kenai river. The caribou herds (think reindeer) should be returning to the marsh soon as well. Green grass is poking through last year's freeze-dried fare, and it's not long before the wildflowers will begin their colorful painting of the hills and roadsides. One of our neighborhood moose just sprouted his antlers, and the eagles seem to be fortifying their nests in anticipation of viable eggs. Outside of town, the first bears have been sighted emerging from their dens with newborn cubs in tow. As for human action, J has traded in his ski-commute for his trike-commute and Indigo has been out Skut-biking to the neighborhood playground. And her preschool just sent home the much-anticipated announcement: No need for snow pants for the rest of the year! I've been perfecting my slightly-illicit light tower climbing when out on my beach runs (you have to jump for the first rungs of the ladder and pull yourself up to climb to the platform... makes me feel like I'm on a reality survival show and I'm winning - very satisfying) and the view is outrageous. School gets out in May so as teachers and learners, summer vacation is just around the corner. And Indigo and I just put the finishing touches on our May baskets in preparation for secretly running about, knocking on friends' doors tomorrow... not too shabby, as long as we can avoid the dog poop!

Flowers, ribbons, and homemade cookies - but from who?

Happy May Day!