I see the moon, the moon sees me... at 9 am

The darkness during the day is starting to get noticeable. It is pretty strange driving to work at 8 in the morning while staring at a full moon and a seemingly midnight sky. I'm not sure why they follow daylight savings time up here... the hour made no bit a difference, except made nighttime fall at 5:30 instead of 6:30. The shortest day of the year is in December so we still have more daylight to lose. Although it's strange to have so little sun, at this point it is not much different than Virginia. Plus I'm in an office all day with lights and no window to the outside so it could be midnight all day and I would only notice the darkness going to and from work. The only negative result so far is that our weekday after-work-hikes have ended. I suppose I'll just have to soak up as much of the sunlight as I can midday on the weekends. I still love it up here. I hear January and February are the worst months though, so I'll update you again when the new year rolls around :)

It has only snowed (dusted) once, which is apparently odd because it is usually snowing a good amount by this time in the year. I have my snow tires on my car and I'm ready for the avalanche. Or snowstorm. Or just some inclement Alaskan weather. One quirky characteristic of Alaskan roads/highways are the two tire track ruts dug out 6 inches deep in every lane. A lot of people put their studded tires on early in the season and since there is no snow, they just end up carving out paths in the pavement. The ruts can be kind of dangerous when it gets icy because your tires get stuck in them and lead you along kind of like you're a train on a track- and when you try to get out of them to switch lanes, you could possibly be catapulted across the highway. Mom is probably reading this right now and freaking out/acting calm/still feeling motherly worried. But no need to fret, I'll drive safe I promise. Everyone here asks me "So have you driven in snow before?!" and I'm just thinking... is snow that different here than the white crystallized frozen water that falls in Virginia? The way they ask it just makes me think there's some humongous scary snow bunnies disguised as snowflakes that are going to fall from the sky and beat me up along with my car and toss me off the road before I can blink. I was pretty sure snow is snow is snow. Now I'm not so sure.