Naturally ... Jan 13-15

Of course I couldn't keep up a simple regimen such as 100 words/day. At least you know my laziness hasn't changed since I left.

Well, where do I begin? The 10 inches of snow that fell over Wednesday night? Sure, 10 inches isn't a blizzard, but it was still the largest 24-hour total in a long time for Fairbanks.

Every skier, snowshoer, snowmachiner and dog musher became instantly giddy. That amounts to about half the population here. Add to that a rough 25 percent of people who have to deal with them on a regular basis, and you have an automatically pleasant day for three-quarters of the city.

And even those of us who don't partake in winter sports still got he urge to play. Leaving my apartment to go to the grocery store, I saw some kids having a snowfight and (why not?) I joined them.

Notice how I didn't write "snowball fight. Turns out the snow is too dry to pack into tight missiles. Instead, we knocked the tops and sides of plowed snow piles at each other or used both hands to scattershot the snow in each other's direction. I gotta tell you, it really took the stress off.

What stress you ask?

...

So maybe I should have begun with the nonstop work marathon Rich and I have endured since our fellow copy editor Gary left for vacation and Julie was promoted to overhaul and run the Web site. With three front pages designed between us, Rich and I have had some bumps running the section, but ultimately, I thnk we survived quite well.

A'course, we had some help. Freelance/musher/hippie Jillian (writer of the Wannabe Musher blog on the right) filled in when we needed her, which turned out to be many nights. Julie came back for a victory lap one Saturday night, which allowed me to utilize my exciting social skills to take a nap.

And to top off the confusion, a new member of the desk, James, arrived Monday. He's from Key West, which trumps my distance record. But he flew, so I still have the driving record. Also, he's lived in Indianapolis, so even though he got here on a -40 day, he hasn't had half the culture shock I received.

It's great to have someone else on the desk, but since Rich and I are barely getting by, it's kind of like the blind leading the blind. For now.

Well, that's all I can muster. I'm at my desk after a 11-hour shift, so I'll try to catch you up some more tomorrow. Also, pics then, too.