As the year came to a close, the weather here in Fairbanks was hovering around -25°F every day, often dipping lower. So, in order to be safe, I tend to stay home or just take short trips. But one night a week or two ago I wandered into the Big I and everyone was in a good mood, so I took some pictures.
Andi working hard...
Striking a pose...Andi has worked as a model. She's both winking and flipping the bird. This gurl is multi-talented. She is also well traveled and has been to many places in Europe I'd like to visit. All in all, she's very interesting, personable, and fun to talk with.
Sisters Taffy (Catherine) & Jen hanging out in Big I on their day off...they're fun to hang with too.
Got to meet and visit with Jen's boyfriend Hunter. Good guy.
Back in Nov. I took a nice gal to see a live presentation of ‘The Most happy Fella’ by the local Light Opera theater. She is picture shy so would not let me take any pictures of her. The play was well performed with many professional performances by locals. We enjoyed the play allot and had a really good time.
Around this time the luck with my car ran out and I broke off the start key in the ignition. Cost me $90 for a locksmith to remove the broken part and make a couple new keys. Of course it happened Friday night around 6pm so I wasn’t able to go shopping or anything until I could call the locksmith on Monday. Over the weekend had two mechanic friends over to try to get it out without success.
On Dec. 28th, I started to head off downtown and discovered that one of my tires was nearly flat. So I pulled out my handy tire pump and pumped it up to 35lbs. That quickly leaked out so I blocked the car up with a handy log and started to remove the tire so I could put on the donut. But when I tried to pull the wheel off the car, it wouldn’t budge. Figuring it was frozen on the car, I set up an electric heater and tried again a couple hours later. Still wouldn’t budge. Gave up for the night and tried again the next day. Nothing. So I called a tire shop and they told me to just wack on the back side of the tire with a 2-4 pound hammer. That worked and I installed the donut tire. Anyway, while I was out there working, I took some pictures of the job and of the snow. Oh, and a picture of the frost that accumulates on the cabin when the heater is operating.
It is -40°F out!
The heater trying to warm the wheel...
My front yard.
The ice fog from my furnace.
My RV all snowed in for the winter.
Two nights ago, Jan. 3rd, I went down to the Big I to watch a football game. Around 3 hours later, when I went to leave, the car would crank, but wouldn’t start. I’ve had a friend look at it and he thinks that the timing belt froze and broke. So now, I’m home trying to arrange for a repair. This won’t be cheap. We’re in a cold snap that is suppose to hang on for days and it’s not easy to keep your car running. I know 4 people that have had to have their car worked on in the last week or two.
it’s somewhat of a comfort to know that we’re not the only ones to have car issues. i hope your’s don’t end up as expensive as you anticipate, though with the cost of labour these days it might be a vain hope.
I just NOW got it out of the shop. As luck would have it, I recently built/fixed a computer for the mechanic and did some computer consulting for the shop owner, kind of the reason I called them. I hadn’t deposited the $85 check for the consulting (speeding up the office computer) so after tearing that up I only owed $55. It definitely pays to know people around here. The shop also had me call their tow company so that cost $100 instead of $160 or so.