When I have a layover in a airport, I almost never leave the terminal due to the hassle of having to go through security again and a sinking fear that for some insane reason they won’t let me back in. “Excuse me, Sir, but you already went through security back in Seattle. You can’t go through it again. You’re going to have to stay here in Anchorage for the rest of your life and get married to a moose.”
But today I left the terminal, and it was glorious. Zero degrees Fahrenheit glorious. I haven’t felt this kind of cold since I lived in Minnesota, when after swimming at the local pool my hair would freeze before even getting back to the car. Here I blew my nose and a few seconds later felt the snot was frozen in my beard. If it wasn’t for the down Holden jacket my friend Pete so generously loaned me I would most surely be dead in the parking lot right now. This is not a joke. Tomorrow the front page of the Anchorage Daily News would read, “Stupid-ass tourist dead in parking lot for being an idiot.” It’s fucking cold here.
Snow nipple
Well, one more flight and I’m in Barrow. I have already braved the zero degree weather here in Anchorage, so I’m now more confident I’ll survive the two block walk from the airport to my hotel. I’m not sure about the darkness, though. I’m really not sure about the darkness. I’m surprised by how light it is in Anchorage right now. Except for all the snow on the ground this could easily be Seattle. I assumed after working this summer in Cooper Landing that it would get as dark during the winter as it was light in the summer, i.e, perpetually hover between darkness and a sort of penumbral gloom. This, I am glad to note, is not the case. Things are happy here in Anchorage. Cold, but happy. The light is stronger than the dark.
Puffy Wetzler