The House & other Arctic musings

Malaise

I've entered into some sort of unsettled mood of late.  It isn't a depression (I know the photos are "darker" but really I'm just playing in Aperture and this seemed as good of a post as any to put them up in) for I'm happy and joking. But I don't seem to do anything. I've gotten lazy.  Okay those of you with your hands in the air to say "lazier" can just put them down.

I find myself these days endlessly refreshing the Facebook pages and my stats or playing a game on Leah's iPod Touch, knowing that I could be using the time much more productively, but not even trying. My unfinished projects are no closer to being finished.

I'm assuming this has been brought about not working, and really I know I've got things to fill in my days. A lot of things. So this is my public kick in the pants. Its time to get at things that have been too long on the back burner, a booklet on the war dead from my home town; two or three screenplays; magazine articles that have been floating around; correspondence left uncorresponded, its time. My early New Year's resolution is to turn off the internet for at least a couple of hours a day, and get back to work.

And this time. I mean it. You can put down your hands.

Do I miss the Sun?

Not really.  Here's the sky from about 12:40 this afternoon. 

My daughter's eyes.

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to school. Usually, when we arrive I say the same thing I always do to Travis "Have fun, learn lots" and he bolts for his entrance. Hilary, because she is in pre-school only goes in the afternoon, and only every second day.

I carry Hilary to the closest entrance. Its not that she can't, or won't, walk on her own, its for a practical reason. I usually run late, and carrying her I can easily strip off her boots before setting her down. Its quicker and we get on our way more expediently.

But, I enjoy having her in my arms, I can't deny. Today as we arrived, Travis was already half way down the length of the school when I turned and look back, Hilary holding on tight. The entire horizon was tinged in pink, deepening to mauve and blue. "Look at the sky" I told her.

Hilary looked up and said "Oh, its pink" and then "There's purple!" "The colours change." She then turned back to me, looking into my eyes and exclaimed "Dad, we have the prettiest skies here."  I looked back at the southern horizon, ringed with this amazing gradient of light and colour, not missing the sun at all, and answered "We do indeed little girl, we do indeed."

As we turned and walked into the school I thought about my daughter's eyes, thankful that they see the world much the same way that I do. Grateful that I have two little naturalists, who marvel in our world, for children.

Colour

One of the great things about the start of the Dark Season is that we pretty much have continual sunrise/sets from the moment the sky lightens. In good conditions it is a constantly changing, all "day" light show.  Here is the start this morning, with a waning crescent moon thrown in for good measure.

A shot in the dark

The H1N1 immunization team came to town this weekend, for a mass immunization that is running for two days (yesterday and today). We were scheduled for our shots last night at 8:15pm.

I have to say that the procedure they had in place was a model of efficiency and kudos should be going out to Health and Social Services and the local Health Care team for doing such a great job. Now there were not that many people there when we showed up but it was apparently a lot busier earlier in the day. Well over 400 people had been immunized by the time we showed up (someone mentioned 125/day for one of these clinics is what is expected), more than half of Arctic Bay's population. There was still a couple of hours left for the thing to be operating, and one more day to finish the job. That seems pretty efficient to me.

The gym was set up on a flow through system, enter at one end, exit at the other. We were greeted, given the information on the innoculations (for both H1N1 and Seasonal Flu) and the consent forms at a station that could handle four people/families at a time. From there we went to a waiting area to fill out the forms, while the kids were given crayons to colour with. We were called for the shots almost immediately after we'd completed the forms.

Again there were at least four stations set up to stick people, each manned by a nurse and someone to help with any interpreting needed. The kids were first up and while Hilary was tearful, Travis took both shots stoically without even a flinch. Leah couldn't get the shot because of fish allergies of all things (apparently there is shark oil in the H1N1 vaccine, which explains my only side effect - a strong desire to take a bite out of a surf board).

I took a little heat from the nurse (and as an aside I love how she assumed I was a teacher) over not getting the Seasonal Flu shot, but I expect that. And listen, its not that I think there is something evil or sinister in immunizations, I just don't believe that they are efficacious (the Seasonal Flu shots) and I also don't believe in taking medicines/drugs/immunizations for no good reason. Seasonal Flu vaccine components are decided on months in advance based on a committee's idea on what 3 or 4 flu strains out of the hundreds out there will be most prevalent the coming season - No thanks. The H1N1 vaccine, on the other hand, targets a specific flu strain, poised to cause major problems. It has been shown to be efficacious against the strain.

After the shots we were on to the next station, greeted by a nurse with more information on the after effects and how to treat any symptoms. There was balloons for the kids and juice available as we waited the obligatory fifteen minutes to make sure no one would experience an allergic reaction. Through out the whole process there were Rangers and other volunteers to help make everything go smoothly. 

I didn't check on how long the entire process took, but I'd venture to say it was less than a half hour from the time we walked in the door, and half of that was taken up in a mandatory observation period.

So, again, well done everyone involved.

There's been no after effects, my arm is a little sore but really I wake up in more pain from my other arm just from old injuries and old age. The family didn't escape without problems though, a sister-in-law seems to have had a bad reaction and ended up at the nursing station for a couple of hours. She seems to be fine now, and was scheduled for another check up this morning.

Bring on the Night

Today marks the start of the dark season in Arctic Bay, the Sun set for the last time until rises again on the sixth of February. In actual fact, for our latitude, the Sun will continue to rise for about a week, but because of the terrain here we will not see it again for the next three months.

People who have followed this blog for awhile will probably know that I don't mind the dark season. We're never truly dark here, there is always a varying amount of twilight and probably only a couple of days when you could see stars for 24 hours.

For me there is so much to do, and so much happening between now and the Winter Solstice, and coupled with how quickly the light returns that before I know it the sun has returned. It is also a time of incredible, but often subtle, beauty. Our sky from here on out has the most amazing range of colours, and the stars seem closer and brighter than anywhere else on earth.

So bring on the dark season. Before you know it it will be over and iceberg photos will take over the blog again. Besides, I've some writing I need to do while its cold out.

Brush strokes

As I looked to the sky a little while ago it appeared that someone had taken a giant calligraphy brush to it. This is truly a wonder filled world we live in.

My pirate is such a joker

I hope to have a longer post about Hallow'een up soon, but in the mean time I give you photos of my children.  Both Travis and Hilary had costumes that they wore at their school parties, but it was a cold, wintery night here last night and we opted for just made up faces and warm outdoor clothing for their trick or treating.

No photo of Hilary's face paint apparently exists...

Frozen

This morning I awoke to find that the bay had frozen over.  It still could go out, its just a thin crust upon the surface and a strong wind would undo it all, but a couple of more days of weather like this (cold and calm) and it will be a done deal for the winter.  Right now there are still boats pushing their way through to open water in Adam's Sound but soon it will become the domain of snowmobiles.

Here are a couple of photos from this morning.  I had been meaning to get a couple of shots of the multi-year ice along the shore and finally took the tripod and camera with me this morning when I dropped Leah off at work. 

Once again, the first image is an HDR rendering, and the second a conventional one.

Grey ice

Normally we can expect Arctic Bay to freeze up in mid October, with Thanksgiving weekend a likely time frame for it to happen.  Normally. The last five or so years freeze-up has been late, up to five weeks late. And although the Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone it looks like freeze-up has begun, only about a week late now.

Last week some multi year pack ice moved into the area, a lot of it ending up at the shoreline right in town. You don't often see this here in town, and there was a fair amount. Had freeze up happened on time, it would have been a lot more difficult this year getting on to the bay because of the jumble of large floes along the shore. However much of it has moved away from town so thankfully that won't be a problem.

Grey Ice has begun forming here on the bay, and this morning much of the bay was covered in it. It is the first step in freeze-up and should it remain calm out, as it is now freeze-up should be well underway by tomorrow.

Here's a photo from this morning, you should be able to see the thin layer of grey ice on the water.