Seasoned Skier & Sassy Saxing

We're coming to the end of January and turning a corner here at the high school. Exams are all done and the new semester starts next week. It seems like I've been pretty lucky weather wise in January. It started off real cold with ice foggy -40 days when some friends and I decided to hit the ice road and try our luck bringing a picnic to Tuktoyaktuk. A picnic in Tuk will henceforth be known as a Tuknic. The scenery was gorgeous and we were lucky enough to try it on a full moon night. It's a little bizzare driving down the frozen surface of the wide sweeping Mackenzie River with road signs popping up here and there (left to Aklavik, straight to Tuk). It's a lawless kind of driving, with no posted speed limits along 4 lanes wide of snow patchy ice and very little traffic (maybe a dozen cars during the 2.5 hr noe way trip). So if there are no rules, why not bring some skates along and try the ice road version of water skiing behind the truck. I wasn't brave enough to trust my skating skills, but I tied a mean bow line and took some pictures.

Then it got warmer and we had a weekend of ridiculously balmy temperatures (it reached +5 at one point). So what do you do when you're quite possibly the warmest spot in the country? You set up a movie theater in the front yard and project all the video you want on the side of your garage. Lots of passing skidooers slowed down to check it out and even stopped to figure out what the hell was going on. I've been getting my cross country skiing legs under me too. I joined the Inuvik Ski Club and went through the rigorous learn-to-ski workshop. It seemed to work, since I made it around the trails without falling for the first time.

Then the temperature settled somewhere in between, which is a good compromise. Last weekend the Inuvik Community Band was invited to come and play along with the local jazz band Razzamajazz at their CD release at the Lion's Den Robbie Burns Day dinner. Swanky stuff I know. Pretty fun though and my sax chops are gettnig a lot better. I even honked out a bluesy solo along to Flip Flop Fly. Yesterday I finally managed to get the rest of my mail that has been lurking at the post office since before Christmas. Thanks again to everyone that has sent postage love my way. the only casualty was a bottle of hot sauce, but it managed to stay contained and not taint anything else.

So what does February bring you ask? Well a ton more books for the library that's for sure. I finally got crackin on the tedious ordering process and we'll be getting about $10,000 worth of new books and another $2,500 in magazine subscriptions. I made sure we're stacked with Snow Goer and American Snowmobiler cause you can never have too many skidoos. Hopefully I can get a book club started at the school too, so the booky kids will have something to do other than wish they were better at soccer. The least I can do is provide for kindred spirits.

Cold Christmassy Calmness

The Christmas break has come and gone and I'm looking bleary-eyed at the end of the first day of school. I missed seeing everyone in Ontario and toasting the new year with old friends, but I managed to find other "homeless" people during the holidays so we kept each other entertained. There definitely is a calm that descends over Inuvik during the holidays with a lot of government workers and teachers taking holidays and people visiting family in general. A nice break from southern shopping mayhem. There was many a movie watched and I made it all the way through the complete Degrassi Senior High series (lots of Pape Ave cameos). The mega movie watching was necessitated by the frigid temperatures that swooped in; I finally got to experience -42. *#$!n' cold is all I've got to say. I found a family to hang out with on Christmas morning so at least I got to share in the kidness of playing with cars, trains and small Barbie accessories you're trying not to lose on the first day. Long ago a friend of mine was tricked into thinking Mexicans actually celebrate Christmas a day late (I don't think she researched it much), thus for her, Boxing Day has become a celebration of all things Mexican. We celebrated in style like the best Mexicans we know how to be, with fajitas, sangria, chilis relenos and tequila jello shots. I rang in the New Year with playing a lot of Rock Band, a pretty fun way to live out your wildest rock n roll fantasies. All round not a bad holiday in the least.

I received the news today that my great aunt Lois passed away on the weekend after a long battle with Alzheimer's. My thoughts go out to all my family, but especially the Barrie cousins and my grandmother. She had been ill for a long time, so in a lot of ways it will be better, but it's always hard to lose someone you love. At least I have fun memories of visiting Barrie and will remember her as a kind and generous woman.

Asides from that sadness I hope everyone had the merriest of Christmases even without my bearded face. So far my new year's resolutions are to place a mega book order for the school library, kick start a breakfast smoothie program at the school and to think of more new year's resolutions.

Resolutely yours...