fouldsy.com

We were weathered in again this morning, although a couple of airplanes did circle overhead for a few minutes before giving up without landing, but this afternoon the weather broke and a bunch of planes made it in to land. Thankfully our food from Bethel was on one of them – only took 6 days to travel 40 miles! Was also pretty fun riding the 4-wheeler on the boardwalks when they’re covered in compacted snow like this At least we have some decent food to eat for the next couple of weeks until our big Span Alaska order arrives.

Today’s been kinda fun though as I e-mailed Tony Richards from Lakeland Cam last night as his daily photos yesterday were stunning. I’ve checked his site daily for about 7 years and he always has excellent photos of the Lake District – lucky guy gets to wander the fells every day and photograph them as he does so. He included my e-mail on his site (he usually puts one or two messages from visitors on there each day) and it’s pulled close to 4,000 visitors to my photo gallery in the last few hours Kinda cool, as I think there’s some pretty good photos in there and no-one’s e-mailed yet telling me otherwise!

It’s been weird the last few weeks though as I’ve had an offer for carrying advertising for sports/entertainment, an offer to review computer certification preparation software, and an offer to write a weekly report for a snowmobiling site out of Canada. There’s always been a good number of visitors each day to some of the Linux stuff or web scripting I’ve done, but for something that’s really just a personal blog, it’s cool to see people coming in from all over the place and getting involved. The more the merrier!

Now, if there’s any breweries out there wanting someone to review a beer or four, or if Cessna want to provide one of their Private Pilot Training Kits for review (I’d also go for a G1000 equipped 172R if they were really pushy…), I’m all ears

The last week or so I’ve been having problems getting anything on the webserver that runs a few of my sites. No big deal as most of them serve static content or are handling podcast media delivery of the Unsigned Rock Podcast, but it’s only from this home connection that it fails. The sites are still working as I’ve got a few hundred hits from various football sites recently about my Sunderland vs Newcastle derby match post from last year given the next derby is coming up next month, and there’s been comments left on the blog, so it just seems to be me.

The ISP is clueless (literally…), and a traceroute happily shows data being routed well outside of the Unicom equipment and down through LA to Phoenix and ping works. Isn’t a browser or OS issue as it’s replicated across OS X, Ubuntu and Win XP, and so across Safari, Firefox and IE. FTP also works without a problem, as does my e-mail.

I’m running through Tor at the moment which is running fine (although obviously a little slow), so it’s not like the ISP is dropping all the traffic. Just seems weird the Unicom routers handle the traffic in + out fine on other protocols, but HTTP fails running direct through them yet pointing the browser to a Tor proxy works. Doubt the ISP would be blocking the server on their proxies, but maybe. As it’s not just one domain having a problem, I don’t think it’s an ISP proxy or firewall issue though. Any suggestions welcome as I don’t want to run through Tor everytime I want to make a blog post!

Well, after trying again last Wednesday to get into Bethel, the village was pretty much weathered in due to snow all day Ironically, only Yute were flying (they pretty much fly in anything!), though all their flights were full with people like me trying to switch from other airlines like Grant or Hageland. Managed to avoid Ed though. So, kinda gave up trying to get out the village, and now we can’t get anything *into* the village! Food we ordered from Bethel last Thursday still hasn’t arrived, and dog food sent out a month ago hasn’t made an appearance either! Today the village was completely weathered in with nothing flying in or out after a few inches of snow last night and snow falling most of the day with low visibility. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get some food as Mia has been eating our food, but now we’re pretty much out too. Just seems like there’s nothing we can do to get anyone or anything in or out which is getting more than a little annoying!

At work we’re still waiting on the pex pipe for the glycol heat loop, so it’s not just Kat + I having problems with the mail delivery. Yesterday I hooked up the sewer line into the main school system, just waiting for a chance to disconnect the school supply to install the final 6″ section. I also installed the 2nd pump and connectors in the intermediate tank, along with the valves into the water tank in the houses to allow them to fill up directly once we find a hot water connection point in the school. Was weird being in the holding tank area under the laundry room at school – I ain’t a little guy, and there isn’t much room down there for cutting and joining ABS piping from outside up 4 feet and round corners to the main sewer tank! But, will have done a few hours more than last month so the paycheck should be a little higher, but as I haven’t been able to get into Bethel, seems like I’ll be waiting until Christmas before I’ll be able to open a bank account and they’ll actually get deposited – least it will be a pretty large opening deposit on the account though

So I should have been sitting in Anchorage right about now. As it is, I’m sat at home. Three Yute flights came into the village this evening – the agent in village, Ed, didn’t let me know about any of them. No excuse as to why, nor an apology, but then he called at 7.45p.m letting me know another flight was coming in ten minutes. This was an hour after checking with Yute and being told no more flights were coming this evening before we asked for a manager to rip someone a new one (when the power then conveniently cut out in the village again). Leaving at 8.05p.m for a 8.30p.m flight out of Bethel wasn’t terribly useful anymore. Given the $75 per segment charge from Alaska Air just for making changes to the itinerary, plus a night’s B&B in Bethel, was looking at $350 even before they started charging extra for the flights themselves since I was travelling on air miles meaning limited choice of flights to start with. I would also have been charged $75 for canceling. Will have to see if I get charged for simply not showing up. Getting weathered in during the winter is one thing, and Alaska Air were very accommodating when that happened at Christmas and didn’t charge for adjusting the flights (even though ironically it was Ed that screwed up getting us onto the last flight for two days), but when the man paid to provide airline support in the village doesn’t even bother telling you the flights are coming in + out is another. $230 wasted on booking flights and no checking flight schools in an effort to get away from here. No food for the next week either since I was meant to bring a load back from the lower 48. If Ed doesn’t get kicked in the head clean off his 4-wheeler next time I see him he should consider himself a very, very lucky man.

I’m flying down to Carson City in a couple of hours, whenever the plane from Tunt to Bethel arrives! It’s a Sunday, so probably even further off normal schedule than usual With a couple of hours layover in Anchorage and then in Seattle, should get into Reno around 10.15a.m tomorrow which isn’t all that bad. Made sure I got seats on the Anchorage – Seattle flight well away from the wings to minimise engine noise so I can get some sleep.

On Tuesday I’m due to visit the National Pilot Academy in Carson City, pretty much the main reason I’m heading to the lower 48. I’ve wanted to fly since I was a kid having looked at both the RAF and Navy whilst at high school, but the idea of x number of years military service blindly attacking potentially innocent targets appealed to me as much as the ridiculous cost of general aviation in England making flying out of my reach. The last year or so I’ve been looking into various flying schools across the US, and the National Pilot Academy looks to come out on top, especially given their location. That said, it’s still going to come down to whether I want to spend a few years sitting as a first officer on $20,000 a year not doing a great deal of flying myself with someone like SkyWest, or look at a part 135 operation like the bush flights up here. Both have their own appeals, but quite different approaches to getting there.

Anyway, hopefully everything will go fine on Tuesday and it will at least clear up whether the National Pilot Academy is definately a viable option. The deciding factor is still going to come down to the cost of training – although taking out a large educational loan doesn’t class as bad credit in terms of how much money you owe, the idea of easily looking at $300-$400 a month loan repayments whilst only making $1200 a month is just a little too crippling for the first few years. Although salaries do rise rapidly over time, any time you step into another airline the drop back right down the pay ladder is always a worry. Working as bush pilot up here in Alaska eases that somewhat by both Kat + I being on much higher salaries than in the lower 48, plus the experience of flying up here would be awesome.

But, I’ve setup a little tumblelog at fouldsy.tumblr.com which will let me post quick snippets and photos from my cell phone whilst away since I don’t know whether I’ll easily find internet connections.

Yesterday morning, Elena let me know she’d given my pay check to Kat so I should get it quick before she spent it all Bit surprisingly for a part-time job as a laborer, I’ve been enrolled into the district pension scheme and also have basic medical coverage. Meant I had an extra $50 on top of the $42 tax taken out, but at least I can now chop my hand off with a skillsaw and have my own medical coverage! I was already fully covered under Kat’s medical insurance, but maybe since I’m double-covered I could cut a hand and a foot off… Or just retire on the $8 I have invested! Not sure if I can get my pay check cashed locally, so might just leave it as the initial deposit when opening a bank account whilst in Bethel next week. Either way, comfortably covers a rental car and a bunch of food + supplies I was going to pick up from Carson City / Tahoe.

But, today we finally started laying the pipes between the housing units and school. Other than the 40 feet of 3″ pipe from Marie’s to the intermediate tank, all 250 feet or so of 2″ sewer pipe is laid and joined (meaning I have lovely adhesive cement smeared on my fingers…) and we’ll lay the hot water pipe and connections into the houses tomorrow. After 6 weeks building 300 feet of wooden sections to hold it all, ripping up old boardwalks out the way and building some “steps” to rival the Syndey Habor bridge (okay, maybe not quite, but I still think we should have figured out some kind of automated toll both!), it’s nice to actually start getting the piping in there

As Rocky + Mia don’t get to play on a weekend as opposed to getting run + play during the week when Kat and Marie go for an early morning walk before school, this afternoon we had Rocky over to hang out. He hadn’t been feeling too well yesterday, but seemed back to his usual self today.

This was during a brief pause in their shenanigans before they started up charging around the house again!

We headed out this evening for walk with Mia so she could play out in the snow without being tied up on her cable run outside. Wasn’t all that cold, even if the boardwalks were starting to freeze over. Since it was the 500th post earlier, think of this as a quick birthday photo spree (even though this is the 501st post…)

Up by the airport, there was quite a bit of snow since it doesn’t get much traffic to disturb it. Wouldn’t like to land on the gravel runway not knowing whether it’s icy, snowy, or just bumpy as usual!

Mia really seems to be enjoying playing in the snow, plus it means she doesn’t come back soaking wet and covered in mud! Snowballs confuse her though as she’s used to being able to find a ball to bring back for you, but especially with the fluffy snow, they just fall apart meaning she can’t find anything on the ground! Didn’t seem to bother her, she was just excited to be out – watch the backside twitching to sit down, but too excited ‘cos she knows something fun is happening!

With the low temperatures, along with me pulling out my snow boots when hauling water this afternoon and then my down-jacket for this evening’s walk, even the airplanes need to cover up now:

And for anyone complaining about gas prices (okay, so you folks back in England pay stupid amounts anyways!), imagine rocking up at the pump and seeing this:

Everyone around the village seems excited by the snow, with kids running around pulling sleds and throwing snowballs. Was weird hauling water this afternoon and worrying about the pipes freezing again, but it will be a few weeks before it gets cold enough for that to start happening I guess. Hopefully we’ll be well on the way to having the hot feeds direct into the housing units by then anyways!

Has taken forever and a day on our [sarcasm]super-fast[/sarcasm] Internet connection up here, but I’ve finally finished uploading, annotating and mapping the photos from our road trip this summer. Something a little special too given that this is the 500th post on the blog. I write too much crap. Anyway, there’s a little over 350 photos from the various National Parks we visited and the photos from Lake Tahoe too:

• Road trip album in the photo gallery
• Photo gallery on Google Maps – might take a while to load, as it shows all the photos placed on Google Maps
• Google Earth photo gallery – crashes for me (damn this slow Internet connection!), but will load up Google Earth and place the photos in there

The Google Earth setup worked fine before all these extra photos from the summer, and with the Google Earth updates, should be able to switch around and see the satellite image overview along with specific photos from my photo gallery. Was pretty cool checking out photos from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc. on a decent Internet connection back in England and hopefully will work well with the US road-trip photos too. Sure someone will let me know if it doesn’t work!

Looking over photos from when it was 110F in Utah is quite apt given it’s around 30F right now after snowing lightly right through the evening. The 4-wheelers are having fun on the boardwalks with some of the snowdrifts, but there’s no-where near enough to bring out the snowblower, and it will be a few weeks before the ground is frozen enough for snowmobiles. Walking is just fine though – cheaper too

About half an hour before starting work this morning, it began snowing hard, much more than the 5 minute flurries mixed in with rain as over the past week. An hour or so later, there was a good half an inch to an inch of snow, then it eased off even though it stayed cold the rest of the day. This is what I went to work in this morning:

Thankfully there wasn’t much of a frost on the boardwalks underneath the snow, and other than being pretty cold, wasn’t too bad working outside. Better than the rain, as at least you’d stay dry! It’s been lightly snowing again for the past half an hour, though there isn’t much forecast over the week – it is due to snow again on Monday though Something really wrong with that!

Mia was a bit unsure about the snow at first, as she would only have been 4 months or so before the snow would have began melting in Anchorage, and may not have been outside in the snow too much. Hopefully it won’t get too cold for her – although she’s a Swiss Mountain dog, probably hasn’t been many of predecessors near mountains for a while!