Chaos, destruction, madness and nostalgia
Posted 11-22-2010 at 05:03 PM by doomclam
I've spent today following with enthusiasm the precipitation mandated chaos, destruction, et. al. which has swept the city as it always does with a first significant snowfall. Car fires, six car pileups, a man was shot two blocks from where I sat, smoking pot and passing judgment upon Maury and all those dumb enough to go on his show. Feels good man.
This has the city in turmoil. Nobody is able to commute in a decent way. My wife is walking the two miles home rather than risk the bus. One has already slid down a hill and fallen on its side. Home in Alaska, there is nothing. People use 4WD more often and turn their wipers up a notch. Nobody in a truck with snow tires and 4WD fears the glaze, the snow, the wind. It just is. It is a way of life. You live there long enough, it stops being notable, and simply a fact of life. Whether you want to be living there or not, if you're there for any sustained amount of time. You do it or you go mad.
Sometimes you do anyways. The third or fourth straight week of -20 below temperatures, when you get out of the car to go in and get something from a convenience store, and by the time you get out it's frozen solid again. When every breath feels like you're a smoker who runs marathons and your eyelids stick together. After a little while, you begin wondering WHY THE FUCK YOU LIVE THERE. But you never feel that way any other time. Unless the shipping charges get to be too much. Unless three hours of flying to get to the nearest US territory gets really long. If you're lucky, you get out. You leave. If you're most of the people I grew up with, you stay there and get married and have children. You never leave. Maybe you'll move to the bigger city 150 miles north, but that's all. And no, that's not a good thing. Staying where you've grown up and having children and never leaving is not good. Here I am passing judgment once again. It happens.
The point is, you get out, and away from all that shit. And sometimes, your new locale reminds you indelibly of your past. Which sometimes is good. Sometimes.
This has the city in turmoil. Nobody is able to commute in a decent way. My wife is walking the two miles home rather than risk the bus. One has already slid down a hill and fallen on its side. Home in Alaska, there is nothing. People use 4WD more often and turn their wipers up a notch. Nobody in a truck with snow tires and 4WD fears the glaze, the snow, the wind. It just is. It is a way of life. You live there long enough, it stops being notable, and simply a fact of life. Whether you want to be living there or not, if you're there for any sustained amount of time. You do it or you go mad.
Sometimes you do anyways. The third or fourth straight week of -20 below temperatures, when you get out of the car to go in and get something from a convenience store, and by the time you get out it's frozen solid again. When every breath feels like you're a smoker who runs marathons and your eyelids stick together. After a little while, you begin wondering WHY THE FUCK YOU LIVE THERE. But you never feel that way any other time. Unless the shipping charges get to be too much. Unless three hours of flying to get to the nearest US territory gets really long. If you're lucky, you get out. You leave. If you're most of the people I grew up with, you stay there and get married and have children. You never leave. Maybe you'll move to the bigger city 150 miles north, but that's all. And no, that's not a good thing. Staying where you've grown up and having children and never leaving is not good. Here I am passing judgment once again. It happens.
The point is, you get out, and away from all that shit. And sometimes, your new locale reminds you indelibly of your past. Which sometimes is good. Sometimes.
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