Logbook: Barrow to Nuiqsut, entry 1: She sits in a cold plane on the Barrow tarmac

Still on the tarmac outside Era Aviation in Barrow. Temperature somewhere at what I would guess to be somewhere between -15 and -20 Fahrenheit, wind blowing. Hard. Even in the plane it is cold – but that's usually how it is when you climb into planes up here this time of year. They are cold. But as the engines spin the props they generate heat that is funneled into the fuselage and it slowly gets a little warmer. It was dark in the plane, too, darker than it looks in this picture. It was darker outside as well.

It's kind of amazing how this iPhone 5s works in low light. 

Jet over whale skull

I stepped out of the Iñupiat Heritage Center about half-an-hour ago and saw this jet, flying above the bowhead whale skull, up where the sun still shines but where it's colder even than it is down here. I wonder where it is coming from? Where is it going? Military or commercial? Headed southwest. Given its trajectory and altitude, one could justifably speculate that is has just come over the Arctic Ocean. As noted in an earlier segment of this blog, in the spring of 2012, I boarded a plane in Dubai, flew directly over the North Pole and then landed in Los Angeles.

On that trip to India, departing and returning from Phoenix, I traveled farther north than I had ever been before in my life.

Logbook: Wasilla to Barrow, entry 2: I was not last to board

As noted in the previous entry, I arrived at Ted Stevens International Airport a little behind schedule, thanks to the icy highway. I was not the last to board but pretty close to it. I would still have had plenty of time to complete this Instagram and transfer both it and the previous one to my blog, plus take a new picture of happenings in the plane as we awaited departure and to post it as well, but of course there were many familiar faces onboard. I got involved in visiting and now we are in the sky. I will not be able to post this until sometime after we arrive in Barrow. I thought I would wait for my afternoon coffee until I got on the plane. The Stewardess just informed me there is no hot water, hence no coffee.

Text added at 8:46. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 51 and counting.

Jobe with his friend, Dusty the cropduster

Jobe with his friend, Dusty the cropduster. Lynxton is still asleep. He was very hyper last night and was bouncing around on the bed until after 1 AM.

Text added at 12:58 PM (Lynxton has long since been up and running about). The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 51 and counting.

Jim was most unhappy with me

"What the hell you doing leaving me in here alone all night!!!" Jim shouted at me after I returned from Abby's and stepped into my office to see if I could get something done.

I had thought it a little odd that I had not heard him come to the bedroom door last night – Margie usually shuts the cats out when a grandchild is sleeping in our room with us – but at some point Jim usually comes to the door to try and get in and more often than not succeeds. Still, I thought he must've just settled down somewhere else. But no, he was in here all night. I am afraid to look around, afraid of what I might find. 

Text added at 10:01 AM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 45 and counting.