On the day that Nelson Mandela died I drove to Anchorage on icy roads through freezing rain to bring home my beloved

Note: I originally prepared this as the first post in new Squarespace 6 blog I had planned to launch at this same address, to include all the work I have done in this Squarespace 5 blog. But things went wrong. I have asked Squarespace to refund the money I spent on the new blog and am bringing my Squarespace blogging to a permanent end, save for the upcoming holiday post referenced above. I do not want this post to go to waste and so have transferred it from the new Squarespace 6 blog that now never will be to being an archive, at this same address. While much of what it says no longer applies, I leave it just as I prepared it for the new, canceled, blog"

This is the first post I am putting up in the new Squarespace 6 blog. At least, I hope I am putting it up. As regular readers know, I have been running a

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This blog is about to drive off into unknown territory - could charge off a cliff and disappear for awhile

A bit earlier, I put together what will be my first Squarespace 6 blog post. Before I publish it it, I need to import this blog into that blog so that they become the same blog. I also need to switch my blog address, logbookwasilla.com, from this blog to the new Squarespace 6 blog - once this blog is imported to it. Before doing this, I had a number of questions I had posed as long as 34 hours ago to the Squarespace tech assigned to help me . Finally, after 33 hours, he answered the questions. He knows his stuff and the appearance problem that had so baffled me all this time was solved instantly.

The big questions and fears I had regarding the import of this blog to the new blog were answered. Once that import is complete and I switch the domain from here to there, this blog will disappear for a time before the new one comes up - perhaps as long as 72 hours, but likely and hopefully for a much shorter period of time.

I now have a new problem. I have tried five times to begin the import process and five times it has failed within a few seconds. I have been very deliberate to enter my information correctly. Once again, everything is stalled for the moment.

I have sent a request to Squarespace for help. Hopefully, I will hear back from them soon. Hopefully, it will not take 33 hours to get a response this time.

Icy roads, an unexpected drive to Anchorage with vehicles overturning and a tech I cannot reach mean my new blog cannot launch before tomorrow

No schoolbuses prowled the streets of Wasilla or Anchorage today. We have experiened a spectacular warm-up, with temperatures out here climbing from the -20 F range to 30 above. The warmth brought rain. The rain froze. The roads became icy and dangerous. School was canceled. Lavina had planned to bring Margie home this afternoon and I was glad. I have much to do before we leave for Arizona Saturday night and I especially wanted to get this new Squarespace 6 blog up and running. I was very close, but had a few other things to do first. Just as I was about to turn my attention to Squarespace 6, Margie called. Lavina did not feel comfortable to drive the icy roads – especially since they would've had to bring Kalib and Lynxton along for the ride.

Margie wanted me to come and get her. She has much to do as well. I wanted to stay put and get these things done, but I could not leave my wife stranded in Anchorage. And, to be honest, given the conditions, if she had to come I did not want any one but me to drive her and I did not want Lynxton and Kalib on the road.

It was a scary drive - vehicles sliding off the road all over the place, a few overturning. According to the news, 90 vehicles wound up "in distress" and there were 45 accidents, several involving injuries, but no reports of deaths. The news reports say nothing of serious or critical injuries – just injuries. I do not know what the outcome was here on the Glenn Highway in front of Eagle River as I drove in.

It took hours to get back home. I was frazzled. I had to take a break. Finally, I turned my attention to Squarespace 6. I got so close, but encountered a strange appearance problem I could not solve without the tech's help. I am glad he is helping me, but he can take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours to respond. I posed the question to him hours ago, but I doubt I will hear from him before tomorrow and it is after midnight now, so my blog is not going up tonight. Consider this a preview of what will be in it tomorrow, as I intend to make the first post a multiple picture post, focused on my trip over icy roads to town and back on the day that Nelson Mandela died.

It will be old news by tomorrow, but still I will post it.

On airplanes and shooting iPhones in cold weather without gloves

Airplane coming in to land early this afternoon. From yesterday afternoon's balmy -1, the temperature had dropped to -16. Not frigid for this time of year, but still I could note a marked difference from yesterday. Now that I have gotten into using the iPhone to essentially keep a daily diary and I know of no way to shoot pictures with an iPhone with gloves, I have been wondering how I would manage it when I finally get into deep cold.

I don't think I will be able to do it for more than a frame or two. This afternoon, I kept my gloves off for several periods of several minutes each and I did okay, but my hands did get pretty cold a couple of times. They warmed right up when I put them back in my gloves but at -40 or even -30 this could become a dangerous exercise. Assuming the iPhone 5s will keep shooting at such temperatures, I could get a few frames off all right but the question is knowing when to stop before it becomes too late and uou have frostbitten yourself.

The breeze is seven mph and the humidity is 87 percent. Still, the air is dry. In subzero weather even air with a high percentage of humidity is dry. Truly cold air cannot hold moisture. Moisture freezes right out of it.

Young ice covers the near-shore Chukchi Sea

Remember how when I first arrived here nine nights ago there was a layer of slush ice against the shore, reaching maybe 200 yards out into the night, undulating with the breaking surf rolling in from the dark, roiling ocean beyond? This is what it looks like now. The fellow standing by the four wheeler as he looks out over the Chukchi Sea is Harold Nungasuk, brother of the late, great, Whyborn Nungasuk. Harold was thrilled to see all that young ice, essential to the upcoming spring bowhead hunt. A bit late by historical standards but there it is. And that is good news. 

Text added at 4:36 PM.