There is a component of life your first year of Alaska that resembles getting slapped in the face every few days and getting your world view turned upside down. The change in daylight on a daily basis is certainly a physical and mental shock. We are up to 16 hours and 48 minutes a day of sunlight which is more than we had when we arrived in August. That means that every day is the longest day I’ve ever experienced until we hit the summer solstice.
There are certainly social shocks too, like people wearing six-shooters on their hips at places like the dump, cars getting run off the road by dogsleds, no dress codes for anything, showers are scheduled weekly, etc. Then there are the animal things like wolves close to town, moose constantly in the yard, and as of the other day, even the occasional bison. I think if Kate called me someday to tell me there was a grizzly bear fighting a donkey with a polar bear watching I would only ask, “who’s winning?”
