Pausing for a moment at -20 degrees Fahrenheit I looked up and saw the brilliance of the noon time sun shining across the beautiful white frozen super highway made by the now solid Chena River. I know my health depends upon getting regular exercise, I make it a point to get out and work up an good cardiovascular sweat at least very two days. I do this by getting my cross country ski gear ready, fasten on my ski boots and making a 3-7 mile ski trip up and down the frozen river.
Usually I get to the river's surface and my extremities feel a bit chilly until I have worked up a good sweat where my over heated core temperature radiates out to those chilly hands and feet. I had to catch a shot of this unique culmination of dawn, noon and dusk as it can only occur here at this latitude; as soon as the sun rises near noon time it also begins setting which makes for the ephemeral beauty of day time. I must confess that the time it took to take the above photo quickly brought my hands to the brink of frost bite; it took a good 30 minutes to get the temperature back up to where they were safe and warm
I consider myself blessed in an exceptional way as human biorhythms dictate that people wake when the sun rises and once it begins to set and darkness comes, our brain chemistry changes to prepare us for sleep. Most animals natural to the far north latitude either migrate south to maintain life or hibernate until a time when food is plentiful. A few predatory animals and birds stay through the winter with only a few making their appearance at night. Most of humanity who choose to live in the far north make up for the lack of light with artificial light but few can afford the luxury of living in harmony with the seasonal extremes at this time of year.
It has been a marvelously extraordinary experience to wake early in the morning before the sun rises at about 8:30 AM while it is very dark and still outside. Later towards noon, I get moving and have my morning coffee at 10:00 AM and a small breakfast just before the sun rises just after 12:00 PM. These days I try and get down to he river to ski so my heart stay in shape. Later, I start to head back home near sunset at 2:00 PM, have a lite supper wash up and get ready to sleep by 5:30 or 6:00 at night. My sleeping times are in excess of 12 hours, normally being anywhere between 13-16 hours a day. I can only afford to do this because my employment as a teacher here in the United States affords me with the extremely opulent time schedule provided the vacationing teachers of this country.
More when I wake up....so much sleep to get; I just think of it as "beauty sleep" because my latest photos (on Facebook.com at al7mialaska@gmail) show I need a lot more than most people. Har Har!