Three Weeks in Dillingham

This was written Friday evening. Yes, I'm behind.

I've got two hours before I have to be off-line and have the phone available until 7 a.m. I'm on call tonight. Such is life.

This is a hodge-podge of observations. Regarding the climate, Dillingham is pretty similiar to Homer. Lots of cloudy days. Sunshine, more clouds then rain. Tonight the weather forecast is calling for a rain snow mix.

Our temps are five to ten degrees colder than Homers. Because we are west of Homer, the sun rises about thirty minutes later, but it sets about thirty minutes after Homer's sunset. Basically, we get the same amount of daylight, we just start and end later.

The prices are higher here, but not as much as I'd been warned about. I think if I'd come from Anchorage or down south, I would have had more sticker shock. But Homer is pretty high regarding groceries, so I had that to keep my chin off the floor.

What surprises me? Well, moose sightings are rare. Ditto caribou. I'm not sure why, except when it freezes the caribou cross the river. A couple winters ago (is that right...the one that was so mild) the river didn't freeze, so the caribou were stuck on this side.

I've heard bears are a real problem. Especially in the housing that is surrounded by trees. My housing complex is very close to the hospital and in the open, so I don't think I'll have that problem this trip. I hope not. But those 200 or so feet from my front door to the hospital gets a little nervous in the middle of the night. For some reason, I don't think a bear will give too much lee-way to my ID badge. Go figure.

Yeah, workers have run into bears while going in for or returning from callback.

Earlier this week we had the same storm that hit Homer. Lots of wind and rain. My front window faces the US and Alaska flag. Sometime during the night, the Alaska flag came loose. In the morning it was gone and the US flag was pretty tattered. Yesterday they were replaced with new flags.

Last week, two people went missing. I don't think they've been found yet. That's another thing Dillingham has in common with Homer. When tragedy strikes, it affects the whole community.

Another observation. This area doesn't have hard phone lines. It's satellite, which produces a horrible echo on my end. My dialup connection is frustrating to say the least. They have broadband, but from what I've heard, it's not really faster than dialup, but costs a lot more.

UPS and FedEx mean nothing here. We get it, but it takes a backseat to Express and Priority mail. Possibly even first class mail. Not sure on that one.

Today, I was told there's one more fuel barge before winter.

Enough rambling. Now it's time to try to sneak in a couple hours sleep before call officially starts.

An after the fact comment. It's Saturday night. I didn't sleep worth a darn last night. I kept waiting for the phone to ring. It didn't. About 5:30 this morning I felt safe enough to fall into a lovely deep sleep.

It's supposed to go down to 26 degrees tonight.