All I ever knew, I learned while Ski-dooing.

Hello Everyone,
Well, the big day brought Mommy and Daddy a Ski-doo. Actually it arrived last night and I was eager to start to get to know the new machine. Now, I'll always be the first to tell anyone who'll listen the dangers of being outside up here and the precautions outsiders must take to protect themselves, All of it profoundly important and should be adhered to, apparently by everyone else but I'm allowed to ignore it, to my own detriment. You see, I went out for about a hour to get the battery recharged and figure things out, always being careful to remain in town and on others tracks. I gave myself a timeline and told others what I was doing and when I'd be back, and I came back on time and checked myself for frostbite, and all was good. At this point I started to think on my own... Unfortunately.
See, Christopher and Melissa were in bed and I was bored so I decided to go out and do it again. Since no one was around, I didn't tell anyone, Since I was overconfident, I didn't follow my rules, but as long as I stayed by my other rules I should be OK... but I didn't. The first thing I did was head out of town on the ice road towards MacPherson, now when I got halfway up the hill I decided that this was as far as I was willing to go, So I thought I'd found a wide enough spot to turn around. However, where I turned around wasn't wide enough (missed it by that much, chief), so I found myself on the wrong side of a 6 foot snowbank separating myself from the road. Simple enough, I'll follow the snowbank till I see a point where someone crossed it already or its lower and I'll get back on the road there. Now, here is where I made some poor assumptions, everyone else was smart enough not to be in the place where I was so no crossings appeared and the tree's started growing closer and closer to the snowbank leaving me riding on the verge of the snowbank at a very difficult angle. Now, something I didn't know was that driving a ski-doo in this position for prolonged periods of time will cause the engine to die for lack of gas. Next lesson I learned was that a Ski-doo sinks a lot further than you'd assume when it stops moving. I also learned that a ski-doo that has sunk under about three feet of snow is very, very, very hard to extricate. I also learned that when your buried in 4 feet of snow alone in the dark triing like a son of a gun to pull a ski-doo out of a snowbank, do not get frustrated, and never get angry. I'm normally not a man who has much of a temper, but being upset with my own stupidity and the futility of the situation I did get angry, Followed by another very stupid mistake, I ripped off my face mask and gloves and threw them. Very stupid, face masks get soaked in vapor from your breathing in a very short time while triing to pull a 600 lb machine from under 3 feet of snow, removing it from your face assures it will freeze almost instantly and when you have to put it back on your going to greatly regret ever taking it off. The other act of stupidity, for this particular moment was the throwing of the gloves, which when retrieved had kindly filled themselves with snow in a attempt to cool my temper. Leaving to another very uncomfortable and possibly very dangerous situation (I normally carry a thin pair of gloves in my pocket in case such a event happens, which I found out I had removed from my pocket( enough about stupidity already)). Anyways, I fought with this situation for about a hour until some kind young man travelling from MacPherson to Inuvik for the evening stopped and with his assistance we had the ski-doo out in about 30 seconds and I drove, very carefully home.
The moral of the story, its a quote that I am unable to place at this moment, "respect Mother Nature, cause your guaranteed she has no repect for you".
Take Care and enjoy your Holidays.
Humbly yours,
CG

Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,
Well the day is before us and It seems I went a little hog wild with the geotrax train set, that or we need a larger place to live, I only got to use half the track and parts we bought for our little guy this year. At least now when he loses something I can replace it.
we wish Everyone a marvelous Christmas and a very Happy New year.
Take Care
CG, MG & CG

High Noon Dec 21

Hello everyone,
I've read many blogs but still don't feel the winter in the far north has been accurately portrayed, by myself either for that matter. We have entered the time of year when the sun never rises, but that doesn't mean its pitch black out 24/7, It means we spend some time each day in dawn and dusk state but fail to have all the stuff in the middle. This photo was taken as the sun reached its apex around 2:00 pm. As you can see it never breaches the horizon line. Around 12:00 each day we reach a state of dawn where you can see fairly well to almost a kilometer, you can open your curtains and get some residual light through the windows etc. Around 3:00 pm dusk begins in earnest and light fades fast, we remain in true blackness for maybe 18 hours a day. The moon only sets for about 5 minutes each day so it is essentially always present.
Obviously though these numbers decrease the further north you go. We are currently at 67°27'N, 133°44'W approx 500 km north of the arctic circle, but in places further north such as Arctic Bay these number are even further reduced to mere minutes a day where indirect light can be achieved.
As a family we are suffering though this worse than we have in our three winters in the north so far. As for myself, when I can get a lunch I spend it in the apartment asleep whenever possible, Christopher is now no longer attending school in the afternoon as he can no longer concentrate after lunchtime and will remain away from school in the afternoons until February when full light (to some degree) should return (at the recommendation of the school), and Melissa is suffering more than any of us as she already suffered from a SAD before coming up here and there are days when she cannot stay awake more than 4 hours a day even with her sun lamp.
Take Care,
And Above all (just to annoy the PC's) Have a Very Merry Christmas.
CG

Here's Christopher giving horsey rides to his favorite animal Tigger.

Hello Everyone,
Finally a picture, Ok so its exciting to me. Right now outside its dark, in a hour it will be dark, in three hours it will be dark... Ok I hope you get the idea. I really hampers my photographic attempts when all I can get picture's of is the lights of some vehicle going somewhere else. The weather has been very mild since we got here with only a couple of cold days, most days we sit around -30 with no wind, making for very comfortable walking, but its hard to dress for as its not quite cold enough for our parka's but too cold for the rest of our clothing, so the theme of most days is parka open when outside.
Our store is finally starting to recover from freeze up as we received our first shipments this week and we should have one more before the big day.
Christopher letter to Santa contained all the usual items, trains, sleds, cars etc with one exception that I guess the grandparents are going to have take care of. The kids letters were read on the radio and we soon discovered what was the surprise on Christopher's wish list. My son would like a helicopter, not a toy one, one like the one that brings the mail. Whoever takes care of this for us, could you please let us know the date of delivery so we can plan ahead and prepare a landing area, Thanks.
Hope everyone is enjoying the southern insanity of Christmas shopping, I'm done, thanks Ebay.
Take Care
CG

Memories, like a window to my Mind.

Quiet Riot Singer's Death Ruled Overdose
Death From Cocaine Intoxication
UPDATED: 3:55 pm PST December 10, 2007
Riot Singer's Death Ruled Overdose"
bandmates may have thought he had kicked the habit, but according to the Clark County coroner, Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin DuBrow died of a cocaine overdose.Samantha Charles, spokeswoman for the coroner's office, said after toxicology results were received Monday, "The cause is cocaine intoxication."Investigators called to DuBrow's home the night he died said there was no forced entry and no suspicious circumstances.Quiet Riot was perhaps best known for its 1983 cover of "Cum on Feel the DuBrow's powerful, gravelly voice, appeared on the band's album "Metal Health" -- which was the first by a metal band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. He also recorded a solo album in 2004, "In for the Kill," and the band's last studio CD, "Rehab," came out in October 2006.He was 52.
Courtesy of the AP Press services
OK, now my personal news has really hit a low but I found it interesting that this story was buried in a local Las Vegas News feed, guess no one is interested in a old rocker who found the habit a bit too intoxicating to give up.
Seems like a very 80's day as I also found a review of the recent Van Halen tour (with D L Roth), which was reviewed as simply astounding to anyone between 30 and 50. That is something I would have literally killed to see, however I doubt my dreams of the band ever doing "Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now" live will never be achieved, somehow I doubt Eddie will ever give up his heavily shredded axe to pick up the clarinet again. If this tour and reunion continues though I can see arranging a vacation around the opportunity to see these guys again. Did I ever mention that the first concert I ever saw was one that was one of Ozzy's last stands with Black Sabbath, Man, I wish I could run back almost 30 years to do that one again, but then again coming out of a Black Sabbath concert and seeing the horrified look on your Mom's face as she watched the rest of the crowd filter out of the exhibition place might leave a lot of metal heads thinking I might have just been a little too young for such a introduction. I tell you my mom actually looked at horrified at what I pulled off that night, sure Mom and Dad were waiting outside the show... but they didn't see what happened inside the show. BTW for Way Way Up the opening band was Pat Travers, who does a electric guitar rendition of Beethoven's 5th that should not be missed by the open mind.
Take Care,
CG
"Cum On feel the noize,
Girls rock your boyz"
Godspeed Mr. Dubrow

Random Tidbits

Hello Everyone,
Well, the lack of photo's continues, Its really hard to get photo's for me, when all the sunlight occurs in a brief window during which I can't leave the store. I've started to order product again as of this week. The roads into town are currently rated at 20,000kg, we need double that but if I wait any longer we won't be able to get any product for Christmas, so we barrel ahead at full speed and hope for the best (actually I do have a backup plan to get the stuff here).
The weather is still mild, except for a couple of cold days early in the week. We sit daily around -30 and still no real sign of snow, we've been here 2 months and we still haven't had a single good snowstorm.
I just got off the phone with my parents who complained I'm not saying anything? Its hard to come up with new info when you've been living in complete isolation for the last seven weeks. That's why the Blog has been so inactive, its very difficult to come up with new things when we've been this way for awhile. I've actually noticed it affects the communities whole mood, people seem a lot more subdued, they are still out doing things but no one talks about the days events or interesting things around town.
So that's my lack of news for this week.
Hopefully something will happen in the outside world that I feel compelled to comment on.
Take Care
CG

-48 with windchill

Brrrrrr
Brrrrrrrrr
Brrrrrrrrrr
CG

The Legend lives On

Hello Everyone,
This post has nothing to do with life in the north or our experiences of the last few years, It does involve my and many others childhoods. You see I had a hero once upon a time, his inspirations caused me many injuries, the loss of teeth, a broken arm or two and too many smaller injuries to mention. I will clarify by telling you I grew up in the seventies under the expert tutelage and inspiration of the real life super hero Evel Knievel. I remember around 1977 getting the Evel Knievel action figure and stunt bike with bonus ramps, Man, that was one hell of a Christmas. That bike and I jumped over things that would have made lesser men squeamish, we achieved goals undreamt of by the adult mind, and we always landed and went on to the next goal. I used to sit glued to the TV whenever they would show one of his death defying stunts, I'm not sure he was very good at his job as I never remember him actually landing any of his jumps but he always tried faster, further and harder than last time. Then the waiting would begin for the next extreme adventure (after a suitable recovery time in the hospital I'm sure). Evel Knievel was extreme before it was popular, his image made me sit through brutally terrible movies that still make me smile.
Realistically, from what I understand of the man, he was a bit of a lech, a hard drinker, and probably not the brightest LED in a thunder storm(I also don't know what that means, but you get the gist). He was a god to a young child of the seventies. Make believe people like the Six Million Dollar man would flinch before attempting a day in the life of this real man. I'm sure Kiss should attribute many of their costume idea's to this mans working uniform. Extreme sports would never have developed they way they did if Tony Hawkes secret desire wasn't to be Evel Knievel. GI Joe's job during my generation was not to save the world from Nazi's it was to lay under Evel's ramp and be jumped like all good action figures.
Right now, in heaven I'm sure Evel is trying to find a good run up ramp where he can jump over all the minions of hell and the angels of heaven in one foul swoop, while at the same time triing to find a leather jumpsuit that looks good with his new wings.
GodSpeed and safe landings.
CG
PS. Maybe I can figure out one last use of those old boards under the store and Christopher's new bike, just for old times sake.

" So your considering a career in death defying? Well, good for you son, Its good to see a young man taking interest in his future-remember : Bones heal, Chicks dig scars and America has the best ratio of daredevils to doctors in the free world." Lance Murdoch