Day: January 29, 2006

Alaska

Ready for breakup too soon

It’s not even February and I am already looking forward to breakup. I know I still have another 6 weeks or so but I’m ready for it now. The cold is starting to frost my mood. At least we are on the increase for daylight, currently gaining about 2 minutes a day.

If you don’t know what breakup is then you aren’t from Alaska. Essentially breakup is our version of Spring. As the temperature rises above freezing the snow starts to melt, the ice on the rivers begins to thin and eventually the running water under the river ice breaks through and the rivers open up. That’s where the term comes from.

There’s more to it than that here in Anchorage, though. We get to look forward to some other special little extras. The trash that has been buried under the snow all winter. The mud that forms as the ground thaws and the ground water rises. And most special of all, the doggie piles that have been buried under the snow thaw out, while at the same time shading the snow underneath, leading to little tiny pedastals holding those little prizes aloft.