Full Moon Setting

This morning I was outside taking pictures of the full moon as it was setting. I thought is was pretty cool that I could see the craters in the moon through the camera lens and I busily snapped away, but then as I downloaded them on the computer, I decided that the moon alone in a picture is pretty boring. What really makes a moonrise or set interesting is the big picture surrounding it like the mountain scenery or the reflective light cast on the water. Seeing as I was unable to capture the surrounding scenery and the craters in the moon, the pictures turned out only mediocre.

Clouds rolled in today and the high temperature hovered around zero for the first time in 2 weeks. Our high prior to today was 10 below and the lows were between 30 - 35 below. We don't really know the exact temperature at the house, because our thermometer stayed stuck at 20 below for 2 weeks, but at our neighbor's house lowest low was -34. The temperature near Butte Elementary, where I work, was -38 at its lowest point and -28 was the average temperture though January 1st - 9th. Keep in mind though the extremely low started on December 27th. We are generally a few degrees warmer than the school, because we live a couple hundred feet above the river bottom where cold air settles. Large body movement activities like walking or chopping wood aren't impossible at those temperatures as long as your face is covered, but the bottom line is that is just isn't much fun.

So overall, I'm not disappointed to see this unusual cold spell (the coldest for Southcentral AK in the past 10 years) end, because nothing really good happens after 20 below, cars don't start, pipes freeze, hot tub pumps break, and wood piles disappear. And yes, poor Wyatt (or so he thinks, but doesn't dare voice) still walked to and from the bus stop.