HELLO FROM BARROW...

It’s been some time since I’ve written to the blog.  Did I mention in an early post about how fortunate I am to be working here with an associate degree in nursing?  A condition of my hire was that I begin a bachelor of science in nursing program within a reasonable amount of time.  My supervisor said that all State of Alaska public health nurses are required to have earned a BSN and that that would be in my future also, if I accepted the position.  My first year and a half included what felt like continual work-related training and long hours at the clinics in Barrow, the villages and in the community, so it wasn’t possible to consider beginning a BSN program until this past spring.    

I love school and have taken quite a palate full of courses over the years before and after earning my ADN, so the prospect of beginning a program was enticing.  It took some research to sort through the various online offerings to determine which one would require the least amount of additional prerequisites and be the most cost effective.  I had begun the RN to BSN program at the University of Washington before moving to the North Slope and had hoped that they might offer an online program so that I could finish it, but learned that one didn’t exist.  If I enrolled in the University of Alaska, Anchorage distance education program, I’d need to spend some time in Soldotna at the UAA Kenai branch doing an organic chemistry lab to fulfill a requirement so this didn’t seem feasible.  On the recommendation of a fellow nurse who completed an online RN to BSN program at the University of Texas at Arlington, I enrolled and began earlier this year, in May. There are a few prerequisites that I’ll need to finish before I graduate but I’m half way through the nursing courses.  The prerequisites all sound interesting and I’m sure that they will be applicable at some point, even the History of Texas. 

A desire to do well in my courses has cut into blog writing time and it has only been recently that it occurred to me how much of an outlet personal writing is.  Writing for nursing classes doesn’t have the same therapeutic effect as writing to you all, sharing events here and wondering about your lives in the interesting-sounding places from where you check into the blog. 

It’s not completely dark here now, but the sun made its final seasonal decent below the horizon on the day I returned from a wonderful visit with family in Arizona, California and Washington on November 21.  Temperatures there ranged from the 50’s to the low 80’s.  Two weeks of mild weather had an effect, so much so that when I passed through the door of the airplane and down the steps into whirling snow and minus 20 degrees of icy winds, my first thought was “now why do I live here”?  I also miss my family tremendously, adding to my thought that I should be snuggled up with my granddaughters giggling instead of enduring another winter here.  But practically speaking, I’ve been blessed with many trips to visit family since moving to Barrow just over two years ago and have an opportunity that is most likely one of the best I’ll ever have.  But I am strategizing about how to spend more time with my family.    

The scene at the airport made me smile.  The Alaska Airlines terminal is small with the baggage area consisting of an approximately 15 foot wide steel slide that comes down at a low angle from a large garage-like door.  Baggage handlers open the door from the outside and begin the big job of hoisting mostly 50 pound tubs, suitcases and boxes onto the slide where people are gathered to pick up the things they’ve returned with or shopped for in places south of Barrow or south of Alaska.  Boxes, bags and tubs are stacked on top of one another quickly and those strong and resourceful enough climb up to the top of the slide and retrieve theirs.  I love the generous spirit of people who call this their home as just a small indication that one or more of your tubs or bags is up at the top nets someone hauling it down gladly for you.  Occasionally it takes more than 20 minutes for the baggage to be unloaded and available so a long line forms in front of the sometimes unmanned ticket counter to request a promised voucher for 2,500 miles.  The last time I flew, it took 40 minutes for the cargo door to open and although I was hoping to be home earlier, I was grateful for the miles. 

While in Washington I ordered some 4 foot T5 grow lights for my tower garden from Amazon Prime and had them delivered to my daughter and son-in-law’s house.  After beaming brightly, almost around the clock for a year and a half, one by one the original lights made that interesting, intermittent snapping sound while both ends of each bulb became dark and eventually fizzled out.  It didn’t occur to me that it would be difficult to replace them, but what felt like a thorough search revealed that vendors don’t ship boxes of florescent light bulbs to Alaska, or at least for personal use.  It was encouraging strategizing with my brother while in California about buying, padding and shipping them to Barrow in a plastic tube but no store in his area carried the bulbs either.  The bulbs arrived from Amazon and after a visit to the UPS store are on their way up.  At last tracking, they had left Federal Way and were somewhere between there and Barrow. 

It’s just a matter of time before my apartment is lit up, new seeds are sprouting and heads of kale, chard and lettuce are lending their green and welcome presence.  I’ve missed the garden more than I could have anticipated since harvesting the remaining produce and disassembling and washing all of its parts when the bulbs burnt out.  I’ve noticed subtle changes in my outlook and have realized that the grow lights have helped prevent the blues that are sometimes present in cold, dark climates.  Shades of it have descended on me from time to time and it makes me empathize with others who might struggle with this on a frequent basis.  I know that my relief is just a long distance truck and plane ride and box opening away but what about others who don’t have this same sort of advantage?  I’ll have to ask what others do here.  I think living alone also contributes to what I’ve been experiencing.  Along with the lights being therapeutic, the plants are alive and feel like companions.  I have wonderful friends here but none of them want to sleep on my couch to keep me company, I'm sure, so my garden it is and possibly spending more time writing. 

I sincerely hope that this finds each of you thoroughly enjoying life and experiencing good health and interesting chapters of your lives.  Good night from Barrow = )