The month of September brought snowfall measured in feet instead of inches to Interior Alaska. Tuesday’s dumping brought down trees and power lines. At one point, over 21,000 GVEA electric meters had stopped moving throughout the borough. It’s been a mess.

Soapbox

I am amazed at how many local drivers do not understand that intersections with non-working stop lights automatically become 4-way stops until power is restored. I have seen an endless stream of full sized trucks flying through intersections at high speed thinking that a lack of power turns the roadway into the autobahn. Today took the cake: there was a woman in a small car with several kids was in front of me. She came to a full stop, before making a left turn and I could see that the oncoming, bright-red, full-sized, Dodge pickup was not going to stop. I still don’t know how they missed contact. The Dodge never changed speed or course. I’m sure the woman floored it when she saw the truck, but the little Toyota hardly seemed up to the task. Luckily, it was or I would have witnessed a nasty T-boning.
At that moment, I wished I had a solid, old hunk of Detroit steel to ram the bastard in the Dodge right off the road. Obviously, I would never do such a thing… I like, and need, my vehicles too much.

Off soapbox

A half mile up the road, there was a backhoe sitting on the snow filled shoulder. The operator had a chain fastened to a sedan in the ditch, and he was lifting the car out with the bucket. The grin on the backhoe operator’s face would have rivaled any kid’s on Christmas morning.