Winter?

I'm not sure why, but for some reason when I moved to Alaska I expected to have snow in December.  Strange thought huh? Snow in Alaska. Don't get me wrong, we have had snow. We had about a foot on the ground a few weeks ago, until we had a little warm spell around Thanksgiving which killed it all. So now it's just ugly.

Not much has happened since my last update but let me catch you up.

I spent a few days in Chicago around the beginning of November for some potty training. The train cars I work on have these ridiculously complicated toilets that are similar to the vacuum operated toilets you see on airplanes.  You can actually plug a computer into them to retrieve error codes to tell you what they have been doing. So anyway, they sent us down to the manufactures plant so we could learn how they work. We were in the Chicago area for about four days to accomplish one day worth of "training" so we

 had time to explore the city a little and see Eric and Karen, whom I haven't seen in a few years.

I stayed in Alaska for Thanksgiving due to my lack of holiday travel experience. I tried to buy tickets about a month before the holiday only to discover that you have to get holiday travel tickets much earlier if you don't want to pay $1000 plus for a weekend trip from AK to UT.  So I ended up spending Thanksgiving with Lindsays family. I was pretty nervous about spending Thanksgiving with the ex's family but it actually turned out pretty good. Entertaining even. 

I have learned recently that dead cars do not like to be resurrected.  My 1953 Willys Wagon that I have spent a small fortune on over the last couple years seams to be determined to make my winter as miserable as possible.  I have spent a lot of time and a good chunk of change lately just to make the four wheel drive function, only to discover that what I thought needed to be fixed was only half the battle. Now I get to live with a vibration that threatens to rattle my fillings out every time I put it in 4WD until I build up the ambition to rebuild my transfer case and front drive shaft.  On top of that, I have had to repair my windshield wipers several times recently, my heater is officially dead, my tires are bald, and every time it rains or gets warm enough to melt snow it leaks. Bad. Oh, and this week my clutch slave cylinder decided to puke its contents all over a parking lot. I am starting to believe it is haunted. Or maybe it's just my cheap skate "building" plan coming back to bite me. That seems more likely.

Thursday I fly down to Utah to spend a couple weeks at home over Christmas. So if you will be around, lets play!

No Promises

I will be the first to tell you that I am terrible at keeping in touch when writing is involved. Consequently I make no promises as to how often this blog will be updated and how much you will learn about the happenings of Jeds life. Ok, so that's not entirely true. I do feel pretty confident in my ability to keep this promise: I will not post frequently or on a regular schedule of any kind and therefore you will most likely forget that I have a blog between each post.
With that said, here goes nuthin.
Hi, Remember me? How's things?
I currently live in the great state of Alaska and in a permanant state of jaw drop due to the size, beauty and mysterious nature of this vast land, as well as a perpetual state of sadness due to my lack of a mountain bike. Somebody apparently thought they needed it more than I did.
I've been somehow suckered into the tourism industry (I blame Wade) and just scored a new job as a rail car mechanic. Didn't really see that coming a year ago but it's darn fun and it's nice to have medical insurance. Oh and my company also provides tuition reimbursement which is real handy since I'm STILL trying ever so slowly, as much as I hate it, to get through school.