I am running out of things to do inside the house. Spent much of the day picking up tools, construction debris and putting away things that have been displaced by the construction over the past several days. This took longer than I expected and at the end of the day there was still stuff where stuff shouldn’t be. Living in a construction zone is a constant mess.

Today was another cold morning followed by a cold day to be followed by a colder night. This was the first day of this winter that I’ve had to put the ice cleats on my shoes. The previous day’s heat was melting the snow and now the watery snow has become ice. As I am allergic to death and/or broken bones so the cleats became a necessity. We, meaning Summer and myself, thought that the winter was over. We were mistaken as the weather predictions now say that the temps will be in the mid 30s during the day for the next 10 days. Worse it will be in the mid 20s every night for that period of time. Ice upon ice. How wonderful. Last year this time people were planting their gardens. This year the ground is still frozen solid and will not likely thaw until the later part of April or the first week or so of May. Personally, I could use some of that Gore-bal Warming. Coincidentally, we are in Solar Minimum #25. That could explain why the cold just won’t go away. It’s fairly simple: No sunspots, no heat. Summer remarked the other day that she had seen a report that the earth was some fractions of a degree cooler than last year. ****https://interestingengineering.com/this-year-will-mark-the-lowest-solar-activity-in-over-200-years**** You can read this article for yourself. I remember making some comment to my Dad when I was a teenager about the weather seeming hotter. He told me then that the weather ran in 30 year cycles. I recalled that conversation sometime ago when in another conversation. The 30 year cycle is a real thing. When I thought about it for the first time in 50 years, I looked it up. You can look it up on Google: 30 year weather cycle.

On average Alaska is a cold place, however, the southern portion of the Kenai Peninsula is/was a rain forest. Much of that forest has been destroyed by civilization but more of it was destroyed by the Spruce Bark Beetles. Millions of trees were destroyed. The property on which Summer and I reside was once a solid mass of Spruce trees. When we bought it it was nothing but downed trees, tree stumps, grass clumps and frost humps. Clearing up this mess has cost thousands of dollars and hours and hours of heavy machinery time. It was completely unusable when we arrived but now it is mostly flat, cleared land on which we can grow food or make use of in some manner.

To be sure, the natural weather cycles have far more detrimental consequences on the Earth than any other factor. The Spruce Bark Beetle infestation is an example. They had a mild winter followed by a warm summer. The beetles ran rampant. All of our disasters: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, beetles, locusts, plagues and pandemics are just natural occurrences to be endured by all of us humans, animals and the Earth. With that said, COVID-19 is simply another endurance test for the human race. In a few months there will be a vaccine and then we can look forward to the next evil virus coming down the pike.

Well it’s vodka thirty. Also time for a supper of leftovers from last night. Got to eat all of what is cooked. Food, like everything else, is very expensive in Alaska.