Theater of the Soul

As I sat at my desk earlier cursing Mother Nature for the 12-18 inches of snow she is so thoughtfully sending my way tonight, I came across this from CNN:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Anderson, a little town in Alaska’s interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land — and it’s free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground.

In a modern twist on the homesteading movement that populated the Plains in the 1800s, the community of 300 people is offering 26 large lots on spruce-covered land in a part of Alaska that has spectacular views of the Northern lights and Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak.

And what’s an occasional day of 60-below cold in a town removed from big-city ills?

It makes absolutely NO sense to me, but I would move to a remote area in Alaska in a heartbeat if I could get broadband up there. I don’t understand my attraction to remote areas of the Northwest though. I have a love/hate relationship with wintertime. I live pretty much in the shadow of Mt. Washington…home to the worst winter weather in North America supposedly. Winter here can be brutal sometimes. Two weeks ago, I was dealing with 60mph winds and temperatures of -35. When temperatures hit the 50’s and 60’s earlier this week, I VERY happily took the heavy liners out of our extreme weather jackets and put the winter boots, shovels and salt away. I opened windows and started making a list of spring cleaning supplies to buy. BooBoo and I took one of our tenant’s dogs for a walk around town yesterday and enjoyed the fresh air at the park for a bit. Then, I woke up this morning to flashing weather alerts on my local news webpage and groaned. And now, I’m dreaming of the Alaskan wilderness??

Oh well. At least I get out of spring cleaning for another few days!