Fall at Eielson

The past few days have been cooler than when we arrived at Eielson six days ago. The temp today barely reached 59 F with a low this morning in the mid-30s.

Last night was our first night in the house. It was cool in here even though I had the thermostat set at 65. I figured we were just feeling chilly after the warmer weather of last week. Then this morning is was downright cold throughout the house. The thermostat said the temp in the house was 50 F. I turned it up to 70 to see if it would the heater would kick on, but nothing happened. Later in the day I called maintenence, the guy came out and discovered the heat had never been hooked up. I'm not a wimp after all :o)

This morning was Bren's first morning catching the bus to school. We had a few false alarms as we thought only one bus would come by (and we thought she missed it), but at least three come by to pick up kids for the four different schools on base. She did end up getting on the right one, but had a little difficulty after school. One would think you should get on the same bus going back as you did coming, but when Bren did that she was confronted by a rude bus driver.

Driver: Are you new?
Bren: Yes
Driver: Where's your bus slip?
Bren: I didn't get a bus slip.
Driver: Where are you going?
Bren: Little French area.
Driver: Not on this bus you aren't!
Bren: What bus do I take?
Driver (pointing in a not-so-general direction): one of those.

As Bren got off the bus one of the buses she thought might be the right one pulled away. She gave up and called me. We'll try again tomorrow, this time asking the a.m. bus driver which bus she needs to get on in the p.m.

We grade the New Kid-friendliness of the bus system a "C".


After I dropped Bren off at the library I came home and took the dogs for their first walk around the neighborhood. Buddy enjoys walks but doesn't do well on the leash, so our walk was short. I got Neezy and decided to walk along a trail through some woods. Neezy has never been in the woods, so I just about had to drag her off the main road. It was a beautiful walk and I knew that Bren would love to take pics, so later this evening after we returned from the commissary I told her to get her camera, told Rick we'd be back in ten minutes, and walked to the path. I was right; Bren loved the spot and took about a dozen photos. I had grabbed my camera as well and took these.

When we returned to the house it was baking. I looked at the thermostat and it read 76 degrees. I had it set at 68. I turned it down to 60 and it's cooled off a little bit. I hope we find a magic spot that keeps things comfortable. If not, it's gonna be a long winter!