Termination dust

Last week when I got off work it looked like this from my bus stop on Providence Drive:

But yesterday it looked like this:

That’s what we in Anchorage call termination dust: the first dusting of snow on the Chugach Mountains (considerable more than a dusting further behind!) that marks the end of summer — well, really it’s fall right now — & the onset of winter.

Earlier yesterday, this was the view from my office suite:

From midtown when I got off my bus:

It’s dark getting up in the morning too, & by next week it’ll still be fully dark when I catch my bus.  And it was chilly enough this morning that I exchanged my windbreaker for the outer shell of my winter coat.

Winter is a’cumin in
Lhude sing cuccu!

Fall equinox is over: we’re now in the dark of the year.

Never fear: at 5:00 PM, the governor is going to announce the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund Dividend!  Alaskans are drooling. And I’m not quite in my mukluks yet.