This is the information that I’ll need tomorrow in order to get my boarding pass. I am very much looking forward to getting home. Tomorrow, early in the evening, I’ll be completing a circle of sorts.

It was a good day here in Barrow, but I don’t feel that this would be a good place for me to linger. I’d have a hard time dealing with the lack of light in the winter. The abundance of light in the summer? No problem.

The streets are lined with shack-like houses, most single but some double story. Those who rent also have to pay through the nose for heating and utility costs. When snow falls here, it sticks. It is about a foot deep, on houses, and in the roads. I suspect that there will be more to come.

An account of this day: plans changed. Pam and I were to spend all day at a robotics competition, in the morning watching the high schoolers build their robots and program them. Instead, we spent half a day at this event, that is the afternoon.

Pam spent the morning at Itinerant Housing, catching up on some much-needed rest. I instead went with Pamella to the Kiita School where I hung out while she worked on quilt squares. We didn’t say much – there weren’t any others in the building, so it was quiet and quite peaceful. This was heightened by the fact that we were enveloped in darkness.

Pamella and I then went to Mario’s pizza where she put in an order for a dozen Pepperoni pizzas, to be consumed by the robotics teams. We sat in a booth for about an hour, waiting for the order to be completed. Outside, the sky was as light as it was going to get. It was hard for me to tell if the haze was a result of ice fog or very small snow particles. Pamella said, “Ice fog.”

We took the pizzas to the Middle School, passed them on to the kids, then went and picked up Pam. We three had lunch at Sam and Lee’s Asian restaurant. My veggie burger and fries cost $20.00 – Pam paid the tab. The French fries tasted as though frozen, they’d been poured into the deep fat fryer and then removed. They were brittle to the taste.

The robotics competition was not at all what I’d expected. I thought that there would be a room full of knee high robots knocking one another down. What I envisioned turned out to be a different matter entirely.

This was a very structured event, sponsored by Legos. The kids were given computer boxes and designed external bots, which they coded in order to follow specific commands on a table. The table contained figures that were created to fit in with a theme, this one was The Arts.

The robots had to move or lift the figures, not in any particular order; however, they were given points for those figures they took out. The final score was determined by coaches, who included the students in on their deliberations.

Pamella’s grandson was on the winning team. The team will go to Anchorage and Pamella will accompany them. As I thought, just another mound of food on a plate already filled with activities.

Next: 332. 12/3/23: Perchance to Dream