Midnight Sun

The rumours are true. It's daylight at midnight. I know it's not possible, but it seems brighter this year than last year. Maybe the earth shifted a wee bit?

We have been having a really hard time going to bed on time, and then falling asleep on time, even though we wake up exhausted. When the light levels tell your brain it's 7 or 8 pm until midnight (or later) you can't waste the time. It feels like we need to stay away to at least witness the daylight, like going to sleep while the sun is up is giving up, or wasteful.

Oh my god am I tired! I woke up at 3 am to pee and I could read a book in my room easily. There is literally no way to tell the time unless you have a clock. I mean, of course, it's totally awesome, you can go do anything and know you won't get caught after dark anywhere. You can go for a midnight swim or a walk or a round of disc gold in broad daylight at what should be night.

Plus it's sort of just a cool thing to experience. The extended daylight is way more noticeable then the extended darkness in the winter. Winters are always dark. But summers were never this bright. The garden is turbo growing and everyone is out on their bikes again. The clay cliffs and the vast forests have filled out with the deciduous poplars and the snow on the highest furthest mountains is just about gone.

I am making use of my little hotel sleep mask, though, since SOMEONE likes the light and seeing what's outside all the time. I'll tell you what's outside : perpetual cocktail hour!

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Our car died and re-animated over the weekend. We have stopped going to the hot springs and haven't been out camping because we don't trust our vehicle. With no cell phone, and no point of a cell phone between towns we aren't comfortable risking getting stranded up the alaska highway somewhere (although there's enough RV tourists I thin we'd really be fine). We had told ourselves that our next car would be a late model used car for reliability and long term use.

Well, based on a lot of research, hemming and hawing, and looking around, it appears the better deal is to be had on a new car. Based on the math and the used car market up here, and the fact that our chosen car (Nissan Versa) is on 0% financing at the moment, plus Nissan incentives to buy new (adds up to $1800 credit) it's actually cheaper to buy a new car than the 2008 use versa we found for sale. Even with the extra tires that come with it.

I never in a million years thought we would buy a new car. But it looks like we are about to do it. I've never had a car on warranty, a car with fewer than oh, 175,000km on it, and most significantly, a MANUAL!

Automatic cars cost about $1300 more to buy and I've always wanted to learn standard, and I've got the benefit of an open highway to learn on...we're going manual transmission. I'm excited and nervous. It's about time and I know I'll be frustrated practicing, but when I get it I'll be so happy I did the work.

So we'll see how we go. We aren't sure between the base model S or the base model SL (the SL is more luxurious and would cost about $1900 more than the S). For the long term the luxury might be much appreciated. Not sure. We'll have to test drive and see what we think. So long as our credit check works out...I've never checked my credit before!

Spendy spendy. And yet.

The car has a fantastic back seat so don't fret, if you visit we'll be able to take good care of you. Finally.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$argh!!!!!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$aaaaahhhhhH!$$$$$$$$