Termination Dust

It only took me a week to figure out this peculiar little Alaskan term. Our priest mentioned it in his homily last week...boy, maybe it was two weeks ago...and Drew and I pondered over it on the way home without any success. Well today it suddenly became abundantly clear as we were driving up the hill towards church looking at the mountains. The last few days have been rainy, colder than just a few weeks ago: an official end to summer in Alaskan terms. But maybe two nights ago, it must have gotten just cold enough up in the mountains for snow to accumulate. Not just fall, but actually dust the mountain tops white. This morning there was a lot more of it. Not enough to reach the houses near the top, but enough to be a little "alarming". So it occurred to us as we were marveling that that's what they meant: termination dust. It's the stuff that blows in from the mountains and kills everything. But hopefully the heavy duty stuff doesn't hit us until at least Halloween.