October Snow

It seems impossible to imagine in September, but we always do get some type of snow, albeit usually quite wet, before the 1st of November. This year is no exception; our first snow of October fell this morning.

The picture was taken around 8 am this morning; it was still somewhat dark outside. There was not a lot of accumulation and it's all gone this evening. The snow was accompanied by 20 to 40 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. The bench in the neighbors' yard was knocked over.

One member of the household enjoys the snow especially much:

Falling

I am back home in the US again, and back into the happy routine.

Part of my happy routine on the weekends is taking the dog out for a good long walk in the morning. This morning it was still dark throughout our walk, and 36 degrees just before we set out. The dog, a pair of warm suede sneakers, and the iPod are a good combo.

During the first half of the walk we didn't encounter anyone, and we enjoyed a vigorous bout of fetch on the lawn of a local institution. It's a good thing the dog is able to find the ball in the dark, because I sure can't.

On the way back home we encountered two different folks out with their dogs. The first one appeared to be a Springer Spaniel, and it was just too energetic to engage. It was up on its back legs pulling for us, and it seemed better for everyone if we just moved on.

The second one was another friendly-seeming woman, accompanied by two smallish furry black dogs of indeterminate breed and a friendly but not so frantic demeanor. They seemed like good candidates for interaction with my somewhat dog-shy 50 pound pooch. Unfortunately, said pooch did not agree, so while I was trying to introduce him to the nice doggies and their human, he was trying to get away. The result was the classic leash-around-the-legs debacle. I went down.

It's such an odd sensation to find oneself suddenly on the pavement, when just a moment before everything was as it should be. It's just plain disorienting. It's often a bit humiliating, too, though I am not sure why that should be so; it happens to everyone at some point. The humiliation factor was low this morning, thanks to the mild and slow nature of the fall (though I did lose a little skin off the knee- even through both pants and long underwear), and due to the kindness of the other pedestrian, who only asked once if I was okay, and also made a nice sympathetic comment about the surprising strength of dogs (adding a much-appreciated element of "It could happen to anyone; you're a person with an unexpectedly powerful dog, not a poorly-balanced moron."). It's infinitely worse when witnesses make a huge fuss. Note to witnesses: ask the faller once if they are okay, and then move on.

The rest of the walk was uneventful. Now we are home, and all is right and upright. Until the next time.

Beautiful British Columbia

I am travelling for work right now. This sort of statement often elicits groans, but I am privileged to have a pleasant mission in a beautiful place: British Columbia, Canada. I am also accompanied by a pleasant and lively travelling companion who is a partner in the project.

We flew from the Midwestern United States to Seattle on Frontier Air, operated by Lynx Aviation. I love the actual flying part of air travel, so I was well pleased to see we'd be travelling on a twin-prop plane. It was a beauty, too.

Frontier planes can be distinguished by the pictures of northern wildlife (bears, wolves, hares) on their tails. What I did not know until yesterday is that there is also a picture at the end of the wing:

Upon arrival at Seattle, we picked up the rental car, claimed our bags, and drove to British Columbia. It was a lovely drive. The border crossing was quick and easy, though our hosts told us it is not always that way, particularly crossing from the US into Canada. Among other things, a drunk driving conviction in the US may keep a person out of Canada! Good thing I've been keeping my nose clean.

We arrived in Canada a bit earlier than expected and I didn't want to show up inconveniently early for dinner with our Canadian colleagues, so we stopped for a while to walk along a dyke and watch the men who were fishing for salmon (with quite a bit of success).

Not much later our colleagues served us grilled local salmon for dinner, and it was excellent. We each had a glass of lovely homemade wine, too. We had been up since about 2 am local time, and after the dinner and wine I was ready to sleep! Happily, the B&B where we are staying is charming, clean, and cozy.

In fact, my breakfast of yogurt, granola, fruit, and and a soft-boiled egg will be delivered soon, so I'd better go get ready.

If you're from Google, never mind.

Well, of course the problem was me.

As you can see, I have not posted to this blog in quite some time, so I had to jump through a series of hoops to get started again. It has to do with the Google purchase of Blogspot since 2006, I presume.

It is very very hard to get email help from Google! But I guess in my case they were right to be this way- I did not realize that registering for a spearate account and "reclaiming" my blog were different steps in the process.

So I missed the 2nd or 3rd email, the one that told me how to reclaim this blog. Oops.

As you can see, I have reclaimed it now. More to follow, I hope.