Year-end Errata

Wishing everyone an happy, healthy new year. Live long and prosper.

The Star Trek fans know that last line. Let me just say, I luv Tivo.

I also love REI. My holiday haul included a nice gift certificate, so I'll be getting new waterproof boots at their next big sale. If you have been so fortunate to live to this point in your life without walking in wet wool socks, allow me a moment to assure you - you want to live the rest of your life in ignorance of this experience, too. Not fun.

The other pedestrian experience I can not really recommend is walking in boot-sucking mud. I have several acres of it, and it's a horror. The ground is frozen, so as the snow melts the moisture can't soak into the ground. The top inch or so of earth has thawed, but is so moisture-laden it's more like walking through molasses. Knee-high rubber boots are the recommended footwear (which means my feet freeze) to stay dry, but the slip-sliding passage across the pasture is quite treacherous. Give me ice, please.

We've had an abundance of pre-dawn hawk sightings in the past 10 days, most in motion and very close overhead and totally silent. Someday the people that make movies will stop inserting bird-of-prey noises everytime a falcon or buzzard is on the screen - in real life they don't announce themselves.

Bugg is settling in pretty well, given all the changes in her life. She's dealing with severe changes in altitude, humidity, and temperature, and depsite a short-lived fever her appetite never waned. Bugg is now in work, as I learn Parelli's seven games, and this too is a huge change for her. And me, negative reinforcement-based training is something I'm really struggling with, emotionally. More on that once I've sorted some things out.

This weekend I am taking a couple of hounds for a long walk in the desert. The weather forecast is for the low 60's, significantly warmer thatn we've had recently, so I'm concerned about keeping the boys cool. Water, water, water... good thing I'm a camel.

On the drive down and back I'll be listening to something by Simon Winchester, a marvelous author with not just a clever mind and lovely way with words, but insatiable curiousity for fascinating topics. My iPod is stuffed to its gills, and I have company for the hours of driving.