Housekeeping

A long anticipated snowfall that was forecast for last night turned out to be more of a fizzle than a 'storm'.  We got maybe an inch of new snow here at the house.  Just enough to cover everything up, but not near enough to make any noticeable trail improvement.  That hasn't stopped the local snowmachine crowd, though.

I had trouble falling asleep last night, and once I did fall asleep I was awake at least a couple of times.  Just before midnight the team started howling, and I could hear other dogs howling in the distance.  Apparently the canines were sharing whatever news dogs share between themselves. 

The sky wasn't even a little bit gray this morning when I was awake just enough to note the sound two-stroke whine of snowmachines out on the trails. I closed my eyes, and when they opened again the "day" was well along, though it was still plenty dark outside.

After giving the dogs their soup this morning I was still hearing snow machines, and decided that perhaps I'd be well advised to catch up on some housekeeping rather than trying to run dogs. I figure I can run dogs tomorrow, while the Saturday night gear heads are busy recovering from their hang-overs.

I did go out to check the mail, and snow-goes outnumbered cars at the fuel pump by a fairly significant margin. Most of the machines I saw were operated by kids, so I'm thinking a lot of our local youth either received 'new' (or used) machines as Christmas gifts, or finally received parental permission to run machines they already have. 

Thus far today I've replaced some fluorescent tubes, put my humidifier in service, cleaned up my living room, cleared the table, cleaned several fire-arms and even did a better than average job of cleaning my bathroom.  Not too bad for a lazy day, eh?  It occurs to me that I should maybe eat something at some time or another today.  I've skipped breakfast and lunch entirely, so I suppose I should actually cook something for supper.

Update on the Pathfinder Grounding

Yesterday I reported that the "Pathfinder", a tugboat that is part of the Ship Escort Vessel Escort System, ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling diesel fuel into Prince William Sound.  The latest news report I've seen indicates that the fuel remaining in the damaged fuel tanks has been lightered off, a towing plan has been developed, and that the next step is to two the crippled tug to Valdez.  A Department of Environmental Conservation spokesperson is quoted as saying that no fuel has reached the shoreline and there is no detectable impact to area wildlife.