Pending business

Well, we got about 3" of snow overnight, and no visible icing. Wife and I removed it from operational surfaces of our environment. The weather PTBs are now threatening temperatures in the 40s and rain this evening. We'll see. I am considering a ski run this afternoon.

The Nice Agent Lady has inquiries in hand, both on the DRAGON'S TEETH contract and on the publication payment for the French edition of SUMMER COUNTRY. As I mentioned, she has a vested interest in both....

I mailed a bunch of forwarding-type stuff off to Younger Son at grad school, and we didn't get anything else for him in the mail delivery that came while I was out. The universe is slipping.

And we haven't seen any goldfinches at the feeder in over a week. They must have found a better diner. Wonder what we did wrong?

Gray day made brighter

Did get out on the skis again, light mist but nothing annoying. Maybe, just _maybe_, the weather underground has gotten the forecast wrong in the right way for a change.

Saw some wood chips on the top of the fresh snow, underneath a white pine. Didn't see the bird, didn't see the hole, but the obvious suspect would be a pileated woodpecker. Damn-all else chops out splinters 3/4" long and 1/4" across.

Deer tracks, squirrel tracks, snowshoe hare tracks, maybe a coyote or just a dog running free while the owner went skiing. I probably won't bother to report tracks all the time, unless I come up with some fun stuff like fisher or bobcat. Or the parallel mouse and weasel tracks that eventually converged in the snow, with a couple of drops of blood -- wife spotted that, out at the nature center.

4 miles, 1 hour