Herald

Male cardinal perched high in a sunrise maple, singing. That bird is a bit ahead of himself.

Will probably drive Wife to work again this morning. She has greater faith in my winter driving skills than in her own, even with AWD and ABS, and some of those roads are nasty. For the singular reader out there who is local and owns a car, I counsel you to avoid the Wiswell Road. It is an abomination before the Lord, and will be receiving a visitation of Holy Fire shortly.

Hope to get in a longer ski run today, up at the university. They use trail groomers, which should break up the crust and leave a working surface. Avoiding the city forest, due to proximity to a cross-country race this morning.

Warmer today. Also less wind.

I left Old Guy standing in a burned-out synagogue with a gun aimed at his heart. Maybe I should get back to him some time.

The inalienable right of the freeloader...

I did go up to the university for skiing. They had not groomed the majority of the trail system. Given the icy state of the snow surface, this adjusted my planned route in unacceptable ways. I am miffed.

_Did_ get a bit of chicken-watching in. A ruffed grouse wandered afoot across the trail in front of me, pecking at this and that, and regarded me with a black and beady eye before pecking some more. It seemed to be habituated to skiers, because this was at a range of 8' to 12'. Anyway, I pointed the bird out to a family who happened along, and they pronounced it cool.

1:20 +/- (allow time for grouse-watching), about 6 miles.