A Snowy Day

A very fine snow has been falling since 8 p.m. last night - maybe with a half-inch of accumulation so far - it is the powder that skiers dream of. But it makes normal driving torture, as people drive either like the snow isn't there and continuing to fall, or they ignore the fact that there is ice under the powder on the road. - I laughed myself silly yesterday; or I would have, if it hadn't caused a coughing fit... I left Finn's doggie-door open yesterday after Guillermo, the yard man, arrived. About mid-morning, I took a break from my computer research and went downstairs, to have Soledad, the house-keeper, point me at Finn's room with a giggle. Finn did not look like his usual self - starting at about the knee and hock, all four lower legs were black; and so were his beard, chin and neck. I rinsed the affected areas multiple times, until I could no longer see dirt going down the drain, and then I washed him and gave him a blow drying. He really is a very intelligent and eager-to-please animal - but he's also just a puppy, and needs to be allowed to have fun and play. Skippy and I play with each other, and I groom him twice a day; other than that, he just lords it over my kits, as he is three times their size. They occasionally hiss at each other, but don't fight, and Skippy allows Lovey and Nedi the freedom of the house.

Here are some odds and ends that caught my attention: ... In London, a six-month-old fox kit was trapped, vetted, and released after being spotted (and fed by) construction workers on the 72nd floor of a skyscraper. The only way the fox could have reached that floor was to have climbed 71 floors of stairs and then up a ladder. ... Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri, is continuing to check it's old books. They knew they had 6 books that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson in the collection; a startling 68 more have been found, all with Jefferson's personalized initials and/or hand-written notes on the pages. They hope to find more. ... And in Alaska, the remains of an 11,500 year old housing structure have been found - it seems to have been a semi-permanent summer hunting "lodge" (for lack of a better term). The bones of fish and small hunted mammals have been found there, and carbon dating was used. They also found the cremated remains of a three-year-old child (this according to the teeth that remained in the ashes). Scientists are hopeful that they can find DNA in the teeth - and the First Chief of the local Inuit tribe is urging the tribal members to contribute their own DNA as a cross-reference check. I'm looking forward to the results!