Inktrails from Alaska

It's Too Warm!

It's been 40° out for two days. It was 30° for a couple days before that.

Gosh darn it, it's too warm!

It's great if you want to get just a little more work done around the place, such as pick up dog poop (oh joy), or wash out poopy dog crates (oh more joy), or cut brush and pile it up for a bonfire later in the winter, or stacking all those pots and containers for plants, putting up the flags on the front of the house, cleaning all the dog hair out of the vehicles....and so on. But I got most of that done already.

It sounded like it was raining last night.

This is rotten because it makes driving extremely hazardous. It gets just cold enough to freeze the melted snow onto the road and then of course you get black ice. I HATE black ice.

Even if it doesn't get warm enough to melt things, if it gets up to 25° or higher what happens is everything gets all frosted, so the roads are white with slick, slippery frost.

I like it when it hovers around zero and the humidity drops down low and the roads dry out. It's the best of all possible worlds: the snow fills all the potholes on the dirt roads, and the asphalt roads are dry.

This year it was so nice when winter came. One day it was Fall, and then it snowed and suddenly the next day we were in Winter. No horrible Freeze-Up weather, with huge fluctuations in temperatures. No black ice.

But NOW the weather has been fluctuating in temperature between -2 and 40 above. AFTER Winter is already started!

When it is so darn warm I have to switch coats, and no matter what I do I'm TOO HOT or TOO COLD. If I dress for the weather outside, as soon as I step inside I'm totally roasting. If I dress for inside, and I have to walk any distance, (such as if the truck breaks down, I hit a moose, whatever) then I'm way too cold. I get up one day and it's 20, I drive to town and it's 10. I go into work and when I come out in the evening it's either -2 or 35. It's enough to make a person insane.

A lot of people are saying, "Oh, it's so nice, it's so warm!"  But I want it cold enough to kill off the mosquitoes and hornets. I want it cold enough to have more snow! Right now if it snows, it won't. It will rain. And then what will we have? Freezing rain. Arrgghh.

It's supposed to get back to normal temperatures next week. Somewhere around zero. Let's hope so!

My All-time Favorite Christmas Song

I am going to have to order the CD, but having this song on a web page where I can listen to it all the time is pretty wonderful.

I don't know why it's so funny. It just is. Maybe it's my Midwest roots? I do have to admit there is a serious corniness gene that runs in the family. Whatever it is, this song always makes me smile and even laugh out loud. Part of it is that the delivery is pretty dry, and considering the words that makes it even funnier.

Check it out here, and be sure to check Harry Stewart's other songs, too. "I Just Go Nuts at Christmas" was also sung as Yogi Yorgesson, one of his silly stage names. These songs are old, old, old, but most people haven't heard them. Here is a page of all the Yogi Yorgesson Christmas songs and a good bio of Harry Stewart. At the bottom of the page is the link to the complete songs of Harry Stewart.

The story about being the Santa for the PTA is pretty good,but it isn't something you can sing around the house. For my money, Yingle Bells is still the funniest Christmas song ever written.

Sofie Outsmarts Ole

When Sofia plays with Ole there is a large amount of it that is about dominance. They play a chase game that, after a while, ends up with Ole soliciting Sofie to chase him, which she does with such vehemence that in the end I generally break it up and we go inside. But in reality she's just doing her thing and she never hurts him.  And all I have to say is "Who wants cookies?" for the chase to end.

However she sounds like she's trying to kill him. She roars the entire time she's chasing him. Sometimes he stops and barks back at her: BARK BARK BARK!!! As if to say "HEY, quit YELLING at me!" And then he wants her to do it some more.

I bought a couple toys for them to have in the back yard so that they have something else to do besides focus on each other and each others' necks.

One is a round plastic squirrel about 7 or 8 inches in diameter. The tail is a handle and it squeaks. Ole picked up on this and started tearing around the yard with it in an initiation of the I've Got The Toy and YOU DON'T game.

So what does Sofie do? She chases him, tries to get it, can't get it (it's so round and Ole has the only handle) so she casts around the yard and finds a small stick. She then proceeds to dance all around the yard with it, tossing it up and catching it and pounce pounce pouncing it, doing exaggerated doggy joy-joy ballet with it and basically making it look like it was soooooooo much fun.

Poor Ole. Reverse psychology works great on him. He drops HIS toy and pretty soon Sofie is running around with this small stick (which I had to make sure wasn't a poopsicle), Ole hot on her heels! Suddenly the squirrel has no value and this silly frozen stick is just all that!
After a while she dropped it and let him get it, and coolly walked away, mission accomplished.   

Oh, and my dogs playing outside is the same as your dogs playing except when mine come inside their heads and necks are covered in frozen spit, and they have frozen cowlicks on their sides and backs.

My Little Neighbor

Every time we go out in the truck lately, the dogs are extremely pointy and alert. They are looking for my neighbor, a red fox that is remarkably comfortable around people.

A couple days ago I turned a corner and saw something moving on the snowy road. Coming toward us, and casting back and forth on the road was our fox, and he was busy looking for something and didn't mind us at all. He came within 15 feet of my idling truck and finally Ole, no longer able to contain himself, gave a high-pitched "BARK!" and Sofia began talking to the fox, going "Yu wehhhwehhhhh, yuh yuh! YUH YUH!" The fox didn't even blink, just continued on his business and simply stepped off into the woods next to us. At that point the dogs went nuts.

It was a fun way to start the day!

We've seen him many times since Fall. He has his den close by and I'm probably seeing two foxes, not one. They are so beautiful and cute!

The dogs and I were out in the backyard last September and he trotted by about 20 feet on the other side of the fence. This cause Ole some hysterical barking and had Sofia standing up on her hind legs walking around and talking her head off.

I don't know what they think they'd do if they actually met the fox!

And no, he's not rabid, at least, not acting that way. They are very smart and know when they are in danger and when they aren't. I know my trapper neighbor has left innards out for the foxes to eat when he's been out trapping. Thus their lack of fear of humans.

I love seeing the fox. The dogs do, too.