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Ann suggested I watch this TED talk many months ago. I finally watched it this morning. Definitely a good one that made me think long about many things. Definitely struck home more than once. I haven’t watched TED talks in a long while, although it is definitely one of my favorite pastimes.

I was just rummaging through my desk and found found a few scraps of paper with lines from an Alice Walker book, the Temple of My Familiar. I read the book on a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Elko, Nevada where I was going for the summer. Even after some 20-ish years, these lines seem very relevant and in-line with my thoughts today.
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“Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want.”

“As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. And today truth is still beautiful, but so frightening.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run twice as fast as that!” -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass . I believe that was a quote within the Alice Walker book. Maybe not. My memory is a bit foggy of those days.

The past couple of weeks, I have spent a lot of time out in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed monitoring the snow ablation. The days have been amazing and the snow is (finally) starting to disappear. I can tell spring is near as I have my first blood stained page in my field book (from swatting a biting mosquito) and I have managed to swallow my first mosquito (from breathing a bit too hard after walking up a long hill). Along with the mosquitos, the streams and rivers are really starting to flow. It is amazing how fast things change from day to day.

The weather is finally starting to turn a bit and the snow is slowly starting to melt. The past couple weeks, I have been out measuring the snow ablation (melt) at our research sites. Being outside alone, away from my computer, soaking up the sun has been amazingly good for me and great for my soul.

More pictures and updates can be found at out Northern Ecohydrology blog.

Off and on over these past couple of years, I have had a hard time sleeping. Part of it was just my mind refusing to shut off. Part of it was just not being comfortable in my bed. A few weeks ago, I had my friend Chad build me a new custom birch bed. Chad just started a new custom woodworking business, Infinity Woodworks. He gave up a “good” teaching job to pursue his passion. Pretty cool. I also bought a new mattress and that is also helping. The next step is getting some blinds in my bedroom to keep out the sun. The sun typically doesn’t bother me, but it would be nice to have consistent good sleep. Since I live in a subdivision of one, having blinds/curtains in my house has never been a problem.

El Toro Guapo had his 3rd birthday this week. Hard to believe that I’ve had him 2.5 years already.

Last weekend, Shannon and I went to the World Ice Art Championships. Like last year, it was chilly and we did not stay long. As always, amazing art. The ice art is a nice reward for surviving winter!

The rest of the images are in my image gallery. Shannon posted her pictures here.

This is old news now… A while ago, Senator Al Franken, while still on SNL (or there abouts) wrote a book titled “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot“.   He was correct then and is amazingly correct now. The only thing I would change would be title, substituting “douchebag” for idiot, or perhaps changing to “idiotic douchebag”. Either works.  Luckily Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are around and in fine form to help keep my sanity.