Brrrr!!!!! Brrrr!!!! And again, brrrr!! rrrr, rrr, rr, r.

I hope everyone in DC has Ba-racked the vote by the time you read this!  :-)  I will be waiting on pins and needles for the results even though I already know what will happen.

Well, yesterday it was so cold (-15F, -50 windchill) that despite all the begging the dogs did not get me any further than the back deck.  To be honest, though, I was intimidated by the numbers and didn't try that hard.  TODAY, however, it got all the way up to 7F, so we went showshoeing all throughout the backwoods, including on many neighbors' properties who I hope won't mind.  I was actually overheated in my trusty Eddie Bauer parka which I've had forever and ever.  But it was fun snowshoeing because there are so many different kinds of snow right now--sometimes you can stay right on top, sometimes it's just powder, sometimes it breaks into little pieces that clink over the surface.  We almost lost poor little Paco who got tired of pushing through snow over his head, but he was a trooper and followed in my tracks for a long time.  I thought of making a video pretending I was at the South Pole being tracked by the little-known Antarctic wolves.  Both dogs were totally covered in ice when we got home.

Freelance astrobiology, my newly self-invented job, is so far so good.  I'm working with teams at ASU, CU-Boulder, and MIT on missions to find Earth-like planets and life throughout the galaxy.  This fancy arrangement is not quite paying the bills yet, but one step at a time, yes?  (Barack, if you slash NASA's budget, I may have to come camp out with the anti-Bomb folks on your front yard next year.)  On Wednesday I'm doing a Canadian public radio interview on what it will take to find aliens!  Meanwhile, I'm asking myself:  Should I get paid for interviews like that?  I've never charged before, but now I'm freelance, people!!!  

In addition to getting a new driver's license, tags, registration, insurance, electric bill, phone line, and voter registration, my biggest high priority task for the next few weeks is getting the Global Science Institute started here in Antigo.  At the moment, this "institute" exists entirely in the realm of Mind (which of course is where all good and true things reside), but I've begun wading through the non-trivial task of non-profit incorporation.  The mission of GSI?  (1) To enable me to have an affiliation stamped on my invoices, (2) to enable people of northern Wisconsin to take part in research projects via government- or privately-funded grants, and (3) to host public lectures on all areas of science, sponsor summer student research, and offer scholarships for students exploring multidisciplinary science and green technology at Wisconsin state colleges.  Collaborators wanted!

For all the folks who still live in "the city" and haven't yet discovered life in the woods, I would like to share two typical social interactions I recently had.   Yesterday at the grocery checkout, the attendant asked me if I had a discount card.  I replied that I thought I had one somewhere but hadn't seen it in a while.  She replied that she would just use hers.  Then after scanning all my items and taking my credit card, she looked at the receipt and exclaimed, "Oh!!  I forgot to scan my card!  Hold on, I'll call my supervisor, because you coulda saved $1.29."  At that point her supervisor came right over gave me $1.29 in cash, both of them apologizing several times for the mistake.  The guy behind me in line chuckled and said, "Next time you can use mine."  From there (part two), I went to the gym and ran into a guy I used to know in high school.  We hadn't really known each other in school, but he recognized me from a "stars" talk I gave once, and I explained I was moving back to town.  The next day he showed up with a friend and they carried all my things up the stairs into the new apartment.  He also brought me a bird book, because I had mentioned seeing an unusually large woodpecker in the birdfeeder.  I'm not saying that the folks in trafficjammedhurryupIhavetosavetheworld locales aren't also patient and friendly, but take from that experience what you will.  ...Anyone care to ID the woodpecker in the video below?

Well, tomorrow morning I will have one more dog to add to the pack, as Jamie is dropping off her Gordon Setter while she's out of town.  I will be taking care of her two cats and birds on top of that.  Animals, animals, pile them on!  It's Maggie's Ark.  :-)