Well, I've noticed a trend with my work routine that is a bit distressing. It seems every time I come home, I end up with a cold. I am pretty sure I am catching it on the plane, although the curious part is I am not catching a cold on the way back to work, even though I am flying on the same planes. Consequently, I am going to begin utilizing some prophylactic on future trips home to try and avoid becoming infected.

On the brighter side, I have acquired a couple of takedown recurve bows and a method of transport suitable for taking back to the slope. It is absolutely amazing to me how little you can spend on a quality archery setup that is also quite portable. Using a fishing rod case made for dealing with the gorillas at the airport, I put together a heavy felt wrap for each bow, a pouch for the arrows, and a pouch for accessories. They all fit snugly in the case, and using a firearms cable type padlock, the case is quite secure. Since we are required to check our archery stuff separate from our regular checked baggage, I am fairly certain that my gear will survive the trip. Last time I went up, I took a new bag, and the gorillas managed to bust two foot pads off it right off the bat, the brutes.

I am making up a few fruitcakes to take up and share with the crew. In fact, I will be packing quite a bit this time for the Christmas celebration since I am staying over. Not too many sweets this time; the crew prefers meat products, like jerky, pepperoni sticks, smoked salmon. They keep eating like that, they are all gonna be on high blood pressure meds from all the sodium they are consuming, heh heh heh. I wonder if potassium chloride is as effective at persevering meat...

Went to see the nutcracker with the wife last week. We had balcony seating, and wouldn't you know a small tremor hit just before the show started. Being suspended like we were, the feeling was amplified enough we noticed, even though the tremor was pretty small. The show went on without event, and we enjoyed ourselves. We wore our fur coats (the wife's is shaved mink, mine was natural dark beaver). It was too warm for my coat, even outside, and I took it off to avoid sweating in it too much. It would be quite functional up on slope, but I am not taking a $3,500 garment up to work. I have a decent Carhartt coat that suite me just fine.

We finally got some snow here in Anchorage. About 4 inches since I've been back, enough to warrant breaking out the snow thrower and going over the operation with the wife. I hope it survives the season with her behind the controls! Due to the warmer temps, we have more ice on the roads than snow now, so driving is a bit more trouble. I loaded my pickup with 600 lbs of bagged traction sand and it really helps keep that beast under control. With studded snow tires and 4WD, it is quite functional in wintertime. I still haven't put a canopy on the back, but with a crew cab, I have enough room for the extra gear I pack for winter travel.

I'll post again before I leave. Cheers