Friday!?!? Where have I been all week? One word -- working.

Weather: During the early part of the week we had rain-snow-melt-hail-rain-snow-melt for about forty hours -- the roads were deadly, but finally dried off. It's been sub-freezing cold, and mostly sunny since then, but this morning is pretty darn gray -- something may be rolling in.

Wildlife: Hunting season ended this last weekend -- our herds of deer in the neighborhood didn't seem affected one way or the other by this month-long human endeavor. The aereation pond in the middle of our frozen lake seems to be pretty stable. Even though the big flocks aren't landing anymore, we're seeing a few birds. I think the plan for heading-off a large fish-kill due to over-icing may be working after all!

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site : Fund Mammograms for Free

Media Watch: "Lord of the Rings" was the subject of ABC Primetime last night. I'm glad that Prof. Tolkien's Middle Earth has enchanted a new worldwide audience. That book impressed me at age sixteen, and I've read it many times since.
I like the casting and artistic design of Jackson's movie version, but little else besides. His best moments come from Tolkien, and it's a long wait between them. I find Jackson's variations of the plot weak and uninteresting -- he may occasionally condense a scene or character, but also he throws up hours of footage that don't advance the plot.