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.

Weather; Gray and cold -- trying to make up it's mind if it wants to snow. My car heater wouldn't warm up this morning -- gotta call the mechanic.

Wildlife: The geese are stopping over in "bubbling pond" to a small extent -- they mostly just fly over now that the lakes have frozen. Pheasants, magpies, and flickers are haunting the feeders, but the chickadees and finches are doing well too.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: I read about Emperor Hadrian over the weekend, and started a book about walking between London and Canterbury for Chaucer's sake. I gave up on that stupid "Flying Saucers On The Attack," from 1954 -- after a few howlers like descriptions of "unseen, unheard visitors that caused the cushions to sink," it got boring -- one unsubstantiated anecdote after another.
Football: Wipeouts all the way, at least what was on my set. I was working on other things, but the only scores I saw were lop-sided. Pre-game silliness -- The Mad TV guy's Robin Williams impression was fair, but he's been funnier. I realized why Jillian Barberie looks somewhat strange in those longer, or wrap-around dresses -- the lens on the camera foreshortens her figure, especially the legs, since it shoots her from hair to heels as she does the weather. Jillian hosted an MTV special on Sunday night. She was her rambunctious, funny self, and looked neither frumpy nor lumpy in black.

At the College: Lotsa video editing this week -- there may be finals coming up in some classes.