Weather: Winter is advancing slowly. Temperatures in the low 40's make for a nice November morning. Middle Foy's Lake lost even more ice -- the geese are happy! That white shelf of frozen stuff at the shaded west end will last for awhile, though. The mountains are sugar-coated. Everything above 1000 meters got snow last night, but the valley escaped with light, unfrozen rain.

Wildlife: Ice is an issue. Beside the open water attacting migrating birds, an early ice-over can kill all the fish in the lake before the spring thaw. A few years ago, the lake was a disgusting mess for that reason. One ironic joy was the plethora of eagles feeding off the watery carrion.

Don't skip the charity site:
The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch:
Monday Night Football had an hour of lead-ins by Britney Spears, then Jennifer Garner, and finally Britney-clips mixed with Hank Williams Jr. introducing the show.
Like him or not, Williams has a booming, resonant singing voice, and his honky-tonk "Rowdy" song has been an appropriate opening call for this TV cash-cow.
Ms. Spears doesn't have much of a voice anyway, and she came off looking like an afterthought. I didn't mind her doing an on-field performance at the start of the season, but I think the audience, and the entertainers, deserve better than what I saw last night. Oh yeah -- the game was kind of a dog, unless you enjoy seeing a defense die right before your eyes, as Pittsburgh's did in the second half.

I mainly watched "Coyote Waits" on PBS' "Mystery." OK scenery, OK acting, OK seeing Native Americans portrayed in their own communities -- but the distortions of Tony Hillerman's plots and characters bothered me. Also when a mystery is hard to solve simply because it's preposterous, I'm kinda disgusted.
Back to the game -- Whoops! 17 points in about seven minutes?!? Somebody's defense has DIED! (see above)

Noon Update: RAINBOWS -- the low clouds to the north have rainbows under them -- a color storm!

Afternoon Update: Damn wind started roaring outta the west -- tumbleweeds started gathering up and tangling in people's clothes and legs.

Weekend Weather; Foggy-bottomed Saturday, snow in the night, and an alright wintery day on Sunday -- snow melting and an unobstructed view all around. The ice on Middle Foy's Lake grew a little, then shrank a bit. The shaded far-west end is a snow-covered shelf where the Canadian Honkers perch, while others swim and feed in the water.

Wildlife Report: A Great Blue Heron glided right past my deck yesterday morning. The ducks drove off a marauding eagle by staying in a watchful group, and making noise at the sight of the predator, instead of feeding alone.

Here's a composite website that I'm visiting every day -- free clicks for charity.
It's nice to know that "eyeballs" are still worth something!
Animal Rescue Site (and the Hunger Site etc.)

Media Watch: CSpan1's Book Notes had Michael Moore as a guest on Sunday. Host Brian Lamb had some pointed questions for him, and Moore wasn't able to "do a performance." It was good to see Moore actually think first, then speak. He came off well, making his points about the book "Dude, Where's My Country?" I always thought that shallow stand-up comedy never served him well anyhow.
Hey! Look at this: Michael Moore is in the U.K. at the same time as Bush. Stay tooned for some PR nightmares:
Michael Moore: 'You need to show that the people of Britain don't support Bush'

The Hockaday Art Museum website was updated over the weekend. I took down my own image for Members Only on the EXHIBIT page, but that's alright, it is still included on the home page. One funny thing is that we are showing medieval manuscripts in a Power Point presentation in our Discovery Gallery
The upcoming holidays at the museum will be a flurry of snow, ice, and activity, but I'll deal with them in good time.
See for yourself! Hockaday Museum of Art

One of my on-campus friends, Gayle Hegland, has her jewelry class mentioned in the local paper:
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana
The "Native American Thanksgiving" is happening soon, with our most energetic Prof. Gerda Reeb taking on the responsibilities again this year. A group of Kootenay fancy-dancers, led by Stephen Small Salmon, were here a year ago, and it was a good ol' time. About 300 plus school kids had a great feed and a unique experience.

Weather: Steel-gray fog ALL DAMN DAY! I did get a good shot of our library building for their Catalog page.
(I may "Photoshop" the sky to blue.)

Wildlife Report: A sad one today -- there was a dead doe right in the middle of the road in my neighborhood. Poor creature -- someone had a collision last night.

Weather: Rare kind of day -- actual autumn conditions. Just a bite of cold in the air, warming midday -- a bit hazy from these stupid dorks burning their slash etc. I know it's legal and cutomary, but it's been shown to be destructive and unwise since the 1930's.

Something I've shoulda done earlier -- WILDLIFE REPORT!
Almost every day there's something worthy of mention.
Yesterday, I was crossing the street by the local NBC station. A cameraman was shooting some clown in a bear costume. What neither of them noticed was a bald eagle soaring about 50 feet above the street. I wouldn't have seen it in my car, but I was on foot, waiting for the "walk" sign, and had a moment to look up.
My house is next to Middle Foy's Lake and the ice is melted with the nice weather. The Canadian Geese are congregating in various flocks there as they migrate. They perch on the edges of the gathering ice, and swim where there's water.
Sometimes there are hundreds of them honking away and feeding. They'll fly off and then more hundreds will gather again.
Two days ago a bald eagle swept down and took a duck from Middle Foy's Lake. I'll tell you, the waterfowl sure fled the place while that was going on! The place was full by sunset, though.
We have a herd of deer in the neighborhood too. Since no one can fire a gun around the houses, they are safe from hunters. I usually see does and fawns every morning on my way to work in the gray morning light.
After dark, I've learned to watch for the critters, because they'll cross the road without a look.
More people are killed every year in deer/auto collisions then were killed in the last 50 years by sharks worldwide.

Weather: Not too bad, clear roads, occasional sun -- about 40 to 50 degrees (F) SNOW in all the mountains, and late fall colors. The larch trees turn golden-yellow and lose their needles at this time of year, so the slopes are BEAUTIFUL!

Following up on the bad news for our local National Guard on Veteran's Day, there may be a ray of hope (fragment from NY Times):
After two days of urgent talks in Washington with the Bush administration's foreign policy team, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq said today he plans to return to Baghdad to consult with the U.S.-appointed Governing Council there about how best to accelerate the hand-over of power to a new Iraqi government.
After discussing various proposals on ways to save Iraq's troubled political transition, Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer said he would return to Iraq to continue "intense" discussions with the council's 24 members on President Bush's ideas for breaking a logjam on arrangements for selecting a panel to write a new Iraqi constitution before a U.N.-imposed Dec. 15 deadline. Bremer declined to give details on Bush's proposals, saying he had to brief the Governing Council first.

Weather: Slick icy roads on the way to work -- very dangerous. Melted off by 9 or 10.

Veteran's Day 11/11/03
There were some observances yesterday, the "official" holiday, but TODAY's the day that people talked about about the issues this day commemorates.
1st thing: Our local National Guard is being sent to Iraq. These men and women are in a transportation unit, and will do their duty with bulls-eyes on their backs -- for an undetermined time -- for an undetermined goal (a country is not free if it's occupied by foriegn troops, so it can't be truly "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). I'm praying for their safe return. The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Bush said something about "extremists" seeking to rule Iraq -- he's right for a change -- some of their names are Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and Bremer!

The local FM had a folk music show that featured songs about WWI -- mostly by and about British soldiers. "Over There" was NOT played -- if someone didn't like those grim stories -- well, they "can't handle the truth," can they?

I printed up a half-dozen images of Jasper Johns' "Orange Flag" from 1967 and posted them around my little campus. If you stare at the stars on the red, white, and blue flag, then look at the orange field below, you'll see a "ghost flag." What does it mean? I dunno -- maybe staring at the flag might resurrect thoughts about what it's supposed to represent.