ch-ch-changes

So, I'm trying to swap my trip to San Fran next week into a trip to Amsterdam in April. Not that I don't like SF, which is a great city. Hehehe. Wish me luck!

Am I truly demented that I'm pleased I'll have more crafting time to finish xmas gifts rather than disappointed not to go to SF?

what happened today?

Today: snow on the ground! Invitation to China! Invitation to K&D's wedding in Ann Arbor sooner than I expected. Encouragement to go to San Francisco before I go to Toronto and Montreal for the holidays. I just might do that. Invitation to go to Halifax next summer. Three meetings. Dozens of email. Several phone calls. Somehow I'm supposed to work too. Scheming to go to Arctic and Korea. Suddenly there's action... it's all very strange. Mucho politics. Of course, everything could go down the toilet depending on what happens after the election! The money might dry up. A lot of behind the scenes jockeying for funds. It's all very strange.

Lando Carisian

So Dimitri pointed out this morning that we are now apparently living in the Cloud City with Lando. It has been foggy since Friday and we have about 25 m visibility. There is a white wall where the ocean used to be. As in the driving rain, to drive my car, I need to employ the brake lights of the car in front of me for navigation. The other day I sort of got lost on the 500 m walk home. I mean, I knew I was on the road and I was between work and home, but that's it. I had no precise knowledge of my whereabouts. It's creepy.

mushrooms

The mushroom season apparently begins immediately after Halloween. The next morning they had sprouted everywhere. Along my short walk to work there are trails of mushrooms varying in size from my smallest fingertip to a dinner plate. The caps vary in texture from fibrous and leafy to spongecake. Some are flat and some are domed and some are even concave. Some are round and some are irregular organic shapes. Colours range from beige, tan, chocolate, to tangerine through scarlet. Some form randomly and some in little fairy trails. Some I recognize from childhood hikes with my naturalist aunt, but most are foreign to me. I don't recall mushrooms in Ontario looking like the illustrations in children's fairytale books. I'd would like to know more. An industrious colleague goes on mushroom gathering walks to make gourmet meals. Less innocent friends know how to gather them for other purposes. Are they dangerous? Do I have to watch where I walk least I track psychotropic chemicals on my shoes? By 6:00 pm when I walk home, it is quite dark. There are no streetlights here, except at intersections. I carry little turtle-shaped LEDs, but that's really not sufficient. I'll have to get the BIG flash light out already. Mainly I worry about falling in the ditch or turning my ankle.

Today I went swimming before work and began to tackle the gravity data. Maybe as a treat for ceasing to procrastinate on both issues, I'll go home early. :) If I'm lucky, the awaited Halloween package will finally be there.