February 9, 2004 Willow Weather

Current temp 17.2F
Sunrise/Sunset 9:03am/5:27pm
Precipitation in the last 24 hours

Well, my optimistic outlook for February has been tested a little already. The dogs continue to cough and now I’ve joined them. I’m sniffing and coughing and blowing my way through a cold of my own. It has made me very sympathetic to how the dogs are feeling! We are continuing to run though – I figure if I can drag myself out there to hook them up, they can run and I think they figure the opposite – it they can run, the least I can do is get out there and hook them up! Our runs are a bit shorter then ideal right now, but I’m still convinced that we will be ready to roll on March 6th (only 26 days to go!!)

The Norris household has taken on a real international flavor of late. Darrin and Andrew arrived from England on Thursday and Constant from Holland showed up on Saturday. Darrin leaves for home in a week or so, Andrew at the beginning of March and Constant at the end of March (I think). Constant hasn’t been here long enough, but I’m picking up all kinds of great new British words for my vocabulary. ‘Bloke’ and ‘Daft’ are two of my favorites!

All three men are very nice and I’m enjoying their company a great deal, but, of course, I’m most eagerly awaiting ‘the Canadian guy’ getting here on Tuesday. Yup, Mark flies in on Tuesday evening. It looks like he has everything squared away at the house – including keeping the evil little Spidey dog in her pen – and he is set for his trip to Alaska. Our friend Barb is moving in while we are away so we know that the house and critters will be well cared for during our nearly 2 month absence (actually 3 months for me).

Mark and I will probably do a few runs up the river to Yentna Station and/or Skwentna and then we will need to focus on getting my drop bags ready for the 18th. I still have a few odds and ends to do, probably a days worth, and then Mark and I will spend one solid day filling and sealing the bags.

Well, that is the news for this morning!

Karen