January 29th, 2008

Time: 7 am
Latitude: 43.08 N
Longitude: 70.73 W
Temperature: -12°C(10°F)
Wind speed: calm
Wind Chill: -
Clouds: clear
Wind direction: -
Relative Humidity:56%
Barometric Pressure: falling
Precipitation: - light snow
Animals: 1 dog, 4 rabbits, 9 chickens, 1 rooster
Breakfast: fresh backyard egg, toast, coffee

When I left home back in the beginning of December it was 40°F, this morning it is 10°F, which is still not very cold and not very different than the middle of West Antarctica.

After 37 hours of planes, trains, and automobiles I arrived home this morning at 2 am. And I arrived home on the day I left. I left my beach front hideout in New Zealand at 10 am on January 28th and arrived home on January 29th at 2 am. If you do the math you will see that there are not 37 hours between 10 am and 2 am the next day, but since I crossed the International Date Line I gained a day traveling. I still had to sit for 37 hours but I only "lost"14 hours. The first at the door to greet me this morning was my dog. I guess she had it marked on her calendar because I was told that she has been at the door waiting since yesterday morning. Maybe it was the added excitement in everyone's voice that cued her into my pending arrival, or she did in fact have it marked on her calendar. As you can see from the current animal list there were no birds chirping this morning to greet me and they are all domestic residents of my backyard. I must have awoken them at 2 am this morning when I arrived but they were not as excited to see me, in fact they were pretty much neutral about the whole thing and were just happy that anyone fed them this chilly morning.

If you also do the math between my arrival home time and the blog entry time you will see that I did not get much sleep last night. Actually I got very little sleep for the 37 hours of traveling either. My ability to sleep while sitting up on planes and buses is not good. So, among basic chores today like chopping wood, stowing gear, cleaning clothes, and catching up on anything I missed for the two months that I was gone, I have scheduled a long nap for this afternoon. Though instead of the veranda at my secret New Zealand beach spot (which was only little over a day ago) I will be napping indoors in front of the wood stove.

Today's image is the view from my New Zealand beach still fresh in my mind, especially as I look out the window over the D1 operating that needs to be done here at home.