One hundred and twenty-seven miles of packed snow or ice.

Good thing the wind was hardly blowing.

If it wasn't for other vehicles on the roads, the trip to the meeting and back wouldn't have been bad at all.

The little maskless heeler insisted on going along, even though it was going to be cold for her with her short coat. Heelers get stir-crazy pretty easily. Her masked sister really wanted to go along, too, whining from her kennel. I figure her bones are probably 90-95 percent healed, and I was 90-95 percent certain she could make the trip and back without hurting herself.

But it's that 5-10 percent that usually causes all the problems. She stayed in her kennel (for seven hours, but wife said she seems to have slept the entire time, which ain't bad when you're still trying to heal). Her hyper sister and I set out into winter.

Heading west on the interstate, and the outfit in front of me is driving in the middle of both lanes.

Now, I know the lane markers are all buried under white, but you can see the reflector posts. And this is an interstate, so you know there are supposed to be two lanes each direction. But this pickup wants to take his lane out of the middle.

All the while driving with his left turn signal on.

Fortunately, I barely have to slow down for him before reaching my exit, and I slip off on the right.

Then he bails off at that exit also, at the last minute, cutting me off.

Still signalling a left turn.

Glad I left extra early, if this is the way the drive is going to go.

Get stuck behind another slow moving vehicle (~35 mph, or ~55 km/h for the folks in civilized nations) on the two-lane highway heading north out of town. Pickup with a pickup box trailer.

Also with his left turn signal on.

South Dakota plates. You'd think he'd be used to driving in and on white.

Follow slowly until we pass the last driveway, and finally I conclude that I somehow managed to find two idiots with the same left-turn symptom in one morning. A quick pass and it was smooth sailing all the way in to the office.

Turns out he wasn't signalling left. He was driving with his emergency flashers on, and the right wasn't working. Piece of advice, folks. Do not drive with your emergency flashers on unless it really is an emergency. And if you think the roads are that bad... don't drive!

The pronghorn are migrating, which isn't surprising, given the blizzard we just got hit with. Had ~35 using the small gap in the woven-wire highway fence (hate woven-wire) that I helped modify several years back. And another 300-400 along the fence on Onion Flats. Have had some with radio-collars move more than sixty miles from summer range to winter ranges.

Maskless heeler sister got to run and play with her half-masked sister at the office, as she had just arrived with her game warden.

I counted 39 of us at the meeting. Including three from Capitol City. Bet I recognized only slightly more than half.

Who are these people?

The number of new faces is only going to increase, as the cohorts ahead of me retire in the next few years.

One of the wardens had thought to bring home-baked chocolate chip cookies, and passed them around. She forgot to take any for herself, so we had to snag the container as it went around the room, before it got emptied (which it did). Nice, thoughtful gesture, but she put raisins in them.

Hate baked raisins. There is not one thing in the universe that is improved by putting in baked raisins. Nothing. Not cookies, muffins, bread or pound cake. Raisins by themselves are great, but when you bake them, they convert into something yucky that simply is not food. And will ruin whatever they are in. Baked raisins are anti-food.

The gal from Capitol City started the meeting off, and mentioned she decided not to use a Powerpoint presentation, since all it does is slow things down and cause delays. True enough, but powerpoint is prettier than all her black and white projections on the overheads. Especially when you're dealing mainly with numbers. But she kept it short and to the point.

After the meeting, I returned two phone calls to folks that tracked me down clear up here, made some copies and boogied. Roads home were just the same, although with no idiots. Had a nice visit at the Three Forks before coming home.

And I have to mention...wife interrupted my diary reads to tell me "Weakest Link" had a Star Trek cast on. It was great, especially since Levar Burton won. And who knew Denise Crosby was so smart?