My commute this morning:

Not quite a hundred miles before I saw the first snowplow.

Another meeting at the regional office. No new firearms passed around by anyone today, but the room did have the faint scent of gun oil from the duty weapons.

First item on the agenda was the required annual viewing of the Defensive Driving, Winter Driving and Sexual Harassment videos.

New videos this year, but little new material. Still a good refresher on improving driving habits (especially considering the rapid run I made up there this morning). These videos were clearly intended for a more urban audience. They recommended not staying in a broken-down vehicle in remote areas. Lest one gets mugged, robbed or worse.

Cardinal rule in our wild country... you always, always stay with the vehicle. Cars and trucks are easy to find. Hikers are not. Can think of at least two folks who took off on foot for help, only to have their whitened bones found years later by sheepherders.

Also gave some advice on reducing car theft. Like car alarms, steering wheel locks, and electronic monitors.

Couple wardens suggested "Smith and Wesson" stickers.

As far as the simulated mugger was concerned, they recommended just showing him your .45.

Now, I had to laugh at this line from one video... an exact quote:

"Before heading out, make sure you know where you are going."

Always sound advice.

Not sure what the conversation was about, but overheard one warden tell an office manager, and I quote:

"If it was me, I'd just shoot the bastard."

Unquote.

No idea if they were talking about horses, a husband, or some disgruntled hunter.

We have a new boss's boss's boss in the state office, and he has stirred things up more (the primary source of discussion in today's meeting) in one month than his predecessor did in the last five years. And not things that needed to be stirred up.

And I got a "double ruby" moment out of one of his proposed changes today. Pointing out his new "simplified and improved" wording in our regs would have archery and rifle hunters in the field on the same day... usually not a good thing.

A small victory, but a victory none the less.

Our agency personnel are officially forbidden to discuss the "W" word ("Wolves"), but the topic still had to be discussed.

Kinda hard to ignore when four of the unmentioned canids have been hanging around just two miles from the building we were in.

We have a new form.

A form listing all the most common forms we use, and the dates of the most current versions.

And the boss's boss asked if the form of form dates was dated.

Seriously.

Really.

And yes, it was.

Lunch was a thick, juicy burger at the Gannett Grill, but no one else wanted to sit at the outside tables. It was a nice sunny day with no wind, but the foot of fresh snow on the benches and temps in the teens might have been a deterent. Still an enjoyable meal filled with horse tales.

The last two days' worth of white stuff certainly had the ungulates out trying to stuff their faces, including these on the drive home:

Was surprised to still see a nice set of antlers on the buck of the group:

Normally those things are shed somewhere around the beginning of January, but the bucks seem to keep them on longer in warm, mild winters.

Caught the last bit of the day's sun as I neared the top of Beaver Rim:

With the sun setting off to the right:

Just about froze my fingers stiff trying to get the sunset shots, with the bitter cold wind whipping down the divide. Looked like things were even more frigid on top of the Winds:

If I remember my geography correctly, the peak on the right should be the one the Columbia STS-107 astronauts scaled on their team and leadership outing up in our country (no, they weren't here in the winter).

Sun set quickly after I cleared the rim, with the first star popping out over the Sweetwater Rocks: