Bregmata

We live on the glint line, where the Canadian Shield meets the flat bottom of the pleistocene Champlain sea. We get a mixture of wildlife native to both biomes. This can make for interesting and frequent encounters.

Sunday we were out for a bike ride and came across a black rat snake trying to cross the road. It appeared to be a fairly young specimen, about a meter long, that reared and lunged at me as I passed by. I was unaware that these snakes rear and lunge like a rattlesnake: everything I read says they don’t. I guess this one couldn’t read. It sure could move fast, unlike the turtle I ran over with the car earlier in the day on the same road.

Last night we went out for another ride down a different road. We believe we saw a bear with a cub cross the road in front of us. We did not try to verify our sighting. Perhaps it was just a big lanky dog followed by a smaller dog running loose. After all, it was garbage pickup day and many of our neightbours like to treat their dogs to something special once a week.

We also frequently encounter a colony of turkey vultures that live up the Scotch Corners way. There used to be two, now there are five to seven. Sometimes they sit lined up on consecutive fenceposts. Mostly you see them crowded around roadkill or riding thermals. After the end of days I expect there will be plenty of well-fed vultures and cockroaches.

The mosquitos are also back in full force. The dragonflies are just coming back to try to keep everything under control.

I’m sitting in the San Diego airport. It’s about 0630 local time. The bar behind me is crowded. Most of the patrons seem to have coffee (there’s a Starbuck’s opposite in the boarding lounge. There are a significant proportion of people with beer. It’s 0630 for frak’s sake.

The weather here is cool (19 C) and foggy. There are supposed to be a lot of thunderstorms between here and Washington DC. My flight boards at 0730 and I’m scheduled to reach my final destination of Ottawa at about 1900. Granted, there’s a 3 hour timezone difference but it’s still another long day of travelling. At leat I don’t have to put in another full day’s work when I arrive.

Monday morning, first thing, I get an email telling me I need to go to San Diego on Tuesday for some “integration work” (the meaning of which is unclear and neerose.dn’t be clarified for the purposes of this post). I needed to get a passport.

Yes, yes, I was supposed to get that passport, um, months ago just in case this situation arose. Blah blah blah. I got a passport in less that 24 hours: the officer was calling all my references before I had even left 240 Sparks.

I got a flight out booked for 0600 Wednesday. I managed to get a hotel booked and a flight home by EOB on Tuesday. I scrabbled together what I thought I would need for the trip. My flight out got changed to 0615. Bonus.

So, Wednedsay morning I got up at 0300 without effectively having slept at all. I was at the airport by 0400, checked in by about 4:10. The security gates don’t open until 0430. US Homeland Security doesn’t open until 0500. Massive line ups in the wee hours. A quick flight to O’Hare (Chicago), an hour wait, then off to San Diego.

The flight to southern California is always great. It’s about 4 air hours from Chicago, and the scenery is spectacular. Snow-covered mountains, deserts, mesas, prarie. You really need to get a window seat.

Arrived in San Diego at 1100 local time — I had been up for 10 hours already internal time. My work day was about to begin. Unfortunately, my ride was over an hour late. I wasn’t concerned. Unlike Ottawa or Chicago, San Diego provides free unlimited wireless at their airport. The temperature was 21 C and sunny. I had no problem waiting.

I got to our San Diego office and discovered it was two blocks from the vendor site I was going to visit. Convenient. It would have been even more convenient if the powers that be had sent someone from our San Diego office. Feh.

I worked with the vendor until 2000 local time. That’s 2300 internal time. That’s a long day. I’m turning in for the night.