Thoughts On Sunday Night

I was going to write something about the agreement between the attorneys generals of the states and the banks, but I discovered that it is vaporware, despite all of the publicity. The agreement has to be submitted to a judge, and there is no document yet available to submit. One can only wonder what the parties involved were agreeing to?

When you read comments on either side of the settlement, keep in mind that everyone is working from targeted leaks, not from any actual document.

Don’t expect any money that is doled out to benefit any of the victims of the bankers crime wave. I fully expect states to use the money to plug budget holes, not to help people who homes were stolen with fraudulent paperwork.

So, I’ll mention the heat on the Quest trail. Just when it looked like things were returning to normal, the Chinooks are affecting the Canadian portion of the trail, and Lance Mackey’s drop back is a direct result of that. His dogs trained at an average temperature of -18° in January, with only three days above zero. He has to run at night, because the dogs are not going to maintain their performance in above freezing temperatures. The trail is going to be a sloppy slushy mess.

This is also the kind of weather for colds among humans as well as dogs. Colds are rather rare during Alaskan winters, probably prevented by extremely low humidity as well as the actual temperatures. If a dog starts coughing, or is congested, it can’t run. Dog drops will probably increase.

In a ‘fashion note’, if you look at the pictures, you may see some dogs wearing leggings. Read the article to understand why. This is an unintended consequence of cross breeding for speed, but at least there is something that can be done about it.