Settling in

Hoping you forgive me for the ramble in the previous post, I'll try to keep things a little more concise and up to date going forward.

Arriving Tuesday about 1000 we were met by an ear-freezing windchill in the -40F range. Luckily, Heidi put my ear flaps down just before they fell off - my ears, that is. A quick stop at the Northern, the grocery store in town, for necessities: potato chips, diet Coke, and candy bars. Then over to Heidi's to drop off the three large containers of cat food we brought up on the train for her which meant she couldn't say no to our request to stop at the liquor store: $171 Canadian but only $159 US which made Linda feel ever so slightly better; Heidi, of course, was quite happy as we use her air miles card to get her points - I think we got her a trip to Florida last year. Seriously. Then off to our adopted winter home! Just some awesome views of the frozen bay and stark rock-filled landscapes. Makes you really respect the folks who can live up here.

Ramble alert: Oh, btw, we road up in the train with Gerald from Blue Sky Dogsledding. He trains and runs his dogs and takes groups out for runs which we will be doing tomorrow (Friday). He was just getting back from a Canadian Rangers military exercise which involved lots of snowmobiling, sleeping in tents, and all this during some extremely cold weather. He seemed to love it. More later.

Now, on the way up we got friendly with three Mennonite couples who were going to Churchill to sign at the hospital. They were quite interested in the Centre so I invited them out if they could find transportation. They called Wednesday and asked if they could come to dinner as well as visit as they had heard that the Centre would often feed people. I ran it by Heidi and our cook who both agreed especially since we had no other guests yet. Lots of credit to Laura who only had a few hours notice but put together a great pork chop dinner with roasted veggies, potatoes, salads, corn bread a la Laura, cranberry sauce supreme, and butter tarts. Alan the astronomer and Sarah the intern also joined us. Had a great time eating and talking, giving them a tour (they loved the viewing dome), and they put on a little a cappella concert for us. They all had some interesting stories and it was quite an evening.

This Thursday about 1000 the first group arrived. Excited as usual. But Linda and I and Laura were pretty straight out getting lunch ready as well as supper and washing dishes and it was a pretty exhausting day. But an exhilarating moment when Linda spied an arctic fox - our first in three years - out the window next to the building. Out came our cameras and out the door we went in our short sleeves. Then we got a few more pics once back inside. Wish I had had my 50x Canon at the ready but only had my 10x compact. Tiny black tip on the tail which you can't see in this pic. And, yes, he does have four legs - the tracks and his gait indicated he had a limp so he might have been injured.

Tonight we had a lecture - welcoming introduction by Mike the Director and then Alan Dyer gave an intro to northern lights. Quite good, very professional. I hope he'll give us a copy of his presentation.

But, alas, it is cloudy again. Oh, well, a full night's sleep for us but a worrisome sleep for the group who is hoping to see the lights soon. Tomorrow it all starts over again like Groundhogs Day the movie LOL.