When Bison Play Hoodlum...

...This is what you get.

Yes, bison really did try and jump the fence earlier this fall. I wasn't around to see it but as you can tell, grace is not their forte.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

It is almost 0730 and I am all alone. I opened this morning and I am glad I did, not because it means I get off at 1600 but because it was a very quiet and beautiful morning to open. I arrived and the barricades to the gate were already closed which means that LE closed the roads up to Sylvan Pass as they have determined it to be too dangerous for traffic until a plow can come through and open the roads.
So I have this entire world all to myself, at least until Penny comes in at 0800. The mountains all around me are covered in a layer of snow and the tops of them are hidden due to a very dense fog bank. Even Sleeping Giant, always a guardian in the Eastern Sky is hidden as he sleeps, the base of his mountain white but for a few bare spots where rock and tree seem impervious to the snow.

Our lampposts have a small coasting of the snow on them as well as do our building and the roof the of gate. It snowed last night and then, sometime during the night the snow froze and there is a coating of ice all over the roads and sidewalks. It makes walking somewhat treacherous but I don't mind it. I saw prints in the snow, some of them were mine from last night and others were from vehicles and even an animal. I saw Bob the Fox's paw prints in the snow so obviously he has already ben out and about to find his breakfast.

One thing I like about the snow is that it makes everything very hushed and quiet until people come along and ruin the serenity of the place. It feels like winter to me and I have to work very hard not to sing christmas carols while my entire world is covered in snow and ice. I do love it. I can't wait for my lunch break in 4 hours so Cooper can go outside and run, jump and play in the snow. I love watching her enjoy the snow almost as much as she loves playing in the snow.

I wish I could find the battery charger to my camera so I could charge my batter and take pictures of this because it is just stunning.

And now that the sun is up and the world is probably waking and getting to work I have a lot of phone calls I need to make. Whenever our gate closes for any reason we have about 20 calls to make to let various people know that Sylvan Pass is closed for the forseable future. And then, when it opens again we have to call all those people back and let them know it's open again.

To be honest, I like it best when it's snowy like this and Sylvan is closed, we get so few people coming up and it's sort of like a celebration here.

Anyway, off to work I go.

Love you,

Ehm

Smarties... and the dog

I remember quite fondly as children we would get a host of Smarties candies in our Halloween bags (we used pillowcases as children) and be not a little dissapointed because who wanted Smarties when there were all sorts of other fun candies like chocolate bars and snickers and peanut butter cups and butterfingers? The same rule applied to all those boring and stupid things like wax teeth. What the heck am I supossed to do with wax vampire teeth? They went into the garbage, not like you can suck on them like a sucker. Comepletely useless.

But I am onlder now and enjoy the candy as I had only marginally in my youth. So much so that the last time I found myself in the Dollar Tree (should be renamed the most awesomest store) and found a bag of them and quite happily tossed it into the little carrying things stores have in lieu of a cart. They have a similar sweet and sour that one finds in Sweet Tarts, another candy that I do enjoy and one that was always welcome in our Halloween bags. But it appears as if I am not the only in my current family of 2 who enjoys them.

Indeed, on more than on occasion I would return home from work or for lunch to discover the little plastic wrappers that surround the small, round candies. Now, I am not exactly a neat-freak nor am I one who is overly concerned about consistent cleanliness, as my family would heartily agree. As a matter of fact, if one were being truly honest one might even call me a slob (and already my sister's head is bobbing like one of those stupid bobble heads you see in people's cars and, if I know my sister she has a huge shit-eating grin on her face (sorry mom) while she is trying hard not to laugh) and so I am not very surprised to see wrappers or paper towles or kleenex on the floor. To be fair I do get help in this regard as Cooper frequently takes such paper products out of my trash and delights in tearing them up.

But one day I had the bag of candy sitting open upon the couch and I was sitting next to it either reading or watching a movie when my attention is diverted by the sound of a plastic wrapper being manipulated. I paused and heard the crinkle of plastic again, got down on my knees and looked under the coffee table I have stuck in the corner upon which sits the computer my brother lent to me (it's still not turning on) and there lay Cooper with some Smarties in her paws as she was trying to undo the wrapper to eat the candy inside.

Now I had two emotions at this point. The first was the emotion she saw and that was the infuratied COOPER! BAD GIRL! I immediately took the candy away from her and smacked her on the nose when she dared to growl at me. But as I was throwing away her prize I thought it was quite funny that the likes Smarties so much she is willing to sneak in and steal some when my attention is otherwise diverted. And I have to say that I am mightly impressed that she snuck some candy out of the bag that was sitting right next to me so stealthily that I didn't even notice until she was eating it.

And so now, whenever I open a roll of Smarties Cooper is front and center silently begging me for some as if I had, in my hand, her favorite treat. Maybe they are.

But now I have just one question, one I am sure children who have ever gotten Smarties for Halloween have asked... does eating Smarties make her smarter??

Who knows.