Wednesday

Sun is trying to come out and wind is gusting ferociously out of the north, but the inches of snow that was forecast did not materialize. There's a half-inch to maybe an inch on the ground. I waited for the wind to die down a bit before I stepped outside to scatter corn and sunflower seed, and was almost instantly rewarded with an entire flock of American goldfinches and juncos. 17 degrees (-8.3 degrees Celsius), with a windchill of -1.

Read another chapter of Colossus last night and ran across what I thought was an interesting passage, especially in light of namasteyoga's post a couple of weeks ago ...

When the old dam [in Jackson Lake, Wyoming] gave out on the morning after Independence Day in 1910, Crowe, with his local knowledge, was the obvious choice to build the replacement. A few weeks later he arrived in Ashton, Idaho, the Union Pacific depot nearest the old outlaw trail, on the 4 P.M. train. Along for the ride were the abstemious Arthur Powell Davis, Frank Weymouth, and -- unbeknownst to the government party -- six prostitutes imported to service a project-driven surge in trade. Powell, Weymouth, and Crowe were met by a clerk from the Reclamation office; the girls, more discreetly, by Ashton's lone madam and the local physician.