Monday February 5, 2007 6:50 am Edmonton Sunrise 8:13 Sunset 17:23 Hours of daylight: 9:10

A. Morning Musings

6:50 am We are not sure about today at the moment. The original intent is to drive back to Lethbridge, but there has been some snow overnight and we may decide to postpone the trip for a day.

9:00 am -10 C with a forecast high of -9 C. There is a light snow falling at the moment with some freezing rain forecast for later this morning. I now have internet access off another computer.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Suspect in Canadian Diplomat's Death Says He's Innocent

In January of 2006 a Canadian diplomat was killed by a car bomb in Kandahar. The man arrested has been arrested before and claims that he sold the car the day before the bombing. This is a strange story to make the headline. It seems to be a result of an interview by a CBC reporter with the man in a Kabul jail. I fail to see the significance of the story at the moment.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Labor in Strongest Electoral Position Since 2001.

This is largely due to environmental policy statements. As with the CBC headline, I find this a weak story to make the top headline. This is simply the result of a poll, although there is an election scheduled for later this year. Politics is much more complex than a simple poll that fails to probe the underlying rationale in some depth.

We have decided to stay in Edmonton today. The weather and road reports are both a cause for concern. There are numerous vehicles in the ditch between Edmonton and Ponoka, and freezing rain will likely make matters worse. The forecast for tomorrow is for much colder temperatures, but the weather should be a bit better and hopefully the roads will be clear by then.

B. Plan

Immediate
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006	1 hr
	Continue reading & making notes for "iPhoto 5"	1 hr
	Digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "The Big Why" by Michael Winter	1 hr
Later
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Purchase DCC system
History	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Technology	Become proficient with iPhoto software
	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
	Become proficient with cell phone
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

C. Actual/Note

10:30 am The sky is a bit lighter and the snow has stopped. We have decided to pack up (quickly) and try for Lethbridge. From the news reports it appears that the worst will be the first 100 km. If we can get through that the remainder of the trip should be clear sailing.

5:15 PM Made it. The freezing rain began just as we got into the truck but it was fairly light so we decided to keep going. It was slow for the first hour, but everyone was driving sensibly and there was no difficulty. After that it was perfect: clear roads and usually dry.

6:30 PM I am just back from the car wash. The truck had a lot of road grime and salt on it (most of it picked up on the drive to Edmonton). I wanted to get that removed as soon as possible and the weather forecast is for a drop in temperatures. Now to relax.

D. Reflection