Bogieblog

Town Meeting 2008

Town meeting was yesterday, which naturally, meant that it snowed. We only got 3-4", but it was very heavy stuff.

We had some big stuff on the proposed budget this year; a loader, a backhoe, several expendable trust funds to be added to, and a huge jump in the road maintenance budget.

The meeting was fairly well attended, although there were some notable exceptions that I won't get into, besides it seemed that they were sulking because they didn't get SB2 to pass (a change where everthing would be voted on at the general election - no town meeting). Both parking lots were filled, as was the church parking on the other side of the street.

Frozen Basement

Monday I crawled out of bed and immediately knew something was wrong. The temp in the basement seemed to be a wee bit on the cold side. Either I was becoming wimpish or sick, or there was something amiss with the heater.

I checked the thermostat - which told me the temp was down to 64 degrees (it is kept at 68). After taking care of the animals, checking my email, posting a short blurb on the Iditarod, and taking my shower, the temp was down to 63.

The heater seemed to be working fine - I had plenty of hot water. I couldn't tell about the upstairs heat, since it was still warm from the woodstove. however, when I looked at the heater zoning, something was amiss; the hot water and upstairs heat zones were green and the downstairs heat zone was red. Red means that that zone is calling for heat - but no water was circulating thru the pipes.

Iditarod Winners

No big surprise, Lance Mackey won the Iditarod and Jeff King placed second early yesterday morning. Plenty of other teams have completed the race; numbers 3 thru 21 were:

• Ramey Smyth
• Ken Anderson
• Martin Buser
• Hans Gatt
• Mitch Seavy
• Paul Gebhardt
• Kjetil Backen
• Sebastian Schnuelle
• Zack Steer
• Cim Smyth
• Rick Swenson
• Jessie Royer
• DeeDee Jonnrow
• Gerry Willomitzer
• Ed Iten
• Ray Redington Jr.
• Aaron Burmeister
• Jim Lanier
• Ally Zirkle

About 60 teams are still running for Nome. You can take nothing away from any of these folks or their teams - it's a tough race that the majority of people would never even think about entering, even if they had the resources and training.

B-Day (Sorta)

Go congratulate Bruce on 4 years of blooging.

Almost to Nome

After reaching White Mountain, and having their mandatory 8 hour layover there, Lance Mackey has reached Safety and is about 8 miles ahead of Jeff King. It will be tough for jeff to make that up in the little bit of mileage left to ge to Nime, but anything can happen (although, it would take extremely bad luck on Mackey's part - and we certainly don't wish that on any team!).

Iditarod Update 3-10-08

At just over 700 miles into the Iditarod, Lance Mackey is still out in front of Jeff King - by two mile, According to the GPS units, King is making 8 MPH and Mackey 6 mPH. Maybe Lances dogs are tiring, Mabey Mackey is just letting them work lightly.

Within 40 MIles of the leaders (according to the GPS units) are Kjetil Backen, Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Dee De Jonrowe, Jessie Royer and Jonh Baker - all familiar names to anyone that even casually follows the race (like me).

Several hundred miles to go yet though.

Meter Reading in the Snow

When was the last time one of your utility companies personally thanked you? I don't mean in an add, or a generic flier, or a "thank you for your business" on the bill - I mean, took the time to send you a personal letter.

Yesterday we got two envelopes from PSNH (our power company). I first thought that we must have gotten one of the neighbor's bills, along with our own. Upon checking the addressees, they were both to us. I chose to open the skinnier envelope, as I figured that the actual bill was in the fatter envelope (they add in informational pamphlets and return envelopes with the bill).

I took out the sheet of paper, and this is what I read:

"As our meter readers have to wade through deep snow and climb over banks daily during the winter months, it is a pleasure to find someone like yourself who has cleared a path to the meters.

We would like to express our appreciation for your thoughtfulness in taking the time from your schedule to think of the meter reader."

Confession time - the meter is next to the oil tank, so we make sure to keep a path opened up (yes, after every storm, not just when we need oil). However when we moved the oil tank from the greenhouse (which neccessitated a path that went by the electric meter), I eyeballed the meter to make sure it could be seen from the oil tank, or whether we would need to deliberatly shovel a bit further.

Almost Half Way

At 438 miles into the Iditarod, Lance Mackey is leading. Jeff King is about 20 miles back, but according to their GPS readings (registration required), Macky is resting and King is on the move. At this point, Mackey had 15 dogs and King has 16.

There are a whole bunch of people not too far back, so those two aren't the only ones in the race. Also, only 17 racers are carrying a GPS, and there are at least a couple of non-GPS carrying racers that have been near the front.

It may be up to another week before the real score is known.

In Rohn, AK

Early race leaders into Rohn are:

1. Lance Mackey
2. Hugh Neff
3. Jeff King
4. Mitch Seavy

Naturally, it is WAY early in the race, so this means absolutely nothing except they have fast teams, and the stratagy to get out front early. Or - they are trying to beat the weather.

March Doesn't Bring in Spring

Mother Nature didn't play too many games with us yesterday. She dumped about 7" of snow (within what was forcast) for use to clean up. Later there were snow squalls, and last night we got another 1" or so. Now it is just windy, so the snow is blowing around.