GoBlog gave me a shout-out to attend Winter Trail Days, which includes free clinics on showshoeing and cross-country skiing in various winter-sports meccas around the country. I’m flattered (and tempted) but I’m also recovering from spending the last 18 months piling up appropriate gear for three-season outings (which is swell in the Bay Area because we really don’t have winter) and I’m gonna have to wait awhile to start piling up winter gear. Check back in November on this one.

GoBlog offers something else to do right away if you’re near the Pacific Coast: Whale watching. I keep meaning to go see the whales; maybe I’ll get around to it this year. (I support the theory advanced by Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut that marine mammals are actually the most highly evolved creatures on earth. Think of the porpoise: spends all day swimming, has no hands or opposible thumbs to distract him with tawdry tasks like tool-making or agriculture, has no job, little stress and has the sea for a shelter. Have they got it made or what? )