Or should that read "Canada Wolves" ?...
The same view of Flathead Lake, more water and less sky. I guess I should have posted this one first. I've just been going through pictures I haven't really looked at. I'll take a whole bunch of pictures and then just look at a couple of them. I have more fun cooking than eating.
Here's another picture of Flathead Lake in Montana that I took back in October.
This is what it looked like when I made my way down the mountain after skiing today. The cold was brutal up there this weekend. There was no way to escape the the wind and no warm place except in the lodge. It was just about all you could do to survive a ride up the chair lift, at about 10 degrees F and winds gusting. Today they closed most of the lifts due to wind.
This it what it looked like Saturday morning as I drove up the mountain. There was an unusual sun dog type rainbow in the sky.
I didn't intend for this photo to have any social/ political significance. I was just out taking pictures. We are having an inversion here and that's when high pressure keeps the air stagnant in the valleys and that reduces air quality, so they enforce buring bans. Unfortunately it also gets cold as there are few clouds and we suffer radiational cooling at the same time. So right when you need your woodstove to stay warm they say you can't use it. I have an EPA approved one BTW as it burns cleaner but even those are banned sometimes. They have different stages of burning bans. You can see the polution in the air next to the horizon. 
It has been said that skiing is a form of self-expression, and if skiing is, then snowboarding is for sure. I rode the chair up with this snowboarder kid's father. The kid modified his helmet with paint and what looks like a broom sticking out of it. I told his dad that I'd make him clean his room with it... :)
Here's a picture from the top of the mountain today. I didn't ski very well but it was really nice out. I left the house without my lunch, so all I had to eat was a salted nut roll candy bar,.. So I stopped into the Outback Bar and got a can of Pabst, parked myself with a view of the lake, and took in some rays.
I spend a lot of time riding chairlifts each winter. It was nice being on the mountain today as it was the only place to get above the fog. All of the people in the valleys are stuck in the fog and it has lasted for days now. It starts to get to you after a while. That's the thing I always like about skiing. It gets you up and out of the fog, and it really makes a difference in your attitude. 
There's something about fog that chills you to the bone. Fog and wind... Fog, wind and mist.. If they ask me what I did over the weekend I'll just say I chilled out.
It's been a hard winter and it's just getting started. It's been very hard on dogs too. Here's a picture of Max in his winter coat complete with racing stripe, although he wasn't in much of a hurry to go anywhere. Max is also sporting some very nice looking dog snowshoes custom made by his owner. He's a lucky dog as it was very cold today, around 10 degrees F. (F for F'n cold) I think Max would have been just as happy to stay inside by the fire today.
I got this cubical doorbell at our company gift exchange. Now when people come to pester me,.. I mean, when they come to work out urgent business, instead of screaming at me in crisis mode they can ring the bell first. It has a number of sounds from a cat to ah-oo-ga, but I like the regular doorbell sound. It's the most civilized. The ah-oo-ga sound might be more appropriate though... Ah-oo-ga! Ah-oo-ga! Incoming! Dive! Dive!
