[Zeno]

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When I lived in Norway, I used to cross-country ski a lot. It was very fun.

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Cross-country skiing is not only fun it is great exercise and you can get out into remote places and relax and enjoy the quiet in the snowy outdoors. I have a pair of cross-country skis that is more than twenty years old and I still use them every winter.

I recently read this somewhere:

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The first snows of winter are about to strike at my place as the bald eagles are moving in to sit in the trees along the river bank. They will feed on the Lake Superior whitefish that migrate up the river from Flathead Lake to spawn. They also find gut piles from the deer that hunters shoot. Our national bird, the bald eagle, is a scavenger. It is a pretty and majestic bird brought back from almost extinction from DDT poisoning, when that stuff was still legal to use. Time is right to winterize my tractor, wax my cross country [sic] skis, and catch some of those whitefish for the freezer. My bones tell me it's going to be a long, cold one.


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When a young rambunctious lad I worked in Southeast Alaska and saw numerous bald eagles - some up very close - near streams and rivers. But Ray is correct that the birds are mainly a scavenger, just like vultures.

Ray Zee probably still has a pair of wooden cross-country skis and gets out the pine tar every year to recondition them. He is a very old man. He also has a tractor that needs 'winterizing' but I wager there are a few body parts Mr. Zee needs to winterize also. The rumor is that he is a good fisherman, and I hear he can play poker fairly well. Both are probably true.

-Zeno