I have a few loose ends from recent posts that I owe you (at least in my mind I owe you).

First of all, some news — An inspection was completed last Friday on my house in Wichita, and it came back with only minor issues.  I asked for more when buying the house in Anchorage than they asked for, so things are looking really good for that deal to go through.  Closing will happen in mid-April.

Second, I got asked about something I mentioned when I went to the slope last week.  I talked about a “Sun Dog”, which is sort of like a reverse rainbow caused by ice crystals.  The picture below is the closest to what I saw, including the circle around it and the vitural sunlight pouring out the bottom:

Finally, the Iditarod finished up last night.  I posted on Tuesday that they had a winner, but the race continued until the last team either dropped out or crossed the finish line.  The last to finish in 54th place was Christine Roalofs who came in Sunday Afternoon and recieved the “Red Latern” given cerimonially to honor those who ensured the trial was empty and all are in.

But the Iditarod did end with a tragedy.  For the first time in a few years, a dog passed away during the race but sadly due to an unfortunate incident not due to a race inflicted injury.  Dogs are routinely dropped from the race when they start showing signs of tiring, joint trouble, or fatigue.  Race volunteers maintain the dropped dogs at key checkpoints.  Because the dogs are most comfortable bedded down on straw outdoors, the dropped dogs at one checkpoint were bedded down tethered to a fence.  Over a four hour period between volunteer checks during the overnight, high winds and snow caused a drift to accumulate at one of the fences – in this case deep enough to complete envelop the tethered dog causing it to suffocate under the snow.  It was a horrible mistake by unpaid volunteers that the race officials were quick to take the blame for, and from all accounts will be learned from.

But rather than leaving you on a down note, here’s a picture of Daddy’s little couch potato focused on the rugby game on the TV.