lawmakers and wolves

Boy, that was an terrible delay. Sorry. My only excuse is that I've been preparing for the trip down to Juneau and then making that trip, which actually turned out to be pretty amazing.
I had a lot of time to think -- it's about 600 miles from Fairbanks to Haines -- so I thought about how damn big the state is, about how it can be 60 or even 70 degrees warmer in one part of the state compared to another (Juneau v. Prudhoe, for instance), and about the wonder of the Alaska Legislature -- that a bunch of businessmen, pilots, lawyers and construction workers gather in tiny Juneau every year to make some really important decisions.
And I saw two wolves!
Both were in the Yukon, and both looked me in the eye for a few seconds before running off. The second I saw actually stuck around a while, trotting past my parked truck and going to munch on some roadkill. He looked awkward at first in the deep snow, then started to just glide over it when he decided to run.
There's actually a lot going on in climate news, which I'll try to get to soon. The gov's sub-cabinet's work group dealing with imminent issues met earlier this month and is meeting again tomorrow. I got to talk with Don Young and Ted Stevens about climate change (Stevens' views still remind me of SNL's Pat). And the polar bear listing is big news even with the decision delayed.