Making It Work

Plenty of distractions and mishaps in the office have given me ample to time to catch up on some journaling and recounting some of my prior adventures. While this had been the plan all along (to write it all down when there was down time), re-reading Gorillas in the Mist and having Dian Fossey again tell me "its always best to write notes the evening of the day they happened, otherwise they become stale" inspired me to do even more catch-up work. Read when you can.. some days have been sensational!

So far this week has been a complete loss (work-wise) for a few factors. The major one being D.S. Rai is in Thimphu handling "paperwork business" for the festival as well as the fallout from the Himalayan Black Bear incident. Last report was that the bear had moved on to a new range and the cattle were once again safe (no, I do not know if a protective ritual was performed over the weekend or not). Monday wasn't helped by a lack of internet connection which held my assignment email hostage. Good thing there are plenty of books to read at the Head Quarters! Tuesday was even worse as it started with a glimmer of hope. When I arrived in the office the internet was up and running! It held out long enough for me to get to the inbox before the power went out at promptly 9:23am. No power = no computer = no internet  and more importantly = NO HEAT!

After staving off completely freezing by jogs up and down the street, I speed-walked home at 4 only to find no electricity there either. That was going to make for one very long, very cold night. In the last few days
the breeze coming down off the glaciers had picked up and at last report we were at an air temperature of 16
degrees.. not factoring in the windchill of course. So I boiled some water, filled the thermos with tea, put
on 3 layers of every type of clothing, gloves, a beanie and hunkered down under the sleeping bag and blankets. (I couldn't help but wonder if this was the deities way of laughing at me.. just the night before I had mentioned to Mom and Dad how I was beginning to get acclimated to the cold and didn't need nearly as many layers as before!)

Power was restored around 6 and the room is beginning to get the chill out. I don't even see my breath anymore!