From Bellevue to Bainbridge

Today, I brought my message before a sort of audience that I personally have never faced before: the people who operate Snohomish PUD, one of the biggest publicly owned utilities in the country.  These folks are actually dealing with particular problems in particular substations in their territories, where technologies like the ones I work with could make a difference.  Different sorts of questions, different aspects I emphasize, but again, I came away very happy with our discussions and hopeful that we can work together.

The other thing that made me very happy about my day is that Seattle finally gave me a really proper fog.  For some reason, whenever I've been here in the past, it's been pretty much bright and beautiful and sunny---so unlike the way it's "supposed" to be.  Both last night and this morning, though, the fog was thick on the evergreens and wrapped everything in a chill damp softness, then froze to rime it with shining frost.

Now, I am in quiet dorm room with log-construction furniture on the other side of Puget Sound, after a ferry-ride away from a Seattle glowing darkly beneath low clouds that hid the tops of the buildings and turned the Space Needle into a truncated pair of arcs.  BGI holds its intensive weekend courses at an educational nature preserve called IslandWood.  In the dark, it smells of damp green and redwoods.  I took my shoes off as I entered the building, and walked up to my room past the great tall fireplace.  Now it is time to review my lecture notes and turn in for an early rest.