Arrived back late last night after our short trip to Naugatuck Connecticut.  Not a bad trip at all.

Yesterday, the meetings broke up early and we still had about 6 hours to kill before the flight.  Took a ride down to Mystic to visit the seaport museum.  I’d heard of the place before and saw this as a perfect opportunity.  The weather was fine and the car’s GPS unit got us there and back without incident.  Took a few pictures with the small camera that I still need to download and clean up before I post them over at Flickr but here’s a teaser. I’ve now uploaded to Flickr, just click the picture to see the rest.

Pictured here is the Charles W. Morgan berthed on the Mystic river.  It’s the last surviving wooden whaler.  More to come.

Spent part of yesterday enjoying the incredible weather at the Heart Lake Conservation area in North Brampton.  The ice on the lake is slowly disappearing.

We finished off early today so I had a chance to head down into Zurich.  The weather here has finally cleared up and it was absolutely beautiful. Very warm and sunny.

Caught this looking out over Lake Zurich with the mountains in the background.  Tomorrow, we’re off to take a trip somewhere up there and on Sunday I’m taking the train down to Lucerne.  Check my Flickr gallery for more pictures. (link on the right)

The body clock alarm went off about 15 minutes before the electronic one.  Wearily, I opened one eye to fumble with the radio.  A weather forecaster who was far too cheery for my liking announced that it was -15 outside with a windchill factor approaching absolute zero.  That’s a lie – it was actually -25.

I was sorely tempted to turn over and burrow under the blankets instead of submitting myself to the horror that marks the coldest day of the year. That’s right, January 25th is traditionally the coldest day and Mother Nature is determined to live up to the tradition.

Even now, over 3 hours later, the temperature has only risen by 1 degree and any sane animal would be hunkered down and hibernating.  Man, unfortunately, has evolved to a worker bee state and we shuffle out of the hive in search of the nectar we call money. 

Our cats showing that they are indeed smarter than people, looked at us like we were out of our minds.  The blast of cold air as I went out to start the cars sent them scurrying back to their sleeping spots and you could almost here them laughing.  Jan says she’s coming back as a cat in the next life and, on days like this, I think she’s got the right idea.