The White Stuff

Interesting. The whole place is covered in water ice, and temperatures are lower than anything I ever knew in Hampshire. It’s hard to describe the appearance of snow-blanketed mountains in early morning light, but perhaps you’ll understand, if you’ve ever experienced it. It was only 264 Kelvins last night, and the moderate breeze has stopped water drips in their tracks and draped everything in crystals. Jalaa would have appreciated the spectacle, I think.

Last time I mentioned that I was thinking of exploring. I did have a look around, and I’m happy to report that apart from the scenery there wasn’t anything to worry about. There were a number of sheep, but to be honest they looked a lot more worried than I felt. I believe a sheep’s life consists of one long stretch of worrying from lamb to carcass, which makes those signs warning people not to allow their dogs to worry them a bit redundant, in my opinion. I mean, it would be like forbidding people to throw lit matches into a campfire. All the sheep is going to do is file the dog under “yet more worry” and continue its neurotic cycle of panic, regardless.

My explorations were curtailed after a couple of days when the weather turned colder. I suppose I could have continued by using a thermal envelope field, but I was concerned about meeting people in the mountains. It might have been tough to explain why I wasn’t wearing warmer clothes, and I don’t want to arouse suspicion. Wim Hof gets away with it, but only because he already looks a bit mad so people kind of expect it.

I’ve had to be careful to maintain the camouflage around the entrance to my base, because it’s all too easy to forget about footprints and other disturbances. The way I manage this is to make sure that when I’m near the door I activate the gravity planers I keep in my boots so that I hover just above the snow. I have to make sure nobody’s around, of course, and it took a little practice to get my balance sorted out. I did fall a couple of times, but hopefully the marks in the snow won’t be identifiable. People only ever notice footprints, not other marks, because they don’t look properly.

I’ve just taken a look at the external camera feed, and I think it’s getting dark already so I’m going to sign off now. I’d like to leave you with this thought, though. If you're absent-minded enough to switch a light off instead of on when entering a room, not noticing that it was already on, then you're probably a Nerd.  If the first phrase that enters your head on that occasion is "parity error", then you're definitely a Geek.