Axodys

It seems to be raining at the moment. As Mary commented to me over dinner we’re almost 50° warmer today than we were last Wednesday. Unfortunately it’s still cold enough that this precipitation will probably come down as freezing rain rather than snow. This has definitely been a winter of extremes so far and there’s still almost two months to go

This week has been a chance for Winter to really take a hold of things here in Spokane with the sub-zero temperatures and ample snowfall we’ve been experiencing. It’s actually back in the 20’s today, but the snow is still falling. I think the total snow accumulation on the ground must be over a foot deep now so driving has been an adventure. My [Honda Element's](http://hondacars.com/models/model_overview.asp?ModelName=Element AWD) has been coming in *very* handy. It handles great in this weather and on unplowed roads even though it only has all-season tires.

Great news on the Mars exploration front. Spirit, the first of two Mars rovers, [successfully landed](http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/03/mars.rovers/index.html) just a short while ago and sent a signal back to Earth.

Weblogger Susan Kitchens had some pretty good [live coverage](http://www.2020hindsight.org/2004/01/03.html#a3945) as well at the Planetary Society’s [Wild About Mars](http://planetary.org/wam/index.html) progam as well.

I can’t wait to hear more about what Spirit’s explorations in the coming weeks. What a great day for NASA. It’s nice to see the space program achieve some success for a change.

Here’s hoping 2004 is the best one yet.

Now I need to think of some resolutions.