First time for everything.

I think this year might be the first in many years that I have actually been happy about the weather getting colder.  We're supposed to get snow tomorrow... and I'm happy about it.
It's ok, don't call 911.  I don't have a fever, I'm not experiencing dementia.
I'm simply suffering from falling in love with sled dogs.
I've been reading a couple sled dog kennel blogs and they're really hurting with this unseasonably warm weather.  You just can't run these dogs in 50+ degree weather, they can actually suffer heat exhaustion.  Poor things.  If these racers don't get out enough now, they won't be properly conditioned for races this winter and that's just not good.

I didn't know this, but apparently last year the film crew that does the "Deadliest Catch" show actually documented the Iditarod in Alaska.  I found a DVD of the 6 episodes at the library.  I wasn't planning to watch them all at once - so much for that.  I watched the whole thing and was up WAY too late.  I discovered that I absolutely LOVE this woman:

She has participated in the Ididarod since the year before I was born, and she shows no signs of stopping any time soon.  This past March she ran her 27th race.  Of those 27 races, she's only scratched twice.  She's survived a life threatening car crash, breast cancer and had a double massecomy, but she hasn't quit.  She's truly accomplished some incredible things, but the thing I love about her is the relationship she clearly has with her dogs.  You can see it just in the way she talks to them.  I could only hope to be lucky enough to see her cross the finish line in Nome someday.