Our weather in the last few days has been passing strange. It’s almost as if Mother Nature is giving us a preview of the coming winter — a weather version of a movie trailer. We got a dumping of snow sufficient to bring out our snow removal contractor, freezing rain, bitter cold and today, a thaw. And even though everything is still white, our part of the Great White North is smothered in a thick layer of fog right now. A gray, damp, foggy Sunday, just the right mix to evoke old memories.
As we do regularly, Mrs Thomson and I were driving to our gym for ninety minutes of much needed exercise this morning. Once on the brief stretch of highway, I remarked how this dense, chilly fog reminded me of one particular winter when we lived in what was then the Federal Republic of Germany thirty years ago, during my tour with Canadian Forces Europe (CFE). The Rhine Valley, in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg where CFE had its bases, was and probably still is famous for its damp, foggy weather, especially in winter. That particular February, we spent the entire month fogged in. The only times I saw the sun was when I visited the Langenhard training area which sat at higher altitude and therefore above the fog layer. Looking out over the valley from up there was a thing of beauty! This morning, our drive through a brief stretch of farmland bordering the highway, reminded me vividly of driving on the A-5, the autobahn running the length of Baden-Württemberg right to the Swiss border during that February thirty years ago.
In other news, I’m moving right along with Hard Strike (Decker’s War Book 7). It’s now more than three-quarters done.
Eric Thomson's Starship Stories 