Hello again

[Stan Shebs <shebs at shebs dot cnchost dot com>]

We've safely returned from the Antarctic!  It was truly awesome; I
took 500 pictures trying to capture the mood, perhaps a few really
got it.  And some of it can't be conveyed in pictures anyway; the
disconcerting shudder of a 7000-ton ship hitting a trough, the
scraping and grinding while pushing through pack ice, the truly
godawful smell of a penguin rookery (imagine layers of urine and
squid/shrimp-based poop, with no soil to decompose it!), the
bucket of frigid seawater on your back as the Zodiac hits a wave,
the cozy feeling of staying inside while watching snow piling up
on the deck.  The penguins were unbelievably cute to watch, the
whales and icebergs mesmerizing, the albatrosses inspiring, the
tenuous human presence thought-provoking.

I'm now mostly recuperated from the return flights (Ushuaia ->
Buenos Aires -> Miami -> San Francisco, 33 hours in all), and
am pretty much caught up on activities - looks like some good
work is going on!  I'll respond to open issues over the next
few days.  Also, it looks like my mail between 1/26 and 2/1 got
dropped, sigh, so if you sent me anything then, please resend.

Stan