We awoke today to howling winds and blowing snow…a blizzard! What a treat! Well, so we thought…because it was so beautiful! But, we found problems sometimes come with beauty. However, before I get to the problems, let me tell you about Dancer.
Last night when I was working, I kept hearing something make a thud against the side of Buggy One. My guess finally was that the “famous” Dancer was knocking on the buggy to tell me hello, and I was right! When I turned off the light to go to bed, I saw a huge polar bear walking by the buggy, and the bear tracks this morning showed that Dancer had, indeed, paid me a visit.
There was yet another surpise, though, as Dancer came back and was lying right next to the buggy this morning in the snow. He kept looking up at us, and the longer he laid there, the more snow accumulated on his back. He is a beauty! He kept looking up at me as if to try to figure out who this human was (of the many he has seen over the years). When polar bears move to the Hudson Bay area and prepare to go further north, the large males arrive first, followed by the females with their cubs and “sub-males” later. So, Dancer always appears here around November 1st as he waits for the Hudson Bay to freeze which will allow him to move farther north.
Now…about that problem I mentioned earlier. Buggy One was working perfectly this morning with all of its technology. However, our connectivity is through Churchill, and their power was intermittent, at best. We had five videoconferences/webcasts schedule for the day, and the first three were ones I had scheduled: St. George’s, Vanderbilt Virtual School, and the Apple Learning Interchange webcast. But, we couldn’t connect to anyone! After many “heads-up” e-mails and phone calls, I was able to let everyone involved know that we weren’t sure things were going to work for any of our sessions. We called and paced and tested and brainstormed…then waited. And, no one was more shocked that we were when the connection we had for our events became “somewhat” stable, and we decided to “go for it” and try all of the sessions we had scheduled for the day.
So, although we had hiccups, disconnects, and problems to solve, we actually connected for everything today…from the Arctic…in the middle of a blizzard with blowing winds and lots of snow. We were interrupted by dropped connections a few times, but overall it was great! I sometimes just stop and think about the wonder of where we are in the Arctic and what we can do with the technology out here. Today, we touched hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers and students, sharing information about polar bears and climate change. We are excited about all we did despite the obstacles, and we are confident that tomorrow’s weather and connectivity will be back to normal.
The remainder of our day we drove the tundra buggy out on snow. We saw some polar bears, and most of them had dug into the snow to “hunker down” during the storm. One situation was very interesting. A female had scooped herself a little “bed” in the snow and was resting and yawning and stretching. Suddenly, she jumped up, became tense, and quickly walked away. We knew she had smelled something coming…and she was upset. Within thirty seconds, a large male walked up to her snow “bed” and smelled it 
and pawed at it. Then he followed her tracks in search of her. The female had obviously smelled the male coming, and had left to escape him. The olfactory senses that the bears have really amaze me. They can smell things miles away!
When darkness came (and the sun sets early here), we drove back to the lodge and settled in to do some work, have one more videoconference (with Australia!), and eat dinner. Now it is time to go to bed and watch for my nightly visitor, Dancer, the polar bear.
“Tundra time” reminds me of “Africa time”…all things happen in their own time here. And, rather than
dwell on problems or “yesterdays” or “tomorrows,” we all need to take the time to enjoy the moments and places we are in today. It has been a wonderful day on the tundra once again, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring. But, rather than wish for tomorrow, I’m instead going to sit and listen to the wind, look at the snow, and enjoy the beauty and peace and joy of the moment I am in now. I hope you will do the same.
