When we spoke a day ago, our younger son told us it was time for him to fly out from Vancouver to spend some time with us. He usually comes along several times a year, but as a result of the pandemic and British Columbia closing up along with the rest of Canada, we've missed seeing him. This morning he sent along all the details of his flight reservation. So he'll be with us transitioning from 2021 into 2022 and slightly beyond. And he'll also be with us at my 85th birthday that falls between Christmas and New Year. A greater gift for me is hard to imagine.

I sent along a link for him to read about a McGill Professor, a visible minority himself, failing in two fairly routine research grant financing applications. And the reason given was that he had failed to convince the bureaucrats vetting the applications that he was prepared to give advantage of minority groups in his hiring for the laser research he specializes in. He had responded on the application that he hires on merit alone, and that didn't pass muster with government granting authorities; the bureaucrats past whom the applications must go before they reach other scientists tasked with reviewing and approving such applications. 

NSERC was one of the granting bodies. Our younger son has a connection with that federally-linked science-centric body since it was they who awarded him grants for both his masters and doctorate studies three decades ago. When we mentioned the news report to him he found it difficult to digest that this kind of politics had entered academic science. He hires on merit himself, but if two candidates equal one another in aptitude and experience, he gives preferential treatment to the one that represents a minority group. Not all that different from the McGill professor who said it's merit that moves him, though he has taught, mentored and hired members of visible minority groups like himself, LGBTQ, and others.

We went off to the ravine a little earlier in the afternoon than is our norm. Once again hoping to catch some sun. But the presence of sun today was rare and as the day wore on, completely absent. There was a slight wind, but any kind of wind on an overcast day when the thermometer won't budge above -2C, is an impediment to comfort since those blasts are icy.

If I had to describe what it was like in the forest today, 'bracing' is as good a descriptive as any. Comfortable enough if one is dressed for it, as is only sensible. Jackie and Jillie were certainly glad to be out and about. They've got so much to attend to along the forest trails, after all. Aromatic essences that cannot escape their keen noses and notice. Smells that they associate with other dogs of their acquaintance.

We're not seeing very many birds around lately; chickadees and nuthatches on occasion, and the sound of crows nearby. Mostly squirrels rushing about in food-gathering panic for winter. Makes us wonder how many of them we see in the forest we also see on our porch gobbling up peanuts. There's always such a squabble of red, black and grey squirrels, trying to edge one another out. claiming the porch as their personal territory, though eventually all of them get a turn at it, and then return for more.

Dusk falls so early, even before two in the afternoon it seems to have arrived. We ran a few errands afterward before ending up at the supermarket, so we were late returning home from shopping and as a result it was already dark. The only consolation is that because it was so dark, people's Christmas-decorated front lawns and house exteriors were lit up and blazing with colour; a bit of visual entertainment.