Gesturing Works, Monday, 8 Jun

Today the Director of the Finnish Forest Research Institute was making a presentation. I thought I should probably look professional, so last night I looked at my very wrinkled dress pants and shirts and sighed. If I had to represent the United States Department of Agriculture, I didn't want to do it looking overtly wrinkled. What to do? No iron... of course! I moistened the worst wrinkles and me and my pants and shirt went to the sauna. I tossed a couple of extra ladles of water on the rocks to get it good and steamy. While I gave up my sweat, my clothes gave up those pesky wrinkles. Sorry if I've offended any sauna purists out there, but you have to do what you have to do. As it turns out, it was all for nothing. I snuck into lunch with all of the attendees, but I did not have to represent the government. Oh well, at least I looked good. Instead, I had lunch with Marja-Liisa Juntunen; I organized a tour for her in the US back in 2002. It was nice to get caught up on the news. I also had a nice visit with Pasi Puttonen, who is the Director of Research. Pasi had worked for the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

After work I hopped on the bike and headed for town. It's a good way to get some exercise. I discovered riding in the rain the other day that I needed to re-waterproof my rain gear. So, I went into the "sport" store. The older owner... no English. He called for his son; about 1% better English. After some gesturing, I finally got across my need. He drew me a nice map to another store, right around the corner. Ah success. They didn't speak much English either, but I got my spray-on waterproof stuff. On the ride back to the station, I stopped and took this photo of the bike trail. Large sections of it are lined with lilacs, that are currently in full bloom. It was really sweet-smelling this afternoon.

Sorry, no new birds for the day, but as I tap this out, the Spotted Flycatcher is working hard right outside my window.