FROM RUSSIA, WITHOUT MUCH LOVE

BAD ROADS

BAD DUDES (Google Image)

Friday, 9:30 AM.  -2 degrees F at the ferry dock, -1 on the back porch.  Wind SW, mostly calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is overcast and foggy, with the sun trying to shine through the gloom.  The humidity is 84% and the barometer is rising slowly, currently at 30.25".  We have had an accumulation of about 6" of new snow over the last several days.  The forecast is for more of the same weather we have been having.  Yuck!  Yesterday we saw a pickup truck far out on the ice of the Bay off Ashland.  You know what I think of that.
   Our trip to Duluth yesterday began at 4:45 AM, in a blinding snowstorm, which we negotiated with considerable trepidation and even greater determination.  By the time we got to Iron River, about half way, the temperature was -14 degrees F.  Thank heavens for modern vehicles with all-wheel drive and dependable mechanics.  The "good old days" of automobiles were not that great.  Anyway, we got to the hospital on time, Joan's double carpel tunnel procedure went fine and we got back home by late afternoon.
   The Almanac is just a blip on the internet radar screen, a home-town blog of little interest to all but a small group of individuals (I have never been able to figure out why anyone would  bother to read it, but obviously some who have an interest in local Bayfield news do).
   So imagine my amazement when I noticed, about six months or so ago, a surge in page views from Russia, of all places.  Lots people from all over surf the web for lots of reasons, so I usually get "hits" from a variety of foreign countries.  But this was amazing; hundreds of hits from Russia, some days more than from the US.  Was I writing about Russia? No.  Did Bayfield sound like Siberia? Maybe.  Did that explain anything? Nyet.
   And then, just before the election, there was an article in the local paper about area Chamber of Commerce and some nonprofit web sites experiencing a lot of traffic from Russia.  It was obvious I was getting some of the overflow traffic.
   But why those sites, and mine along with them?  It had to have had something to do with the election, since as of today I have no page views from Russia at all, where it had been as many as a hundred a day previously.
   I don't know what the Russians were up to, perhaps trying to hack into local voting machines; I do know they weren't booking motel rooms to come for a visit.  We  have been Trump supporters and voted for him, and believe the election was fair, and a legitimate landslide.
   That doesn't mean we we want a Russian bear in our woods; we have enough of our own to deal with.