The Hunt for Warm October

While there are still four weeks left until graduation

well, three weeks, six days, twenty-one hours and thirty minutes until graduation

It is beyond time to start looking towards the future. So, I have bought a plot of land in Rhode Island for retirement.
Okay, not that far.

But I have already registered for my summer class in Norfolk, and have started the paperwork to get my Russian Visa for my new job at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. I had a question about one of the passport forms, so I made a quick call to the Army Major who had sent me the forms, and he told me that there was a good chance that after some training in September, I'd be joining a team for a trip over to the Federation in October. To do what, I know not. But I think we're going to Votkinsk, which is technically in Siberia but it's not NORTH POLE OH MY GOD SIBERIA Siberia but rather the red locale here, in the Udmurt Republic:

The only thing I know about Votkinsk is that it's the birthplace of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and I only know that from a Victor Borge album from the fifties my Dad had, because a joke like this sticks with you:

"When he was a little boy, 'Pete' never had a chance to play in the streets of Votkinsk... like all the other little boys in Votkinsk...

Because when he was 7 years old, his parents moved to St. Petersburg."