Winter Lull

It was a very nice day today, sunny, clear, no breeze or wind to speak of. Bailey's walk today was along the paths at Dawson Creek Park. I took some pictures last fall. I took some more of the same scene today

Before (22 October 2006)

After (28 Jan 2007)

Naked Trees!!!!


I have to note that this is the 101st entry in my blog. Now, I'm not the most talkative person in the world but somehow I've managed 100 entries. True, it has taken me two and a half years.

I'll keep plugging along 'til I finish the next hundred.

The Great Snow Storm of '07

About five days ago we had an artic cold front settle down over us. It pushed a moist warm front out of the way causing a little snow. Fortunately it all melted the first day and we've had dry roads and frigid temperatures since then (for here at least, dipping into the low teens and high single digits in the wee hours of the morning). We've been waiting for a warm front to blow in off the Pacific and move the cold front east, where there are people use to and ready for those kinds of temperatures. It appeared that that was going to happen last night. The weather people weren't sure exactly what would happen as one front pushed the other out: from cloudy skies to 3 inches of snow. It had already snowed a good half an inch and still snowing when I went out to get the paper out of the drive way at 6 am. Need I say here how glad I am not to be delivering papers anymore? I think that is well understood by now... It took me 45 minutes to make it to work as I had to go a bit out of my way for a route that didn't involve an slope greater than 15 degrees. Lots of cars in the ditch and minor fenderbenders along the way. I made it to work no problem. A little late, but no problem. People straggled in as they could, the rest calling in saying it just wasn't worth it. The boss made it in about 10, stayed for a couple of hours to see who made it in and make sure the hottest fires were being doused. Our fiscal first quarter ends in a couple of weeks, not an ideal time for a snow day. But to his credit, the boss did say as he left just after noon that everyone should leave by 2 to make sure they get home before dark.

I took a couple of pictures around work with my phone to show you what it normally doesn't look like

No lunch on the patio today!

The poor rhodies.... and the cars of the hardy souls that did make it in to work!

Who knew that the sidewalks were that wide?

Now it turns out the warm front isn't strong enough to push the cold front all the way off of us. The sub freezing temperatures will stick around until the weekend is the best guess. There may even be some more precipitation tomorrow morning! Doesn't sound promising.

In the mean time we are full, warm and well lubricated. What more could you ask for?

Where Have I Been?

It has been brought to my attention that I have been neglecting this blog and that it is high time to get my butt in gear and write something. Anything. Just write. Well….

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you that I was off work the week before and the week after Christmas, plant shutdown. It seems that this quarter is suppose to be “flat” for the company but they are predicting that we will make it up and then some in the remaining three quarters. This time it will be Wait and Hurry UP! instead of the usual Hurry Up and Wait. So, I’m back at work getting back into the swing of things, trying to remember all the things that were going on just before the break. I should have left myself more notes….

The weather has been particularly wet as of late. We set a record for the wettest November on record with close to two feet of rain. There was some let up in December but it was still pretty wet. We are well on the way to an above average January rainfall already. Better wet than cold I say, but the freezing level is supposed to get down to 1000’ tomorrow. Our house is somewhere between 500’ and 1000’ and, as we all know, predicting the weather is NOT an exact science!)

P’s brother, R and I were suppose to go fishing in southern Oregon the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We drove down to Port Orford but thanks to the record rain didn’t get a chance to wet a line. The rivers were very high and muddy. They looked like milk chocolate pudding. No fishing for us! We managed to make a trip of it though. We actually saw some of Port Orford. Usually it’s dark when we arrive, dark when we get up to go fishing, spend the day on the river and getting dark when we get back to town. This time we actually went down to the “Port” and found out the main industry there is crabbing! While we were looking around a lady came down to the end of the dock and dropped in a crab pot with a nice chicken breast as bait. She said she’s had good success there in the past. You just lower it down into the water and come back several hours later to see if you’ve caught anything.


Crabpots, lots of crabpots

Crabbing off the end of the dock

A trawler towing someone with engine trouble into the dock at Port Orford

Ok, time for bed, more later….

Something has got to be done with this getting up and going to work thing, especially after two weeks off, staying up late and sleeping in. Time to win the lottery or something…