The Pineapple Express

We are having weather disasters again. Vast amounts of rain - one news report described it as "a firehose pointed directly at us" - are dropping from a tropical air mass coming straight from Hawaii. The air hits the northern Cascade mountains, and Bam! The Pineapple Express, it's called.

So here we are - soaked and worried about trees coming down again and wishing we'd manage to get our new gas-run fireplace installed already. (Not until next week - we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that we won't lose power in this - a not very effective strategy, admittedly.)

The river has flooded and the valley road is closed, and while there is still one road out, we are afraid to use it, fearful that we couldn't get home again.

A good time to bake Christmas cookies? Too early probably. Put up the tree? Maybe. Take a nap? OK!


(Interstate 5 is closed, due to flooding, for 20 miles somewhere between Seattle and Portland. The detour, if you have to make the trip anyway, is 440 miles long!)