For those of you who are wondering...

A snow update:

Snow and being stranded

Snow in the Northwest isn't a convenient thing. We don't ever expect it, so we are never prepared for it, and it gets the best of us every time. We didn't make it in to work on Monday because of snow on Sunday night. Tuesday we went together in the 4WD vehicle - and made it home just fine. But then it was predicted to snow a lot on Tuesday night. It didn't, but we stayed home on Wednesday anyway because the by-then 'dire' predictions about the coming snow indicated that if we did go 'in' we wouldn't get back 'out.' By Thursday morning all the dire predictions had come true but somehow the Department of Transportation wasn't able to deal with it anyway so now EVERYONE is stranded.

This is a metro area of millions; the northernmost major American city. One would think that it would have all the accoutrement's, the variety of vehicles and equipment etc., one would expect of such a place, but one would be wrong. Unbelievably, there wouldn't appear to be any snow plows or sanding trucks or any other means of making roads passable in the mix there anywhere. So we had chaos.

Once again.

I baked cookies at home today. And took pictures of the snow from the back door, so as not to actually mess it up by putting foot prints in it. (Note the depth of the 'cake' on my patio table.) And watched continuous coverage of the mess - city buses sliding down hills, tow trucks going into ditches, traffic at a standstill on I-5, cars and trucks abandoned on the side (or center) of the road, and the occasional fool in a jeep spinning around everyone and disappearing off camera leaving people in ditches shaking their fists.

All because of 8 inches of snow. Would this happen in Minnesota? Boston? I think not. (But maybe they weren't built on steep hills.)

I fear for our Christmas plans.

Disturbing images of Christmas

I don't know what to think. Across the street, in my neighbor's front yard... lie the obvious remains of one jolly old elf. I'm not sure what he was doing there, or who just flattened him out and left him lie, but it's sad. There seems no hope of resuscitation.

And it isn't even Christmas Eve.

It isn't even that sort of neighborhood.

(Who ever came up the notion of inflatable lawn ornaments seems not to have really thought it through.)

For my mother

I'm not even sure how the subject came up, but we were talking about old pictures and remembered these - so my mother sent me the slides and I had digital images made of them... and here they are: my two older sisters and I in our choir robes. Many, many years ago.

Just a bit of a hoot - to start the Christmas season!

Our little friends

It really isn't a very good picture - using the flash through the window doesn't make for quality - but I'm thrilled to have gotten it anyway. Our raccoon friends are back - in multiples besides! While I was watching the raccoon washing his peanuts in the water dish, there was another marauder on the deck that I didn't even see, until I downloaded the pictures. Somehow it seems like you've won the Wildlife Viewing Lottery when you can catch them on your own back porch. Small pleasures.