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Weather Report

1 January Report

Heh...

I was looking through some Flickr photostreams and saw this:

Kids

In the car, on the way back from our trip to Jackson County, USA:

The Trip South

We decided to make the trip to Medford/Ashland about 90 minutes before we left Portland. We had hotel reservations in Roseburg, a sort-of halfway mark that we've adopted in the last few years as our first stop on the way, just for the heck of it. It's very nice to get up the next day and only have a couple of hours to drive.

Driving down was not too much of a problem, but it was slow. There was certainly plenty of potential for a problem -- the freeway was pretty busy and mixed with cars without chains (us) and cars with chains (struggling on the sometimes bare pavement of the interstate highway). The worst section by far was between the I-205 junction north of Wilsonville and the rest area that is just south of the Willamette River, past Wilsonville. That last hill had big trucks slippin' this way and that, and traffic was just c r e e e e e p i n g along.

Three hours after leaving Portland we stopped in Albany (70 miles) and had potato soup at Mom and Dad's house. I think I set Dad straight and he will no longer have wacky opinions and crazy ideas. No time to work on Mom, however, as we had to hit the road.

South of Albany it was fine, easy travelling. The snow abruptly disappeared just south of Salem, and from there to Roseburg it was clear and dry (some snow on the sides of the road at the higher elevations).

We checked in to our rooms, we later ordered some pretty darn mediocre pizza from Abbey's -- the guy delivered it to our room, and he first handed me a lunch-sack sized paper bag, saying "here you go." I said, "what is it?" and he said, "Ranch. Some people like it." I took the pizzas, gave him the money and he left.

I looked into the paper bag... and found this:


There are ten 2 oz. containers of ranch dressing in the bag. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with ranch dressing and pizza.

Ah, but 20 ounces of ranch dressing must be worth something.

And, for now, good night from Roseburg, Oregon.

The Week of Christmas

It snowed a bunch in the last week, maybe a total of ten to twelve inches at our house. It started with just a couple of inches, then that iced over, then it snowed on top of that and kept coming. I don't know what happened on what day because it all became a slow, white blur.

This is a neighbor's truck, the morning after the ice came:


Here's the bench in the back yard:



Here's Amy on our sidewalk out front, where the streets are snowpacked:



This Anna's Hummingbird stayed pretty close to the feeder, which we were taking in at night to thaw and periodically thawing it during the day (there's a closer photo here):


Our canoe got a little bit of snow on it:

Elf Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Man's Kind of Mildness

From a 1957 interview with Kirk Douglas:

And It Snowed

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco Saturday night (in celebration of Amy's upcoming birthday), and when we woke up this morning it was snowing. It didn't look like much downtown, but on the way home the roads were snow-covered and it was pretty slick. No problems, though. It was pretty cold, but I got out late this afternoon and took a few photos.

The Coconut

Spray Paint Issues, Vol. 2

I've been painting this funky old table we've had around the house for at least a dozen years:



I had planned on painting 20+ coats. I got tired of that action after about 12 coats. I needed some polyurethane and decided to use spray (like I said, I was tired of the project).

I went to Miller Paints, knowing I'd probably find the polyurethane with the spray paint, and sure enough...

... I had to show my ID and sign my name and they logged my info into a book: Grafitti Materials Catalog was on the cover. The woman who sold it to me was well aware of the irony -- that to "prevent" grafitti in my community I had to register my purchase of INVISIBLE-colored paint.

And even funnier -- Miller Paints has the practice of carrying your purchases to your vehicle, no matter what. It's nice, but when it's a single can of spray polyurethane, it's a little silly.

More House Lights

More House Lights, originally uploaded by Paul Hehn.

The house is lit!

Laptops