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General News -- December, 2008

Seattle weather SUCKS

The weather here sucks 10 months out of the year. My tolerance of the crap here is nil. Zip. Zero. I hate this place.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Snow

September and October were really, really nice this year. I was grateful, because I desperately needed some sun and warmth. The rains returned in November, but it didn't get cold. Not really. Most years the ski resorts open at Thanksgiving, give or take a weekend. This year, though, there wasn't any snow to be seen at Thanksgiving... or the next weekend... or the next. Very unusual.

Then came mid-December. Last Friday night we got a couple of inches of typical, heavy, wet snow... but it was accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature. Saturday night we got another six inches or so of dry powder. That was just up here at our house, though. Oh, there were bits in other places -- especially during the second snow -- but not the accumulation we saw. The roads were crap though, so we stayed snug at home.

Temps stayed below freezing until yesterday afternoon, so the snow stuck around. The roads were gradually plowed, so they got better, though as of yesterday, they were still bad between our house and Duvall.

Temps dropped again last night, and it got worse -- not only did everything freeze, but we got more snow. I can't tell how much more, because it's on top of the snow that was there. Several inches of more powder. This snow, though, covered the region -- even downtown Seattle -- so it's much worse.

I feel like we're buried up here. I'm terrified we're going to lose power. Not only would it be terribly cold if that happened, but I have no idea how we'd water the horses. We can't drive to town and pick up more water this time.

I want to move to Arizona -- and I don't mean Flagstaff. I want sun, warm, and no snow. Ever.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Photos with Santa

More on the Menagerie page.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

"I miss your spiders"

I used to be terribly afraid of spiders. Then I moved to the country, and if you live here you either get used to the spiders or you go insane. I got used to the spiders. (No comment on the insanity thing.)

Over time, I began to appreciate the spiders. I look forward every summer to the orb spiders appearing outside. Inside I got used to the giant house spiders -- think Daddy Longlegs -- living in corners. Since they live in webs (and stay in their webs), they didn't bother me there.

Then we decided to have a maid come in for a few hours every other week. I LOVE my maid. I cannot rave enough about my maid. My house is clean, and it stays clean -- and I don't have to do it. Seriously, in this time of economic hardship that maid will be the LAST thing I let go of.

But... the spiders are gone. I missed them a bit, and felt sorry for them, but I didn't give it too much thought. When we recently started having trouble with gnats and annoying little flying bugs, I didn't think much of that either, until last night when Jay groused...

"I miss your spiders."

The spiders wouldn't have hung around (literally!) if they hadn't been well fed -- and we had a lot of spiders. Now we have a lot of annoying little flying bugs.

I'd rather have the spiders too.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

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