Going To Get Wet

We are off to a good start to the day today, and the weather should hold up well through the afternoon, but from then on wet weather will dominate into next week. We will see a major shift in the weather pattern as a high pressure ridge shifts to the east allowing low pressure from the Pacific to move in. The result will be a cooler, and at times wet period right into the middle of next week. The first wave of rain will move in tonight, with showers lingering tomorrow. There might even be an isolated rumble of thunder or two Friday afternoon. Another round of rain will come through Friday night into Saturday, and more showers will be in the forecast just about every day for the next 6 or 7. Along with this will come chillier air. That will drop the snow levels in the mountains low enough to cause trouble for travelers. Accumulating snow could get as low as 3,000 feet by Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures here in the Spokane area will be getting into the 50s again today, but then drop back into the 40s through the weekend. Overnight lows will be in the low to mid 40s. In reality, this is just about what you would expect of November weather.

En Fuego!

It has been said many times that the worst day fishing, or golfing, or sailing or etc..etc...etc... is better than the best day working. But what about when you have your best day of tennis ever? Where does that compare? It was an interesting morning. In our first set of the day I was teamed with Bill (Please go back to the older posts to see pictures of my posse). We were playing pretty well but we got skunked, 6-0. John and Tuck were on fire ("en fuego" for those of you who like Mexican food). From there on it was my day. I could do no wrong. I am not sure how that happened, but what I am sure of is that it will be a long time before it happens again. My day of kicking butt will probably turn into a day of getting my butt kicked again on Friday.

After my tennis experience the day went pretty much according to its usual pattern...work...work...work. This evening was our weekly church choir practice, which is always a good time. Our choir director, Laurie, is an incredible musician, but even more important than that is that she understands that music should be fun. We have more fun than we should be allowed to have at choir practice. What is most amazing is that when we perform the songs in the church services they are actually quite good. For our congregation, which is rather small, we have a large choir, usually more than 15 people. Tonight we welcomed two new members. Dale and Grace recently moved here from Arizona, and are joining the congregation and the church choir. Thank you God...we can certainly use the help!

And now, the weather. Today turned out to be pretty nice. The sun was shining and the temperatures made it into the 50s. We are going to have a change beginning tomorrow through the weekend. More clouds will be showing up on Thursday, with rain by Thursday night into Friday morning. From there we can expect a few showers at times Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. It will be getting cooler too as highs in the 50s tomorrow will retreat to the 40s through the weekend. In the mountains there will be some snow falling, but probably not a lot. Most of the moisture will come through while we are on the warm side, so the snow level will be quite high, above 6,000 feet into Friday morning. That will be dropping to near 4,000 feet by Saturday, but the precipitation should be light resulting in only minor accumulations.

Gonna Be A Nice Day

There is not much fog out there, and the sun is already shining. The sun will be able to mainly just raise the temperature today, without having to use some of its heat to evaporate water droplets, so it will end up warmer than yesterday. On Tuesday afternoon the temperature topped off in the mid to upper 40s, and today we will be into the low to mid 50s. That's a bit a above the normal high of 48 degrees. The weather pattern will be changing through the end of the week as a ridge of high pressure shifts inland from the west coast allowing a Pacific storm system to push in. We'll see more clouds tomorrow, maybe a few afternoon sprinkles too, with rainy weather arriving Thursday night into Friday morning. Once the main rain area moves through things will be breezy and a bit showery at times through the weekend. Thursday will still be mild, back into the low 50s, and then highs will be in the 40s for Friday through Sunday.

It is Wednesday morning, so I will as usual be offering myself up as a living sacrifice to my tennis posse. I think the main reason that they keep me around is to feed their egos. I know that they all must feel much better about themselves, especially in regards to their athletic prowess, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning when we finish.

One Of Those Dreaded Nights

I have been sitting for the past couple of hours wondering what I was going to write about. This is a great fear of anyone that does this blogging thing in that if what I put out is not interesting no one will want to read it. If no one reads it, then what is the point? So you I fear that you might not understand my predicament.

After eating supper tonight, and some prompting from my wife Kay, I have decided to invite all of you for dinner. Kay is an incredible cook...just ask her! I really mean that! She is an incredible cook. This afternoon she was watching Rachel Ray, which is rather odd since she usually finds Rachel Ray rather annoying. Anyway, Ms. Ray made a breaded chicken and salad dish, a 30 minute meal, and Kay thought that it might make a good dinner for us tonight. I had a meeting for basketball officials this evening at 6:00pm, and I wasn't sure how long it would last. I told Kay that I would call her when it was over so that she could start making our evening meal. You have to understand that most people have a regular suppertime, which usually varies by a half an hour or so. We are not nearly that disciplined. We might have dinner anytime between 6 and 11pm. Anyway, The meeting ended just after 7, and I called as I had promised. When I got home Kay was in the middle of the meal preparation, and informed my that she was putting her own interpretation into the recipe that she had seen earlier today. The end result was incredible. I would best describe it as restaurant quality comfort food. Once again...you are invited to join us for dinner at your convenience, just give us an hour or two heads up. (Note: Kay doesn't know that I have extended this invitation)

Weather-wise it did indeed turn out to be a nice day. The fog burned away quickly except for right along the river where it hung around into the afternoon. Tomorrow will be a little bit warmer, but the fog will once again greet us in the early morn. The clouds are back on Thursday with rain Thursday night into Friday. It will remain on the mild side on Thursday, in the 50s, and then cool off again into the weekend.

In A Fog

Last night I confessed my lack of mental focus, and today's fog has nothing to do with me losing my mind. It is hanging out on the other side of the kitchen window this morning, which is very typical of this time of year. With the long nights and the chilly days the overnight temperatures have plenty of time to fall to near the dew point, the temperature at which moisture in the air will condense from water vapor into liquid water drops, causing the fog to form and spread. It is not a very deep layer this morning, I can see the sun shining through it, so it won't take too long for it to burn away. From there we will be on to a sunny day, and temperatures will rise from the upper 20s, where they are now, to around 50. Tomorrow will probably start out with a little bit of fog again and then turn sunny and a little bit warmer. Rain returns to the forecast for Thursday night into Friday, and then we should dry out again for the weekend. It will get cooler again, although not too cold, as high temperatures return to the 40s.

I Think I've Lost My Mind

I don't know who to attribute the quote to, but one of my favorite is "of all the things that I have lost in my life, I miss my mind the most". Honestly, I think this applies completely to my life. I truly thought that I posted an update this morning, but looking at the blog this evening I just realized that this is not the case. I will make a concerted effort from this time forward to focus my thoughts and be a more diligent blogger, not necessarily more interesting and eloquent, just more diligent.

I guess all of this would explain why it seemed as if I had more time to get ready for tennis this morning. The event went surprisingly well. I didn't win, but was more competitive than usual. I think it was because I was wearing black socks rather than the usual white. It was kind of strange because even though the results weren't embarrassing, I really never felt comfortable out on the court today. The rest of the day went about as every other one...busy...busy...busy! Monday is not an official workday, but as always, there was a lot of work to do. Most of it centered around school, both the class that I teach and the class that I take. I am making good progress with the final assignments for my seminary class, and still have a week and a half before all of it due. This evening we had a building committee meeting at church and we are discussing the final stages before the project is finished. That's exciting, by the end of next month it should all be finished.

Weather today was on the chilly side. We only made it to the middle 40s as a pesky bunch of clouds hung around most of the day. Tomorrow should be a sunnier day, and a warmer one too. Highs will be around or just above 50 on Tuesday, with Wednesday bringing even more sunshine and even warmer temperatures, into the middle 50s. Clouds will be collecting on Thursday and there looks to be a pretty good bet we'll get wet by Friday. That will cool things off a bit to, back into the 40s again.

Where Did The Day Go?

Here it is, almost 10:30 in the evening, and I am writing the first post of the day on the blog. I know...you're saying to yourself...get with it you slacker! There just hasn't been time to do it until now. As usual, it was a full morning at church. I was involved in both services, and in between we had an open forum on what our schedule will be when we move into the church building. The space will be a whole lot larger, and the congregation really wants to get back to one service every Sunday morning to rebuild the togetherness that comes from seeing everybody together at the same time. All of that impacts the Sunday School time and the fellowship time and everything else. We had a good discussion and I think that we are all pretty much on the same page.

After church it was off to the gym for basketball. I officiated three games this afternoon and evening. I had the same partner for all 3 games, and while being a very pleasant guy to deal with he was not all that good of an official. That really didn't have that great of an impact until the last game of the 3, when we had the tournament championship of the 7th grade girls bracket. These kids really know how to play, and are well coached, so it is up to us to do our best to officiate the games well. My partner missed a lot of calls in the first half, and the coaches were not happy, to say the least. Most coaches have no clue what it is like to be a game official. We look at things in a totally different way than the players, coaches and fans, and have very specified areas of responsibility, things that we are supposed to watch based upon where we are stationed on the court. In the second half I decided to take control of the game, and try to make more of the calls, even if they weren't necessarily in the areas of my responsibility. It was a physical game, with lots of reaching, grabbing and slapping, so a lot of fouls were called. As I mentioned, this was the championship game of the weekend tournament so the two teams were quite talented, and evenly matched. The game ended up tied at the end of regulation, and again after the first overtime, and also the second. One team was down to 5 players at that time due to injury, and two of them fouled out in the third overtime, which contributed to their defeat. I felt bad for them, but my job is to enforce the rules in a consistent manner. By the time that I got out of the gym it was 7:00pm. I had some prep work to do for my meteorology class tomorrow, and then we actually found time for a little dinner. All of that brings me to the present time. I still have to collect up all of the trash and get it out to the street for pick up tomorrow. Oh yes, tomorrow, there is a lot more to be done then too.

Now then, what about the weather? It was another nice sunny day today, and should be again tomorrow. All in all this week looks very quiet. There may be a few sprinkles by about Friday, but in the meantime we should enjoy pretty tranquil weather through the middle of the week. The days will be partly to mostly sunny with highs near 50 through Wednesday and Thursday. There will probably be some valley fog early in the mornings, but it should burn a way by mid-morning.