A Little Rain, A Little Snow

Its a chilly and damp afternoon, much cooler than it has been for most of the past week.  Outside my office window there is a steady drip of rain, while up in the higher parts of town some snowflakes are mixed into it.  Late this afternoon and evening a little more snow may actually stick to the grass, but we probably won't see much more than that.  Over the next few days it will feel a bit more like January as the daytime temperatures only reach into the low to mid 30s and the nights chill out into the 20s.  While for us that represents colder weather my dad back in the wilds of Wisconsin longs for such conditions, as snow and cold is all that they have had for about the past month.  We should consider ourselves fortunate.

In a little while I will be heading for Cheney High School to officiate a couple of JV basketball games.  We'll see how that goes!  This pretty much the peak of activity for high school basketball so I am getting plenty of action...work.  Once we get to February and the playoffs start the number of games decreases rather rapidly.

Raining Champion

Once again this morning we rise to rain.  It has pretty well eaten all the snow in the area, with the exception of the berms plowed up and deposited in the front of the house.  They still extend a good 10 to 15 feet out into the street.  This round of rain is not long for the area as it will be heading out to the east this morning, and another 50 degree afternoon will be left in its wake.  Things will be cooling down though, beginning tomorrow.  Through the middle of the week we will be seeing high temperatures in the upper 30s to near 40 rather than in the 50s.  That's still a bit above average though as the normal high is still just 32.  A dusting of snow may come through Tuesday night or early Wednesday, just enough to remind us that it IS still winter.  Later in the week there will be more rain, mixed at times with snow, but all in all that doesn't look like a very big deal.  Temperatures at the end of the week will top off near 40, and drop down around freezing at night.

In a little while I will be off to my regular Monday morning humiliation.  That's right...it will be back out on the tennis court for me with the posse there ready, willing, and able to kick my butt.  I have been watching the opening round of the Australian Open on TV (It started yesterday).  Just about all of the matches shown resulted in thorough butt kickin's so I am very inspired!

Timing Is Everything!

In the past I have devoted considerable space in this blog to complaining about the winter weather, but if you look back to early December I did mention that I enjoyed a 50 degree day to put the Christmas lights up on the house.  To quote the very eloquent Yogi Berra..."today seemed like deja vous all over again!"  I was out there in front of the house, up on the ladder, in mid 50 degree weather removing those same lights from the property.  Where there was about 8 to 10 inches of snow on the ground just a few days ago there is now mostly bare ground, except for the glaciers that have been deposited right at the front of the yard by the snow plowers.

Once I finished de-lighting the house it was time to give the "family truckster" a bath.  Quite a bit of the winter gunk had built up on the beast, and it was high time to remove it.  She is looking pretty sweet right now, and that might just last a day or so, until the mud puddles have their way again.

Earlier today we made a Costco run.  This was significant in the fact that we had not made a Costco run in a good 6 or 7 years.  Way back when we purchased a membership card each year through the TV station, but we found that we never spent enough to justify the price of the card, so we gave it up.  Well, now that Kay holds the most powerful position in our church...she's in charge of the food and coffee...the congregation is springing for the cost of the membership so off we went today to stock up.  There is something about Costco that universally means that you cannot get out of there without spending at least 200 bucks, and we certainly honored that today.  I'm not sure what we are going to do with a 55 gallon drum of olive oil, but the 400 pairs of Adidas ankle socks that I bought will definitely be put to good use.

This evening we got in the car to drive to the neighbors house.  Now, usually we would walk across the street, but the neighbors moved so we can't just do that anymore.  Now it is about a 3 and a half mile drive to get across the cul-de-sac.  This gave me the opportunity to catch up with my little buddy Brady once again to see how life is treating him.  I don't remember that last time I saw him, it might have been way back before Christmas.  It didn't take long to reconnect though as he had me reading "The Stinky Cheese Man" and hauling him around the house upside-down while holding by the ankles.  We almost trashed the foyer light fixture...ALMOST!

I'm Back

Yeah...I know...it HAS been awhile!  But things have just been a little busy around here.  Our "Sweet Little Babboo" Beth just took off today to head back to school, and life just seems to be coming at a little slower pace tonight.  In the past few days we celebrated her 20th birthday (can I really be that old) and watched as our neighbors began the process of moving away.  That is a lot of emotion in a rather short period of time.

I opened up the front door just a short time ago to witness a pouring rain.  That's a good thing.  We had some snow this past Wednesday, but since then it has gotten a whole lot warmer and a whole lot wetter.  The rain will be coming down pretty much all night long, and the mild weather is going to be with us for quite some time.  We have already seen as much snow fall to date as would normally come down in an entire winter so rain is a welcome sight.  I am even getting a little optimistic that the glacier in front of the house might even melt before May.

Back to Beth...she was her for just about a month, and that turned out to be a very good thing.  There were a few grumpy days...on all of our part...but all in all we had a lot of fun (Rose Bowl trip and all).

One last thing...How about a New Year's resolution?  I resolve to be more diligent in keeping all of my followers posted on all of the humdrum aspects of my life.

Time For More Pictures

Here are more pictures from the Rose Parade on Saturday morning.  We were situated about a half mile from the beginning of the parade, along Colorado Boulevard at Fair Oaks.  It was very cold...mid 30s...before the sun came up, but the sky was clear so we picked the north side of the street to take advantage of the warm California sunshine, once it cleared the buildings on the other side of the street.  That didn't take long.  You get a whole different perspective on the parade be witnessing it in person than watching on TV.  Things move along very quickly!  Up at the top is the Salvation Army Marching Band.  They were playing "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" which was pretty cool.  It was a nice balance to some of the religious fools that were going up and down the parade route before the event began.  Then there is a high school band from Japan followed by some of the early floats.  Just below is a high school marching band from near Mexico City.  For a number of reasons this was one of the crowd favorites!

Stay tuned...there are plenty more to come...On Wisconsin!!!

Off The Road

We made it back from our adventure last evening, and now the recovery process is beginning.  We had to evacuate the LA area very quickly on Sunday morning, before the snow hit...yes...snow!  The mountains to the north of the metro area rise to 5 to 7 thousand feet, and Tejon (pronounced "tay-hone"...which is Spanish for Badger) Pass is at 4,300 feet.  We scooted through as the first flurries of what would end up to be about a foot of snow began to fall.  From there on the weather was favorable and the driving quite uneventful.  We made it to Grants Pass, Oregon on Sunday evening, and then back to Spokane last night.  I must admit that I prefer the green grass and palm trees of southern California to the snow and ice of eastern Washington.

What follows is the first installment on plenty of pictures that I took on New Year's Day, from the parade and the game.  This first batch has a decidedly Wisconsin flair.

Maybe we didn't win the game...but we represented well!

More to come.  On Wisconsin!!!

We Didn't Win

Well, it was a full day.  The outcome of the game could have been different, but it was a very good day in all.  Our feet are killing us, and it is just about time to crash.  I will be posting many more pictures in the next few days, and will fill you in on the details.

On Wisconsin...and goodnight.