From White to Wet :-P

The above photo might have been from last season, but is a pretty good representation of how certain parts of Western Washington were looking this past week (not ours, thankfully). We were essentially cut off from the rest of the world east and south of us for a few days. The passes were closed due to mud slides, avalanche danger, etc. Interstate 5 was underwater near Chehalis. Truckers and travelers had to suspend their itineraries and plans until something opened up. On Saturday around lunchtime, the freeway was opened to truckers first... then motorists after the first hour.

Snoqualmie Pass was finally cleared of the debris you see here and motorists were able to get over the mountains. People in the flood plains are still dealing with the mess. For some it was totally devastating. One town fell victim when the powers that be released water from a dam but failed to give notification in advance. No one was prepared for the deluge that ensued and much damage occurred. That was an exception... for the most part people were warned and given time to evacuate if that was their choice. Some stayed to protect their homes and belongings as best they could.

The following are a few photos lifted off the Internet ... starting with the mudslide at Snoqualmie Pass:
In the town of Snoqualmie, this was how things looked... and Snoqualmie Falls are shown in the next picture...Puyallup River, I believe. They even evacuated some folks from Fife... near the freeway we travel to and from Seattle.
I think the blue house was in Ferndale and the one after in Gold Bar.Freeway Closure:The rains have lifted for a few days and we can only hope that trend lasts long enough for these poor folks to dry out a little. It's been such a crazy winter here so far.

Kristine and Alex had a substantial snowfall last week and she posted a few photos on her blog of their driveway/yard. That stuff was DEEP!

Looks like Alex finally initiated the snow blower that was in the garage. She said it was kind of fun. She's used it now also.

The next three photos were from Rachel's blog when their family visited Diane at Disney World. I recall Robert saying they were a bit jet lagged on this day, but it looks like Charlotte was having a good time. She was a bit nervous about Stitch (the costumed person), but finally warmed up enough to give a hug. Diane has since left for college at BYU-I and is getting settled in with new roommates. She spent a weekend with Kristine after flying to the Salt Lake airport... then drove her car to Rexburg (between snowstorms!). She likes her new roommates really well so far. They seem to be tidy by nature and already knew one another from last year. Diane is the "new" person.

The story on this next photo is that Stitch was trying to demonstrate how non-threatening he (is it a he?) was by hugging Diane's little Mickey talking toy that Charlotte enjoyed so much (while she looked on).
Guess it must have worked! :-)

So what is new around here? At the moment, Ron has gotten kind of a nasty cold. He stayed home from church today after having a bad night of sleep. I think he took a nap much of the time while I was at church and then later in the evening took another. He's in bed right now sleeping lightly while I have "Messiah" going to mask typing noises. For some reason this music puts him to sleep like a baby. ;-) It's like magic... classical white noise.

Despite feeling the early stages of a cold, he went to Redmond with Michael yesterday in order to replace the fuel pump on Lynda's car. It ended up being an all day affair, with doing the auto repair, going out to eat with Lynda and visiting a couple of wrecking yards with Michael on their drive home. Michael wants to replace the dented trunk on one of his cars and Ron has been keeping an eye out for a new side mirror for Alex's vehicle. So far, no luck. They had a nice day but he was really beat when he got home.

While Ron was away with Michael, I finally got myself back into our walk-in closet. We'd started that job last week after purchasing a shelf at IKEA. There were some tall piles of pants, sweatshirts, PJs and towels on the one side of the closet and they'd grown like a cancer over the years. I don't remember how many loads of laundry I ran after we pulled all of that out and several big bags of clothing were donated to D.I. This weekend I cleared out some more of my unused clothing and also bagged up the old formals and unwanted dresses the girls have had in our closet for years. That was kind of bittersweet, since many memories are tied up with those pieces of clothing. Karen's senior prom formal had been dry cleaned and was in great shape... but off it went.

I did keep some of the little dresses I'd sewn when Kristine was little and before the sewing area got torn apart with remodeling. It feels like sewing is something I did in another life. I pulled out a suit that had seldom been worn, and I have to say, I'd not think it was handmade if I'd not done it myself (from the outside... inside seams always look different). If I tried to do that now, I suspect it would look pretty terrible. I'm so out of practice and my machine has gotten like an old car with a sticky accelerator (even after paying to have it cleaned). It's sluggish to start and then takes off much too fast. If I ever get serious about sewing again, it will be time to upgrade the old Bernina that I loved. Wearing bifocals or reading glasses makes it interesting too. Try to thread a needle at 56 without them... what a riot! Glasses are good but not as good as young eyes with no correction.

This is the shelf we put in behind the little chair. I still need to go through the stuff on the top shelves and under the ironing board. Those will be next. It's no wonder a person can put this sort of thing off... it's TIME CONSUMING!!! Great feeling when it's done.

Yesterday's portion of the items pulled out for donation.
Ron picked up a lightly used queen mattress from a fellow at church who manages storage units and we put that in Lynda's old room. The situation won't come up for a long time, but next time we have married kids staying overnight, we can put up more than one couple in the downstairs. I've ordered a new quilt for the queen bed in Karen's old room and hope it looks like the picture. For jollies I'll drop that in here...
If it looks like this, it should pick up the colors from a picture that hangs on the wall over the headboard. We'll find out on Tuesday.

Well, sorry for the rambling, mostly about the trivial. Sometimes the trivial can be a saving grace. It's been kind of a reflective week. Lots of babies have been born recently to kids who were once friends of our children or in one case, one of the girls in my Laurel class when Karen was in high school. Those have been happy events. Two of Michael's high school friends (who married each another), just welcomed an 8 lb. little baby girl into the world and lost her a few days later. She had some sort of heart abnormality that routed blood back to the heart before its time, so the baby had an enlarged heart and insufficient blood flow to the brain, which caused brain damage. I don't know if she died from the condition itself or their attempts to do surgery. They have a cute little boy that is 2 years old and were so excited about this baby sister. I know they have a loving network of family and friends with them right now. They are living in Utah while he attends college. They've just been on my mind so much since Amber called with the sad news. :-/

Ron will be home again tomorrow and maybe I'll dive back into the closet (to clean, not to hide!). There are a couple of things on the radar for this month. I want to finish that first. Then the passport application needs to be completed and taken to the post office (by appointment it says). The garden tour trip is not all firmed up as yet, but getting the passport process in the works is important. I'm told they are kind of slow these days. After that, I'm hoping to get up a head of steam and paint our master bathroom. It SO needs it! Gardening season is not far away and it would be nice to do that painting before February. Some of the earlier blooming hellebores are sending their bloom stalks up now and they are showing color.

I'd best proof read and get ready for bed. Worthy Is the Lamb just started... so my typing coverage is just about over (I love this piece!). While working on the closet yesterday, I listened to some favorite classical music from iTunes. The Rachmaninov 18th Variation on a Theme of Paganini made me get teary. It had been a long time. When you hear it in context it just shines like a jewel. It's no wonder it became so popular. I don't know if most people know what the original theme even sounded like. I think I heard that Rachmaninov turned it upside down for the 18th and went from there. I like some of the others in that work, but that one was truly inspired!

I hope you all have a good week and stay healthy. :-)