Rain, mixed with showers and occasional drizzle

Forecast for western Washington

I love living in the Pacific Northwest. Really I do. Mostly because it rarely, if ever, gets very hot here. 80°F, which is about my tolerance for heat, is about the average peak summer temp. Oddly, it also rarely, if ever, gets very cold as well. This is all due to the moderating influence of a huge expanse of water to the west. You may have heard of it: The Pacific Ocean.

Weather here is very predictable. Unlike those places where the old saw “don’t like the weather? Just wait five minutes!” gets trotted out often, here you can stretch those five minutes into five months. In winter we have months of light drizzle. In summer we have months of clear blue skies.

My only quibble is the transitions between seasons. In Autumn we get storms. Big winds. Floods. Alternating grey and blue days. In Spring it is sort of the same, though the storms are nowhere near as powerful as Autumn’s. Some years we get lagging winters and others we enjoy early summers. This year, as you can see by the forecast above, is falling into the former camp. However unlike light, misty, drizzly winter rain we get honest to goodness RAIN. In winter rain you can walk across a parking lot and not really get wet. Spring rain drenches you in the same span of time or distance. As a homeowner it means your lawn is becoming a jungle but can not be mowed. As a classic car owner it means you look at the calendar and recall great drives of past years around the same time but instead look out the window in disappointment. Oh well.

Thirty days until the first JCNA slalom in the region. Hopefully the sun will come out by then.

Energy independence right under our noses.

Reader Benjamin Krueger pointed me to this video via Twitter. It certainly is a very promising technology.

I genuinely hope however that things like tis will prompt California’s Air Resources Board to cease it’s never ending jihad against Diesel engines in passenger cars. Otherwise we’ll still be buying petroleum from actual jihadists and befouling our coastlines for years to come.

Car Photo of the Day: Hot Hatch?

While on a stop on the 2009 Classic Motorcar Rally I was poking around the collection of cars at our lunch-time host and stumbled upon this hatchback. I’d never seen one before. It had the classic proportions of a “hot hatch” ala VW GTI. Very attractive little car in its own way. I’d never seen one before. Do you recognize it?

(Yes, that is the Fiat Dino from a few days ago in the background)

The 29th Annual LaConner Tulip Daffodil Rallye

Got the Goggles, and the Blower, it's rally time!

Nicholas & I dutifully dusted off our rally brains for the traditional “Opening Day” of driving season here in the Pacific Northwest. The Mount Baker MG Car Club puts on this event every year, and has for almost thirty years! The Tulip Rallye is in fact older than the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. It is a great, low-key, fun event that has fairly easy route-finding and a “gimmick rally” format – meaning you answer goofy questions with hints from signs and obscure items along the way. No TSD calculations required, so it is a fun way to start the season. It brings together between two- and three-hundred cars every year (though I imagine next year’s 30th anniversary will easily top 300) starting as always at the Cascade Mall in Burlington and finishing at the Swinomish Casino.

Continue reading “The 29th Annual LaConner Tulip Daffodil Rallye”

Car Photo of the Day: Name that car.

I had hoped yesterday’s CPotD would lead to an epic round of guessing. Little did I know the woodwork was crawling with vintage Japanese Mini Car fans! Of course, one of the very first CPotD shots was of a vintage Japanese mini car, so I guess plus ça change!

Today’s curvaceous car photo of the day subject should be pretty easy. Do you know it?