Category: life

where everything else happens

The Big Snow of 2008-9, start to finish.

I finally had a chance last night to edit together all my time-lapse footage from the big snowfall over the holidays. Our snowfall events here in the Pacific Northwest generally are short-lived. I set up my time lapse gear to capture the rapid snowmelt that USUALLY happens, but instead it ended up continuing to fall and then staying around for over 3 weeks! So I varied the shots and continued to capture until the very end. I’ve compiled it all into a ~7 minute video. See the snow accumulate and then melt, icicles grow and shrink. Trees shake off their mantles of snow. At this latitude (>48°N) at this time of year days are short and nights long, hence the darkness. Enjoy!

Years in the making, and passing.

I was looking for a set of photos from an event in 1999 earlier today and stumbled upon this image from May of 1998. It was taken at the end of the New England 1000, where my Dad & I won our class in our first outing together in the 65E. The car was pretty fresh from it’s initial restoration and my Dad was freshly retired. I was living in the UK back then, but flew over to the east coast for the week. We had a blast!

While it was not really the start of either of our “car guy” lives, it certainly was the start of a very important era for the two of us. It has been over 10 years since that photo was taken. We’re both older, and a bit wiser. We’ve been on many many rallies since. From cost-to-coast “Vanishing Point” high-speed adventures, to weekend evil puzzlers. We still do our best to get out and have a blast. 😉

I hope to do at least two rallies with my Dad again this year, so stay tuned.

If you are terminally curious, I can dig up the URL for my very first rally report. Let me know.

What Brown Can’t Do For You: Deliver a package on-time!

Once again, I’ve been reminded why United Parcel Service are a bunch of complete morons.

If you recall, they once decided my house was “too rural” for Saturday delivery, despite the fact that we’re 4 miles from a sizable town and perhaps a mile from a major state highway. This compounded by what was likely my worst ever customer service experience ever, has basically lost me forever as a customer. I will never willingly use their services.

So what happened recently to bring this all back?

Every year my mother arranges to send us a christmas wreath for our home. It is something of a family tradition. She used to source them from a family-run business in the unpronounceable-to-all-but-Washingtonians town of Puyallup. Unfortunately, like our neighborhood tree-farm they closed up shop a few years ago. Since then my mom has sourced her wreaths from various commercial outfits. This year however, no wreath ever arrived. I thought that perhaps she had forgotten.

Until yesterday, January 2nd, 2009, when I came home from work I found our 2008 Christmas Wreath sitting in a box on the front porch! Thank you UPS. Once again, you have dazzled me with your incompetence.

But of course I’d neglected to take down the wreath from the year before… though it is looking a bit… dead.

OK, enough already!

This is what awaited me outside as I left for work. MORE snow. As you can see the 3+ feet that had fallen before christmas has melted away to a few inches, but still remains everywhere around our home. Last night brought another half inch or so. (Oddly I left the Valentine1 on, and it kept the area above it clear of snow.)

This is 17 straight days with snow covered ground, which I’m fairly certain is the longest we’ve ever endured that condition here in my 20-some years in the Pacific Northwest. Mind you the lowlands have been snow-free for a while, but I think I’ve had enough. Can we have our rain back please?

Next week I’ll be in California though so there’s hope. (who knows, maybe I’ll bring the snow with me!)

Day Thirteen of the Big Snow of 2008

Snowfall is like a romance. When it first arrives it is clean, bright and filled with promise of adventure.

After a while it becomes tedious and while you can recall the beginnings, the adventure is getting a little old.

By the time the end rolls around you just wish it would hurry up and leave. There is all sorts of collateral damage that is coming to light. Things are no longer clean and bright… in fact it is messy, slushy, muddy, and miserable.

The last few flakes fell out of the sky Friday. Rain returned in full force Friday afternoon. Since we had accumulated well over a meter of snow up here in the foothills it is taking forever to melt. We still have over a foot on the ground and it is slowly vanishing. The air is heavy with moisture and fog collects above empty ground as the wetness really has nowhere to go. The snow is dirty, as all the fallen tree debris is being uncovered as things melt.

The big slab of snow on the barn roof slid off today, pulling part of a rain gutter along with it. I still have not turned the water on out there though… I’ll likely wait for mid-week when the threat of a night-time freeze is gone. I imagine it will be Wednesday before we lose all the major accumulations of snow.

I did manage to get the Jetta moved today though. Sorry no pics. I shoveled out a path immediately ahead of it. Then I got Sue’s Jeep out and created a pathway for the little VW to follow. I just patiently drove up and down the driveway, the full â…“rd mile out to the plowed road. First in 4WD-Low, then is just plain 4WD. The shovel lowered a few of the very deep “high-center” areas where the ruts were very deep. During the warmest, slushiest part of the day I hopped into the Jetta and braced myself for the journey. I already had the tow eye threaded in and a tow-strap ready in the Jeep should I get stuck. The Jetta started on the first try (always a good sign) and I put it in gear and just maintained a steady, but slow pace all the way out to the road. It never hesitated or slipped too much except for the odd transition corner I had to negotiate not long after I started. Patience and persistence saw me all the way out to wet pavement. It is now parked out there awaiting my morning commute.

I bet there is NO way I would have made it out come morning if we do indeed freeze again tonight.

The boys arrive home in the early afternoon. I’ll pick them up at Sea-Tac and bring them home.

At least now I’m certain I can.