12. Recovery #JanBlogaDay

I've mentioned before about how late last year I jumped off the diet wagon with reckless abandon and glee and then turned around and ate the wagon and the horses and then the road we were traveling on. I stopped running, walking weighing myself, and it was as if I wanted to destroy all the progress I had made, like I was seeking out weight gain. As if there was something inside me saying "Too little! Too thin! You must be fatter!" And I reveled in it, sad as that is.

And then came the new year. It wasn't so much a resolution as just an acknowledgement that the debauchery was over, it was time to be responsible again.

And for the most part, I'm happy to report that it wasn't too difficult. I found the road, found the wagon, climbed back on and we're underway again.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....

Ok, there it is... first sighting of 2011.  Saturday, Nov. 5.  If past experience tells me anything, Accuweather will continue to keep it on day 15 of the 15-day forecast for several more days, and then it will slowly move forward on the prediction and then just before it gets here, it'll turn to rain.

Previous first sighting that I noted on here (living in Washington this will probably be a thing I do):
2010 - Saturday, Nov. 13
2008 - Wednesday, Oct. 22 (hey! that's today.  a few years ago.)

Yes, I am still rocking Accuweather version 3.x.  And will continue to do so as long as at all possible.  Accuweather versions 4 and 5 stink.  Boo!  (So why keep Accuweather?  Accuweather doesn't get it right every time, but it's right far more times than it's wrong which is the complete reverse of Weather.com, at least back in 2006 when I last did as close as I was going to get to a scientific survey of the two.)

Rain!

I was awakened this morning at 4:30 by the blinds slamming into the window frame.  I got up and looked outside.  Wild wind was howling through the neighborhood.  And then the rain started.  I closed the window and then I grabbed my pillow and headed downstairs. We usually had a fan running in our room, so if I wanted to hear the wind and rain, I had to head to the basement where the comfy leather couch is.  I threw that window open.  It was glorious.  For a few seconds and then I passed out again, the rain and the wind just knocking me out.

I was tired this morning, but I'm excited for the return of the rain.

Not so much for the coming darkness that means I'm driving to and from work in the dark.

Wind

He stood perfectly still. The darkened window in front of his face was open wide, the wind outside ripped at the screen, but he felt nothing. The air wasn't the pure clean smell he expected, there was something unpleasant on the roaring breezes. As was often the case, the winds were from the south, roaring down the hill. Tonight, they were traveling at such great speed that they were picking up the aroma of the port several miles away. The tree in his backyard was at least four stories tall. It did not yield much to the wind, but its long branches were caught up in the swirling winds and waved in all directions at once. There was no grace, no gentle sway, this was the chaotic haphazard movements of a slightly flexible branches of great length being pushed almost to their limits and then allowed to violently snap back as the buffeting wind hammered the tree incessantly, albeit haltingly.

In the darkened room, he wondered if the power would last the night, realizing that it could have already gone out and he'd have no indication from where he was. The neighbor's house still had lights, but there had been other times where one street was dark for days while that street only lost power for a few short hours. But at the moment, he was fairly certain they still had power, he was certain that if they didn't, he'd hear loud protests from his wife who was presently using the computer in another room.

But he hadn't heard that, instead only the powerful roar of the wind, pushing against every surface in its race down the hill - houses, fences, decks and garbage cans all created buffers for the wind, but it was the trees themselves that were the greatest source of noise as the wind powered through the evergreens, each needle a tiny dam changing the course of the energy as they stubbornly clung to the branches.

In the distance he could see flashes as transformers blew and he decided he ought to go find a flashlight.

Sun and Rain

Watching the finale of "Scrubs" - well, apparently now only the season finale now.  It's ok.  I guess there's still some time.

The sun was brilliant at lunchtime today.  Walked extra. 

By the drive home, it was raining pretty decent.  The iPod was spot on and played "All Will Be Forgotten" by Holly Brook and "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles.  I had the seat lowered and back, I wished I had abaseball cap to complete the chill.

Ok, Scrubs got better.  Makes you wonder why they are doing another season.  (Well, I know why, but almost seems like they shouldn't have.)

Wii 39

BMI - 28.9; 190.7 pounds; Wii Fit Age 30
10 yoga, 10 strength, 30 minutes free-step (3,867 steps)
Did about 45 minutes of walking and 40 minutes on the exercise bike.

Pour It On

The rain (and at times tiny hail) today has just been phenomenal. I don't remember when I last saw rain this hard. If you don't count every time it rains in Los Angeles.

When we flipped back to the live TV after watching something on the DVR, good ol' Graham Johnson was saying something about snow somewhere. We turned the TV off and checked Accuweather and fortunately it won't be here. It's far too late in the season for snow.

This Just In...

Jeff Renner, who's been in at KING5 forever (which is not a knock) announced on the news tonight "Rain, snow and wind - and problems with both tomorrow."

I've got problems with the idea of wind or snow tomorrow and, to a lesser degree, a problem with three items being a "both"

Accuweather has no offer of snow in our forecast.  Yay.

Rain Day

Woke up this morning at 5:30 am and again at 6 am and stayed awake until nearly 7.  Woke up again at 8:30.

Discovered it was raining, so our original plans were a no go.  A day without a plan and a house freshly cleaned because we're hosting our small group every Friday night.  Excellent.

Did some tidying in the kitchen, ran a lot of laundry, watched a lot of rain fall.  Played some SimCity.  Helped both kids get their showers/baths. 

Didn't do much of anything today.  Nice.

More Fog

Something interesting happened to the fog today. It froze to the trees. I heard about it, but didn't see it. By the time I went out at lunch, you could hear what sounded like rain on the underbrush, but if you looked at the pavement in the parking lot, no tell-tale splotches of rain.

Turns out, I discovered, that it was essentially hailing, but only if you were under a tree. The weather had warmed up (ha) enough to cause the ice chips to fall away from the trees.

So you had the sound of rain, but as long as you stayed out from under trees, you stayed perfectly dry.

I did not stay dry, or even warm, so now I'm on my third cup of coffee for the day already, because I need the warmth.

Kingdom of Fog

The fog around here's just been crazy. Lots of fog over the weekend, and it was so bad in our neighborhood before and after work today that we had maybe 15-20 feet visibility. Coming home, I knew there were cars alongside the road and I could see someone had a car door open. They closed it, but then instead of just walking alongside the car, they were walking in the middle of the road. I was driving slow, but it was almost as if he was as surprised to see my black car materializing as I was to see his lumbering shape in the middle of the road. Yeah, I'm driving here. But, it had its cool moments as well. Arriving at work this morning, the gray fog that obscured all but the most basic outline of trees gave way to a heavy frost. Everything what tipped with white, but without the need to shovel. And arriving home this evening, there was dead silence. All lights were masked and just simple glows in the black, black, fog, and were there any sound to hear, it was extremely deadened, like slipping into a sensory deprivation tank.

I don't know how long the fog is supposed to last and I think this is the thickest I've seen it since we moved back and the longest it's stayed around, but it seems like everything describing the weather here is a new high, a new low, a new record, something we've (collectively, the region) never experienced before.

Sweeping Water

I found myself in the garage tonight, sweeping water with a push broom. We had parked the cars, snow still attached, in the garage several times recently, resulting in melted snow pooling on the concrete. Today there was only one car, so I pulled it out and got to work, getting rid of all the standing water I could. The rest I spread out evenly, hoping it would evaporate quicker that way. Then I rolled Lori's SUV back into the garage and Lori returned shortly in my sedan. Back out there a few minutes ago getting tools to hang a bulletin board, I noticed the water's back. There's no leak, there was just so much water on the cars from the heavy, heavy rain that as it dripped off onto the floor, it was enough for standing water again. *sigh*

When we came up to look at houses in Feb. 2006, we experienced some heavy rains the night we flew in, but the next two days were nice and clear. We were told they had a freak January where it rained every single day. 31 straight days of rain. (When we moved into our house in early March, the side yard was still waterlogged, the grass apparently floating an inch or two above the topsoil.) Unusual, they said.

That year, heavy winds. It's not always like this, they said. 100-year windstorm they said. 5 days without power. The next year, 70-year windstorm. Incredibly unbearably hot for 3 weeks in the summer. Unusual snow. This year, a 15-year snowstorm. (Snowcaplyse, some called it.) And now, for over 24 hours now, California style rain. Massive flooding. Not here where we're on a hill on top of a hill on top of another hill, but south of here, I-5 closed for 20 miles. Last year it was so bad there were national fundraisers to help people caught in the flooding.

I dunno. Perhaps it's global warming.

First Sighting of the Season

Accuweather's predicting snow during the evening of Oct. 22.
(It won't snow, it'll disappear off the forecast before we get there.)

Goofy Weather

It won't. But it's crazy that this kind of stuff is still appearing on Accuweather. (Weather.com, too. But in an informal experiment last year I tallied up how many times Accuweather.com was right and how many times Weather.com was right. Can't remember how Accuweather.com did, but Weather.com was always wrong.)

Blogger Complaint.. why can I not just show this at actual size? Why must you shrink or enlarge it and then refuse to just display the actual size? Annoying!

Spring Hopes Eternal

Ah, the feeling of spring. However fleeting. Tomorrow's supposed to be wall-to-wall rain. But for today, it was spectacular. I didn't get out of the house to work until after 6. Started with a run to the gas station for gas for the mower and car. And then back home, mowed both back lawns. The air is now heavy laden with the smell of cut grass. My lawn, however, is sad. It is now bright green, thanks to the 2-3" of soft spongy moss that the grass was growing up out of. The only evidence of grass is that which was pushed under the wheels of the mower and had not yet sprung back up via subsequent passes. I miss the grass of southern California. All you had to do was not water it too much. Obvious, that grass would not thrive here. I also had the chance to pull some weeds and clean the grill while Rachel played on the playset my former boss gave to us. She and her sibling(s) will get a lot of use out of it in the coming years.

Beautiful 43

I had to run some errands at lunch time today. I opted to leave my jacket in my cube at work. It wasn't warm by any stretch of the imagination, but it was certainly warm enough. I wore my short sleeved Hawaiian shirt. At Borders, the woman asked me if I was feeling optimistic. I didn't understand it until I got back to work and someone asked me if I thought spring had arrived. I don't get these people. They didn't spend 10 years away. (I can't use that much longer... I got my tab renewal and it's already time for another smog check on my car. Dang it all.) So, yes, why not. Sure, let's call it Spring. Spring has sprung. And it was a beautiful day.

Of course, I got in the car for the drive home and it was 36 and by the time I got home, it had dropped to 32. And Accuweather is predicting snow in the near future.

Insane in the Big Rain

We had a little bit of snow on Saturday, we tried to drive to Everett but were forced to turn back because of the snow, including a rather dangerous trek through Seattle get from the 5N to the 5S, and then lots of rain Saturday night and Sunday. But drier Monday and much drier today.

Not so for other parts of the area. My parents had nine inches of snow by Sunday and then amazing rain.

The WSDOT put up this amazing slideshow of the flooding that have hit other nearby areas. Insane.

Silent Night

It's almost 11. My goal was to be in bed by 11, but I'm not sure I'll make it. I'm laying on the bed, but not sure I'll be in bed. My knees are bent and the keyboard is resting on my stomach and my legs. Outside, thunder and loud, loud rain. I can also hear the murmurings of neighbors outside enjoying the rain. Rachel is also laying on the bed, head on my chest. She has, to some degree, been insufferable tonight. Demanding every few minutes to go to the bathroom. Of course, at this stage for her, every request must be honored. I finally decided this was the only way to get her to quiet down was to let her lie here on the bed next to me. She had made her way to where she was lying all the way across me but now she's rolled off and... nope, she's back again, now laying on my wrists making typing difficult. And she's gone again. At least she's quiet. The rain is just coming down like crazy. With large windows on two sides of this room, the sound is just incredible. And there's that smell... the fresh chilled smell of rain. It's just amazing. The thunder is rolling across the sky and Rachel whispers that "Daddy, thunder is like a bass, bass drum." Now, it's almost impossible to hear individual rain, it's just a solid white noise. Lightning! This was the first I'd seen. Rachel, with her eyes closed, even sensed it. They had predicted rain for later tonight, first 1 and then later revising to 3, but I guess it came early. When I was in the middle of the house, I saw the lights flickering and knew it was coming. I can't even hear the neighbors anymore. This is so cool. Time to turn off the computer and just enjoy the rain.

The Sky is Falling!

The WSDOT says that the 520 floating bridge is unstable. Odd, they built it. To hammer their point home, they've released some video of what would happen in an earthquake or 20-year-storm. To their credit, they've put the videos on YouTube. Thank you, WSDOT for saving some taxpayer money but (a) not paying for those videos only to show them in a few meetings and (b) for using YouTube to show them instead of paying for servers to house and serve the content. Anyhow, here they are in all their glory...

Earthquake

Windstorm

Spring Has Sprung A Leak

Today, it's 8 or 9 degrees colder. It's partly sunny now, but rained really hard earlier today. I still haven't figured out how to get to the wall that I can see from my cube... if I could get to that wall and there wasn't someone in the cube, I could open the blinds. Not sure how long that'd last and if I'd get lost on the way back out and have to take up residence in that department.

Oh... I have a new cell phone number. Look for it at the bottom of my e-mails. My e-mail address is also semi-new, but the old one rolls into the new one.

Ok, so we threw all the tea in the harbor because we were getting taxed without representation, right? So is it at all ironic that whenever someone says "tea" you think of "Lipton" which is a Dutch brand?

Spring Has Sprung

Wow... just like that. 62 degrees outside. On the warm side for a thick shirt and black pants. Had to ditch my coat in the car and even then, phew. I am definitely not complaining. It is happy weather. But I knew from early on in the day that it was going to be a good day.