Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

One of the nice things about living here is that the weather behaves itself. It generally comes from the west, so it is easier to be right about weather predictions. Our heat waves are, say, 5 degrees above normal, the cold snaps are 10 degree below normal and they end soon. We don't have tornadoes, we don't have hurricanes, the cascade volcanoes are on the west side and earthquakes are just not on the radar, although there are those who say they should be. We do have eto contend with the occasional fire, since we are after all a semi-arid climate. Once every 8 years or so.

So, basically, natural disasters here are photo-ops.

The first pictures were taken two weeks ago. The first is Ingalls Creek on Blewett Pass. It was raining so hard that all the streams in the area looked like chocolate milk. (And probably tasted like that crummy add water stuff, complete with totally tasteless marshmallows.) The second is the Yakima River, somewhere south of Yakima.

The last pictures are the Columbia River. This is controlled by dams (10 upstream and 4 downstream) and so is only about 10 feet above normal. It has been above normal all winter. I have seen only one gosling in the park, I think all the nests got washed away. (They nest on the now half-submerged island in the middle of the river. Several weeks ago there were trees listing at 45 degrees; they got washed away too. When a tree gets washed away, what chance does a goose egg have? (Of course, there are those who claim that this is a good thing, there are already too many geese. But we don't like threading our way through the poop on the walking path. (Which, as you can see, is now a swimming path.)) The river is running fast, and the gosling just couldn't swim upriver at all. The deer who normally live on the island have probably left for drier spots.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures. And donate money to places that need the help.