"You don't have to shovel rain."
--Scott Gerber 

A recent hike up onto the side of Mt Hood showed me how tiny our resident glaciers have gotten. It won't be long, at this rate, before we have none.

They're melting faster than we've ever seen:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glaciers-melting-fastest-rate_55bf7090e4b06363d5a2a494

...is worth overdoing. That was their mantra.

Completely Recommend.
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SOURCE
photographer: George Breed
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OLrOBJLJVs0/TRPGQXY8HOI/AAAAAAAAFSw/HqS-qik6-Kw/s400/san%2Bfrancisco%2Bpeaks%2B005.jpg

Last night I dreamed:
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It's snowing tonight, another strange coating of white stuff in this coastal city. Tomorrow another session of school begins: 10 weeks of classes, 1 week of practical exams and papers due, another week of lecture exams. I am wound tight as a....ball of rubber bands? Not sure what is as tight as me right before one of these races begins. But begin it I must. Providing that I passed all my classes from last quarter, I am 1/3 of the way through this program, not counting board exams. I don't know yet if I passed everything. And if I didn't pass, the remediation exams are this coming Friday. Crazy way to do things. But here goes....here goes.
( I read a book todayCollapse )

This morning they declared Multnomah County (the one I'm in, includes most of Portland) to be a federal disaster area. The news report was filled with city officials griping about how the snow had already cost the city $800,000 when the city budget was already strained. I think "disaster" is just a way for local governments to beg more money from the fed.
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Monday today, and there was so much snow in Portland that businesses were closed. People have been cooped up for long enough that today they got bold, dug out their boots and winter coats, and headed out. Cabin fever makes people especially silly. Myself, I went cross country skiing with neighbor Larry. We skied over to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and skied down to the Wilamette river. It was low and slow and quiet. Then we skied along the back trail toward Sellwood, and out onto the open grassy marsh where the birds hang out. The stream was frozen and the wind had swept the snow around, so the surface was flat and not too deep...very nice skiing. We unfortunately disturbed a group of SEVEN great blue herons that were holed up out there in the grass. When we got too close they took off as a group, six flying downstream and one flying upstream. We were sorry to disturb them, but pleased to see them.

Up on the hill we could see the crematorium. It is getting a new paint job. Somebody is painting various birds on the ugly cement building. It is pretty cool.

My computer seems to be on the fritz after I got greedy ripping music from Suzanne's CD's. It shuts down randomly and without warning. So I am cutting this post short. HOpe you are having a good winter!