Et cetera

It's been over a year since I've posted anything on ATDC. A lot has happened over that time. Due to all the changes and direction of this site. I'll be redesigning and publishing an all new version of ATD.

Snowonder

Before it rained, it snowed. A lot!

We had over two feet of snow in Duvall. It was beautiful to look at and fun, until it wasn't. While we were prepared for it personally, the cities in the area were not and probably wouldn't be again if happened tomorrow due to lack of equipment to handle a storm of this magnitude. Once again, I'm grateful to have neighbors and friends that stuck (trying to get unstuck) together to make our way around it. I put together a small clip of what it looked like before it all melted.

View the Video

Rained Out

A few weeks ago, we experienced another "100 year" snow storm. It's similar to one we had 10 years ago. We received just over 2 feet of snow over two weeks. After that, it started raining and raining—over 12 inches in parts of our mountains. The video clip shows what happened to our valley once the snow melted. I'll be posting another clip soon from the snows we had as well. The video footage in the clip is from my latest tool - the Canon 5D Mark II (full 1080p reduced to 1/4 size). I'll be providing some updates about that as well.

View the Video

A Second Chance

Are you in need of a cat or dog? Is your current tribe of fur balls running low? Please see our friends at Homeward Pet. They are a no-kill pet adoption center. They bring in more animals each year than they have room for. Two of our three cats are former members of the Homeward posse.

Homeward does a great job, are very professional and can hook you up with your own new best friend. There's no need to look at pet store with so many stray and abandoned animals in need of loving homes.

If you are full on your fur quotient, there are other ways you can support this great organization. Check them out today at http://www.homewardpet.org/

Happy Birthday, Leap Year and Leap Day

If the calendar is correct, she's only eleven today. Being a leaper has its benefits. Happy birthday Sis.

Giving Thanks

Take some time on this holiday to reflect and you may find that you have more than you thought.

A few things I'm thankful for:

Amy
Family
Friends and neighbors
Good Health
Freedom
Brave men and women who serve and protect us
A cozy bed
Hot and cold running water
Electricity
Great clients
A furnace
Four-legged friends
Drivers with insurance
Chocolate

On this Thanksgiving, let us be grateful for what we have and also for what we don't have.

Summer is Falling

Where did July and August go? I'm looking at September and most folks wonder if we've already had our one week of summer, or if Autumn has already moved into second gear. Leaves are turning shades of red, it's been raining most of the day and The Who's, "Rain on Me" is playing in the background. We must be in Seattle.

Dry Spell

Our weather has produced a snow spell, but I've noticed a dry spell in my writing for the last two months. There are more things to come on this site—updated branding to reflect business name, more writing, more photo projects, more portfolio work. Up, up and away...

Won't You Be My Neighbor

During the recent windstorm and mini crisis (see Powerless), I was impressed how our neighbors came together and helped each other.
The day after the storm, using our varied skills, talents and resources, our neighbors were able to help each other secure our homes, remove debris, provide electricity in various forms, pick up items for each other when shopping and the list goes on.

A few notable and thankful exception standout:

• One of our neighbors brought in their RV, which provided a temporary, central location for heated shelter, electricity, a cooking grill and good company. It was great, especially for some of our neighbors that were less prepared to deal with the situation.
• A second neighbor, unbeknownst to us, was searching for generators online. We got a call late Sunday evening that the Everett Home Depot had a new shipment and he had left to go secure three generators—one for his family, one for us and another neighbor. We drove up and brought them back for all of us. Excellent.
• A third neighbor helped wire all the generators to our homes and he was able to track down the correct plugs in order to connect them properly.

I am thankful to have such great neighbors who were prepared and even more grateful for their willingness to help get things done.

Powerless

On Dec 14th, around 7:30pm, the lights went out around the Puget Sound area. A major windstorm was on our doorstep and losing the power would be the beginning of a seven day adventure.
Usually when your power goes out, you reach for a flashlight, light a few candles, tell some stories and hope it doesn't last longer than a few hours. The winds, however, were just getting started. Throughout the night, the winds would get stronger and our house sounded like it was inside a wind tunnel. I couldn't sleep and stayed up looking out our window at a corridor of trees that, if knocked down, would hit surrounding homes including ours.

At 2:00am, Friday morning, a gust came through that bent trees northward all the while willing them to stay upright. It knocked down one of them and I heard it snap out of the ground and crash onto what I thought was the road above our home. The winds carried on for a few more hours and slowly died down through the remainder of the morning. I only managed a few hours of sleep that night. When I awoke, I learned the tree that crashed down earlier, fell into the middle of our neighbor's home and split the roof into two halves. The homeowner wasn't injured and got out unscathed. Wow.

The storm passed and left us and the region without power and lot of problems (see the Seattle Times photo gallery). After looking over our property, I thought everything looked okay except for a few downed branches and a broken fence latch. After further inspection, I discovered a branch about seven feet long that had penetrated our roof like a javelin (see December's photo #20). I climbed onto the roof and pulled out the branch that pushed a foot through the shingles, past the 3/4 inch plywood, into our attic. That's usually something you read about with tornadoes or hurricanes.

The power would stay off for another six days. We did have a gas water heater and stove that would allows us to at least take warm showers and heat our food. The nights would be cold with our only heat source coming from a gas fireplace that that put out enough heat to warm a dog house. While our weather is usually quite moderate, the temperature dropped below freezing each night which was enough to keep some of our refrigeratables outside for a few days.

During this time, we got to know our neighbors better, acquired a generator (thanks again to a neighbor) and by the following Monday, had our heater and lights running again. We were even able to wash a few loads of laundry (no dryer—takes too much power) and run the garbage disposal—pure luxury at this point.

Without power, one of the first things you notice is that it runs everything! We take it for granted and that without it, there isn't any light, heat, computers, internet, garage door opener, refrigeration, microwave and on and on. Our modern society comes to a halt with the requisite power to run it.

Thursday Morning, Dec 21st, we had a knock on our door from a neighbor. Power had been restored to our neighborhood. It was an early Christmas present that took no time to open. We also had to turn off and disconnect the generator before turning on the main switch to outside power so we wouldn't send power back to folks working on the lines.

This was a good test for us and the area. A lot of lessons will be learned from this. We are prepared as much as one can be for situations like this, but ultimately, we're powerless to the forces of Nature.

Dog, Gone

We've had Sam for sixteen years, but today, we had to say goodbye. He was our first feline and made it through two states, four homes and was truly loyal. Our pup—a cat that thought he was a dog, would meet us at the door, fetch, howl like a wolf and loved to go outside in any weather. We will miss him, but happy he can finally shed his tired, old body. RIP puppy dog.

Waterlogged

When it rains, it pours, and when it poured, we became an Island. On Nov 7th, all roads into and out of town were under water. The signs around town say, "Water Over Roadway", but they should have been labeled, "River Over Roadway". The road leading to the bridge in the photo is about six feet below the speed limit sign. To the right is normally a dry horse pasture, but now the Snoqualmie River runs through it, and overflows unimpeded throughout the valley.

Professional Help

We all need it. It's never cheap, but sometimes required. We think we can go it alone, but help is not too far away. In this DIY world, a "pro" may be all we really need.
This reminded me of a few things I've noticed recently within some circles. Being a professional at one thing doesn't mean your necessarily one in another. On some photography forums I frequent, I've noticed that while professional photography issues are discussed and photographers hope to get hired as a pro, they think nothing of designing their own website which many have never done before. I know that many have a good eye and may be capable of it, but it's not their focus. Why not hire a professional designer to show off your brilliant photography skills, not your lack of website design. Designers sometimes exhibit similar traits—we think we can design anything.

Amy and I were recently discussing whether or not to hire someone to help us landscape our backyard. It is hilly and terraced and would require moving a lot of hard-scape materials up and down a long hill. I figured this aspect of the job would've taken me several years alone. Wisely, we reviewed several bids to hire out the work and talked with friends and neighbors who had hired landscapers to do similar projects. We decided the best route would be to hire a professional who worked in our community allowing us to enjoy our backyard instead of doing what we probably could've never done in any amount of time (plug - hire our friends and you'll be happy you did).

In about a four weeks, they finished the job and still allowed us to do what we like—tending to plants, flowers and trees. It was the right decision and turned out even better than we had imagined.

While we often can't afford a project like this and do our share of DIY projects, this was money well spent. When it needs to be done right, hire a professional.

Mom

High hopes, long-suffering, a work in progress, therapist, gardener, instructor, sower of seeds and a mom.

Happy Mothers Day, Mom. We are hundreds of miles away, but we're keeping you close today.

Freeway Foibles and Follies

The observations seen by this writer are merely observation and shouldn't be read as behavior ascribed to the general driving public. Many of you are good drivers and I applaud it. I drive to work each day from Duvall to Seattle. Yes, it's not the ideal commute, but work requires it. Over many years of driving this commute, I've witnessed driving habits that are amusing, uninspiring and often hazardous.
Before continuing, I confess that I often err on the side of "offensive driving" versus "defensive", but is often more helpful than not knowing how to react at all when driving conditions are less than perfect and avoiding an accident.

What spawned this little treatise happened yesterday near an on-ramp at the end of Hwy. 520. A car in the right lane, next to a merge lane, drove out of his lane, back into the merge lane and proceeded to try to pass vehicles on the right shoulder trying to get around a large truck. What happened after that was even crazier. A car in front of the truck he was trying to pass, pulled onto the shoulder to block him and then the large truck eliminated the gap so not to let the car in car back in the lane. What resulted was the driver being blocked off the road and having to merge many vehicles back from where he started. I've seen people drift over into that merge lane before, but not trying to pass, but to block this type of driver behavior. Now I know why. This is typical of the Seattle style of driving enforcement I've seen on other occasions, but never quite like that.

To merge or not to merge. In Seattle, we do it like we're merging in the grocery aisle. No after you...no after you..., and so forth until we've completely stopped on the onramp. Sound crazy? This is a common occurrence on the mercer onramp going north on I-5. The Washington State Drivers Handbook states, "When you merge with traffic, signal and enter at the same speed that traffic is moving. High-speed roadways generally have ramps to give you time to build up your speed for merging into traffic." I've often been given the single digit hand gesture for doing just this. I'm not passing you on the merge, I'm trying to get up to speed to avoid stopping the flow of traffic (and in this case, it merges from the left to the right and must be done quickly in order to connect to the East-bound Hwy. 520).

I used to ride the bus to work years ago and did so for many years. High above on the bus, I'd see people talking on their cell phones, putting on make-up, shaving, reading books or papers, searching for items in their car (in the back seat) - often all at the same time.

I'm sure you also have stories (cell phones, left-hand lane dawdlers, passing just so you're one car ahead, etc.), but after witnessing the merge, re-merge incident, I thought I'd seen it all. Getting behind the wheel anymore is an adventure. Be safe, be alert.

Ipsoot Mountain - Out of Sight

I knew I'd be going up to Whistler with Amy the day after my birthday for her work "retreat". This was already going to be a good birthday present, but then she dropped the bomb—the snow bomb—heli-skiing.

Are you kidding? As in Warren Miller, Greg Stump, Matchstick? After watching years of this on the big screen, I would finally find out what it was like. What a gift!

I skied at Whistler all day Friday. Saturday morning, I left early and headed to the "hut" to meet my guide, crew and other skiers and boarders for the big day. "Coach" would take us through some safety training about transceivers, helicopters and what to expect. After going through the formalities, we loaded the bus and waited momentarily for word of our destination over the two-way radio..."Ipsoot", the voice said, and our guides cheered. They were thrilled because it hadn't been skiable due to snow, fog and low clouds earlier in the week.

We arrived at the heli-pad, waited for the helicopter to refuel and then we all climbed aboard. We were packaged like sardines in a can, but no one seemed to mind the cramped quarters, and who would, considering our destination.

This was my first time in a helicopter and I can say that it was quite a trip. We reached about 10K feet and flew over two mountains and then descended onto our first run. We unloaded, grouped in a circle with our heads down to avoid any hazards and then waited for our guide to give the thumbs up.

We all stood up, look around in awe for a moment taking it all in. It was still and quiet except for the faint echo of the helicopter swinging back down the mountain. The 360 degree view was incredible and enormous.

We geared up, laced our day-glow powder straps (to help find errant skis) and anxiously awaited first turns. Our guide started down and we watched him make the first series of "S" turns until he made it to the first stop. The first thing we were told is not to ski wide on the entire slope but "conserve it", so that others behind us can share in the fresh.

It was now my turn. Technically, it wasn't much different than anything else I'd skied. It wasn't even as deep or steep, but that wasn't the point—it was about quality, with a capital "Q". Linking multiple "S's" over a series of 4-6 thousand vertical feet at elevation was magical, a feeling of floating—addicting, as we'd soon find out.

We continued on, searching out other slopes on the mountain, each time laying down our signature. We ended our third run about 1 o'clock. They served us lunch and then the negotiations started. "Anyone want to do another run or two?", Coach said. Uh, yeah!

We had one official run left and we could add another run for a small fee. Seven of us agreed to do a fifth run on top of our last (and some even did a sixth, of course for another small fee). We finished lunch, packed up and flew back to the top of another pristine mountain. We all seemed to be skiing like it would be the last time, riding our way to the final lift home.

As the day closed, we boarded the helicopter, everyone with permanent grins, and got the final rush of the day. Our pilot flew to the top of the mountain we'd just descended, hovered for a few seconds, and then, without warning, dove down to the valley like a coaster off its tracks. Woohoo!

We arrived back at the hut and attended a "viewing party" with photos and video of our day. While watching it, my guide leaned over to me and said, "I'm sorry, but your ruined forever and there's only one cure—gotta keep coming back". I fear he may be right.

Trip note: most guided heli-skiing trips are safe and within the limits of the skiers. We didn't ski cliffs, chutes or other "dangerous" parts of the mountain—it's only done in the films.

Can I Play in the Snow?

When I was a little kid, I loved to be out in the snow. I also wanted everything I owned to be out in the snow. After learning how to ride a tricycle, the following winter I was on it in the snow. The bicycle? Yep, to the snow we went (that was little trickier). I was up skiing today (sixteen new inches of powder) and I was thinking about why I loved it so much—it started with the snow!
Snow has a certain quality about it. Go outside after a snowstorm, even a few inches, and you'll feel like you've stepped inside an underground parking lot (the ones with all the sound deadening material). It's quiet and mute and is cotton for the ears.

I found energy in the snow. I spent hours in the snow just to be out in it. I enjoyed walking to school as a child because it meant that in certain months, there would be snow to kick around, throw, make snowmen with and track in the house.

When I turned 13, I learned how to ski and found the best of all worlds - snow and freedom. Skiing, especially on deep powder days, provides a feeling not found anywhere else. If you've done your living right, it's effortless and may be the closets thing to floating on a layer of air.

I don't get to ski as much as I used to because of time, the cost and well, life. If I go 7 or 8 times, I'm happy. It's not as much as I'd like, but it's enough to get that "feeling" and to play in the snow.

First Chair

This never happens. I awoke a little earlier the other morning for a day of skiing at Stevens Pass. It was officially a holiday and school was also out, so I expected big crowds and riders who probably had the same idea. When I arrived at the mountain, I got what I least expected.
First chair - yes indeed. Not only that, I snagged second, first chair on the connecting lift to the backside of Stevens Pass. According to liftee and the latest reports, they had received four inches of new snow and over two feet in the last seven days, so I was ready to ride. Granted, it wasn't dry, fluffy, Utah powder, but it was colder than normal (it wasn't raining - hallelujah) and I was able to find freshies for several hours.

What does "first chair" get you? I've never been heli-skiing (yet), but it's probably the closest I'll come to having the entire Mill Valley to myself. I took the two lifts up and surveyed the entire backside with nary a person in sight. It was beautiful and serene and strangely quiet.

Of course, after about 30 minutes, I was sharing the mountain with hundreds of my closest friends, but the day went well and skiing was excellent.

On your next trip out, set the alarm an hour earlier to ski what you've been missing.

Disneyland for History Geeks

I recently returned from my first trip to Washington, D.C. I was overwhelmed by the presence of the sights and scenes of our nation's past and present. Over the course of four days (not nearly enough), I was able to get a tiny sampling of what is contained in this historic city.

One of my goals on this trip was to get out in the city and put my Canon 20D to work which I've been using for the last few months (I'll post results of that later).

It was very cold in D.C. with highs only in the 20's for most of the time. This was a better time of year to come as crowds were scarce and humidity low.

I spent most of the first two days on the Mall inside many of the history museums (art galleries, U.S. and natural history and the like). It was fascinating to see some of the things I had only read about in books and Art History class. To see works from Matisse, Giovanni and Botticelli all in the same building was very cool. There were other museums (Air and Space, American History, Smithsonian) that contained many historical artifacts that could take days to view and read.

The last day Amy and I went to many of the war memorials and monuments. The WWII memorial was incredible and had pillars in a circle representing the major milestones and battles. Unfortunately, the Lincoln Memorial was being worked on, so we didn't get to see all of it.

Our trip was quick and I saw less than I thought I would. If you enjoy history (of any type), this is your town.

Miss Mouse - RIP

Mouse, Munchkin, or whatever seemed appropriate at the moment - four pounds of fur and bones passed on this Saturday, Nov 12, 2005. We found her on a visit to PetSmart for some cat food in 1995. The Humane Society brought her in for adoption and, well, we bit (or Amy did).
We already had one cat but Amy had already fallen in love with her. I love cats and animals, but our apartment manager didn't allow animals. Amy came out crying and said, "she's so cute, we need to save her". I gave in and we now owned little Munchkin Baroness Van Munchausen (thanks Jeff), or just Mouse as we affectionately called her. She loved us and loved to be loved. A female tortoise-shell, she was the beauty queen of cats, bathing what seemed like every hour. Even in her last hour, she would not be denied a good self-bathing despite the pain it caused her.

Mouse loved the heat and took every opportunity to seek every heat source available - the sun, the heat vents and the electric blanket she slept on for the last two years (I know, I know). She could be found following the sun around the house during the day as it dropped in and out sight. Because of this trait, she earned another nick-name - heat-seeking moussle.

Many people don't understand the love a cat or dog can give (or demand), and Mouse wouldn't be denied. Over the last few years, she found her voice and lost her hearing. We were often the recipients of many awakenings via the mouse scream because she couldn't hear herself meow.

You know the day will eventually come to say good-bye and today was this day. For a few extra dollars, we decided to have her cremated. The passing was painless (for her) and now she's basking in the sun on her own cloud.

Miss Mouse - RIP.