Deceptive weather maps

We were watching the Today Show after walking to French Bear for breakfast this morning and noticed the national weather map showed our area with a big low pressure thingy spinning and rain drops sitting right over us. This after Aleene sighed a sigh of relief that she had her sunglasses in her hand bag as we exited French Bear at 7:30 a.m. in the bright sunshine. Now it is eleven o'clock and we just did we get a sprinkle. That is NW weather.

Yesterday I journied to Rainier, OR which is NW of Portland on the Columbia River. To get there quickly, I took I-5 through Portland, then Vancouver and down the Columbia 36 miles to a place called Longview, WA. There I crossed the Big Water (Columbia) on the Lewis and Clark Bridge bringing me right out in Rainier...which is about the size of Borculo. You can get there without crossing into WA, but is is mountain road part of the way and I was concerned I might take a wrong turn and end up in a snowbank that that family south of here did that made the national news (not really, for there is no snow in the western mountains up here.) I spent the day with a small business that needed my mediation expertise. They will need me again next week too.

Incidentally, people tend to think that Portland is on the coast at the mouth of the Columbia, but it is not. Portland is about 40 east of the Pacific at the mouth of the Willamette River where it joins the Columbia. The Columbia actually flows NNW from Portland before it heads due west and opens into the Pacific.

Anyway, on the trip there I was taken by the Columbia basin towns that I skirted on I-5. To say that logging is one of the industries would be a gross understatement. With that is paper and the stench that goes with it...like Plainwell and my earlier days in Central PA...Tyrone. These are rough old little towns. I was also taken with the north east side of the highway which was typical NW: rock cliffs with spring water gushing out. All that was needed is a little more warm weather and the foliage would be magnificent.

Trees are budding here with the Red Bud trees blossoming for a fairtheewell. I remember ours in the back yard in Fennville being the first out with its pink blossoms (until I cut it down due to its close proximity to the Maple and the pool area.) So spring is shining through.

We are painting today. Aleene gave me some time off to write and to work with a mechanical contractor who is looking into heating (and maybe cooling) our addition and shifting the entire house over from electric to gas heat. She is now over at Amy's with the kids and I am just about ready to eat lunch...yes.

Rose is doing fine. She is much more comfortable with our new digs...but she still won't walk on the hardwood floors (lucky for us). But I think she likes her fenced back yard just fine. Her coat is so much easier to brush now that she went for her beauty treatment two weeks ago. We should have done that before. I think she likes her new look as well.

Our April calendar is beginning to fill as we schedule doctor, dentist, Jeff & Mary (2x) and friends for coffee, lunches and dinners. Oh yes, I talked to our realtor guy today and he is upbeat about a spring salel...and he better be, but we will stay with Woodland for another contract period to get the deal done.