Following Edge

KPTV recently posted a story online with the startling news that "Roseburg experiences heavy flooding"... to which I had to say "Well, duh!"

Isn't everywhere in Oregon having a bit of flooding. I've heard or seen stories from Portland, Salem and Eugene. And I don't even need to go that far to know about flooding. Just down the road from us, on the road between Elmira and Veneta (our nearest actual city), the road was under 18 inches of water this morning. Happily, it was down to only 6 inches this evening, so we could use our car instead of the big yellow truck.

These pictures are from the portion of Veneta just adjacent to the flooded road. If I hadn't mentioned before... Veneta is both rustic and scenic. In the way of rusticness, I'll point out that the green thing in the middle of the top picture is a porta-potty that has gotten relocated by the flood waters. In the way of scenicness, I'll point out that the sign in the middle of the second picture says "Entering Fern Ridge Wildlife Area".

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Christmastime! It's come and gone here, but here's a sampling.

First, the new decoration I picked up for the house, black Santa. He was already heavily discounted in November at Eugene's JC Penney. I couldn't refuse... he's so much fancier than the Caucasian Santas. Look at the silver beard, the gold-designs on his vest, the gold belt buckle, the gold trim on his coat, the leopard-print trim on his coat, trousers and hat, the gold ribbons and ropes, in the toy bag, and the gold chain around his neck. Ok, ok... we did add the gold chain, but it's just keeping with the theme. We've taken to calling him "Bling Bling Santa". He's definitely going to be a treasured part of our Christmas decor for years to come.

Second, here is the puppet theater Lauren got from her Grandma for Christmas. Along with the theater, she got more than a dozen puppets... medieval theme characters, horses, animals, lizards, etc. It's sure to be great fun for her! She also got My Little Pony that laughs, talks, and giggles, which is the manufacturer's sin against humanity, but which we had to get because it's the only thing Lauren would put on her Christmas list. To offset that and the Disney wedding dress and veil, I got her Tangrams Plus, a quality, educational toy. Lauren is wonderful enough to appreciate the pony, the wedding dress and the Tangrams. Bless her.

For Christmas, I got a couple of great books, 2 wallets, new pajamas, many more priceless trinkets, and a sore throat and runny nose.

Hope your Christmas or Hanukkah was great!

Despite how many imagine the lifestyle of the telecommuter, I don't believe that most spend all of their time working in their pajamas (or underwear) as many wisecrackers like to suggest. Today, however, I spent almost the entire day in my pajamas bent over the computer still trying to plow through my backlog of work, support calls and emails, and an online timeclock project which should have been completed weeks ago.

So, dinnertime arrived and I was still in my pajamas, so I decided I'd stretch the pajama day to bedtime. Anne Marie and I made cookies and Lauren watched a movie and decorated cookies. The picture here is from when we decorated the tree earlier this week. Hard to find Lauren, as big as the tree is.

Recently, my work activities have me thinking about creative solutions.

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I visited Redmond for work, things went well with Keith's help, and I'm looking forward to returning home to the family.

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After our previous failed attempt to get a Christmas tree, we had to visit 4 Cristmas tree farms this weekend to find the tree we were looking for. When they said "trees in all sizes", they weren't talking about the size I had in mind. However, one woman really knew her trees. She said she couldn't say if she had what we were looking for, but we could "head back toward the road, turn right at the pine tree, head past the your Douglas firs, and look just past the next pine tree". There, we found a 21 foot tree, the bottom of which had no branches and the top of which the woman said "you wouldn't believe how many years I've been trimming that tree".

Anyhow, it took something of a logging operation to get it home. My dad, who is visiting us this weekend for a "nice, relaxing time", got to help saw down the tree, break out the chainsaw and loppers to trim it, literally jam it through the front door with all our might, and attach the tree stand with a sledge hammer. (Today, we continued his relaxation with a trip to Bring Recycling to exchange some building supplies. Anyone else want a farm-style vacation?)

The tree, as it is situated is 12 feet, 5 inches. I am not yst prepared to admit that it is too beg, though since it's less manicured than a traditional Christmas tree, it is a lot wider than I was expecting. There is still room to sit on the sofa in the living room, so I'd say it's not unworkably big.

Even so, Anne Marie is boycotting the tree. I put lights on it today, but she had said she's not going to be involved with decorating it. It sounds like she may be reconsidering, which is nice since it's kind of sad to have a conflict over the Christmas tree.

Anyhow, isn't it stately? It's pictured here with my dad, who's 6 foot 2 inches, to offer some perspective. You may want to compare it with last year's little tree.

Happy Holidays!

A project I recently completed for work involved the compexity of integrating in two directions with a "legacy" computer system. I'm spending some time with Lauren and anticipating a visit from my dad.

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I'm pleased to be done with a project for work.

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We're finally ready to admit to the start of the holiday season. We headed to the Christmas tree lot with high hopes. My mother was able to easily find the 6 foot tree she had in mind. In fact, there were a number of really beautiful candidates for her to choose from. I would have taken a picture of her tree after we set it up, but we discovered there was going to be no way to get her tree into the stand we bought for her much smaller tree last year. So, it made it into her apartment, but is still tilted over on the floor. I'm going to try and remedy that tomorrow.

My effort shopping for our own tree didn't even get that far. If you'll recall, even an eleven foot tree is barely tall enough for our house and we know from experience that nine feet is just ridiculously small. I was really looking for around 12 feet this year! Anne Marie says I'm a "size queen", and I object not only to the miscast gender, but also because my logic is quite sound regarding the need for a larger tree. Our ceiling is almost 25 feet high.

It turns out that the lot, when looking for trees over 9 to 10 feet, had only noble firs. I don't like noble firs much, and a 12 foot noble fir is $115.00, which is outrageous. I'm accustomed to finding tall douglas fir Christmas trees for around $40.00. That is, when I can find them. This lot maxed out at between 9 and 10 feet for douglas firs.

The most common Christmas tree lots, "Big's", ironically carries only trees under 9 feet. I'm going to keep my eyes on the lots as I drive around in the coming days, but I'm betting we'll have to go out to a tree farm this year. It seems like the lots have all forgotten that bigger is better!