Wacky Oregon Weather

You might have heard that we recently had a big thunderstorm blow through the Willamette valley. This storm was a huge deal and happened on Thursday, June 4th. We had the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) warning of heavy rain, quarter-sized hail, winds of 60mph and frequent lightning. Later the Lyons area was warned of rotation in the storm, with a tornado warning added!


I had stayed overnight in Florence and woke to grey drizzle, so I headed to Eugene to run some errands before going home. I shopped REI and Oregon Art Supply, making big finds in both place, before heading north up I-5 for home. Just south of Coburg I hear the first warning on the radio, of the storm moving NW at 30 mph near Oakridge. This surprised me as Oakridge is just SE of Eugene and I saw no thunderheads in the area. I even looked over my shoulder to confirm that the sky was blue, with broken ceiling of small puffy clouds. Hmmm, interesting contrast that I'd see nothing to indicate trouble, but the storm was enough to activate the EBS. The afternoon was warm and muggy, not at all like our typical weather.



I arrived home around 2pm and kept the local radio on to stay up to date. The storm was continuing to move NW and was lining up for Corvallis and Albany. I confirmed this online by checking the satellite image loop. Did you know before reading this, that I am a weather geek? Yes, I am a registered weather geek, an actually NWS Skywarm Weather Spotter. This was going to be my first big moment, I was going to see something that I could report in to the weather service. Yessss!

I spent the next hour preparing for the storm. I cleared the patio of items that could blow away, I locked the kids in the house, charged the video camera (oh yeah, I'm not going to miss this one), emptied the rain gauge, prepped flashlights and pulled out the corded phone (you know your wireless phones won't work when the power goes out, right?), and kicked the AC way down so that I'd be cooler longer if the power went out. Long before the storm hit the am/fm radio crackled to life. If you listen to am radio you can hear lightning strikes long before you can see them or hear thunder. Soon the radio was almost constant crackling, like I've never heard before.

The blue lines represent negative lightning strikes and the blue circles are positive strikes. Benton county is outlined in grey with various fire districts outlined in different colors. The two big, yellow shaded areas represent, from right to left, Corvallis and Albany.

As the storm approached the sky grew dark and the wind picked up speed, keeping the trees bent. I grabbed a quick dinner so in case the power went out I wouldn't have to deal with cooking in the dark and with no way to nuke something. It looked like we were poised to take a direct hit of this storm and I was ready for it. For me however, the constant thunder and lightning, big rains and hail never came. Over the course of the storm I logged .13" of rain, and as I waited, the storm seemed to never really "hit". We had some lightning and thunder, but nothing like what was being reported on the radio. I checked online again and saw the reason. The storm of the year had approached my location, and then split around my location, before joining again just NW of me. You've got to be kidding me! Really?!!! Yes. What a let down. In Corvallis, the storm was big. Check out this video of rain:



Yeah, rain is not a new thing in Oregon, but we don't get it like this

Or wind like this...






Today I have been somewhat vindicated. While driving home from Corvallis I spotted a funnel cloud. I wasn't sure that's really what I was seeing, so I pulled over and watched the cloud. It was growing as I sat there, making it half way from the cloud base to the ground. Then, after a short period of time, the funnel became thinner and disappeared. Luckily, I had my camera with me and I pulled it out for a shot of the event. Unfortunately, my batteries were dead...waa waa waaaaaaa. Oh well. I was able to finally make my first Weather Spotter report when I got home, yeah! And later that afternoon, my report even made it onto a NWS bulletin! Woohoo!


WWUS86 KPQR 192006
SPSPQR

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
106 PM PDT FRI JUN 19 2009

ORZ005>008-WAZ022-039-200015-
LOWER COLUMBIA-GREATER PORTLAND METRO AREA- CENTRAL WILLAMETTE VALLEY-SOUTH WILLAMETTE VALLEY-I-
5 CORRIDOR IN COWLITZ COUNTY-GREATER VANCOUVER AREA- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ST. HELENS...CLATSKANIE...HILLSBORO...
PORTLAND...OREGON CITY...GRESHAM...SALEM...MCMINNVILLE...DALLAS...EUGENE...CORVALLIS...ALBANY...LONGVIEW...KELSO...CASTLE ROCK...
VANCOUVER...BATTLE GROUND...WASHOUGAL
106 PM PDT FRI JUN 19 2009

..ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS AND POSSIBLE COLD CORE FUNNELS...

NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS HAVE DEVELOPED THIS AFTERNOON THROUGHOUT THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY AND THE LOWER COLUMBIA AND I-5 CORRIDOR. THESE SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD CONTINUE THROUGH MID TO LATE AFTERNOON...WITH THE STRONGEST OF THESE BEING NORTH OF SALEM WHERE MODELS INDICATE THE BEST INSTABILITY WILL REMAIN. THE PRIMARY THREAT FROM THESE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IS HEAVY RAIN ALONG WITH SMALL HAIL.

ADDITIONALLY...THIS TYPE OF AIR MASS IS ALSO CONDUCIVE TO THE FORMATION OF COLD-CORE FUNNELS. AT 1220 PM A SPOTTER REPORTED SEEING A FUNNEL CLOUD IN LINN COUNTY...BETWEEN CORVALLIS AND ALBANY OREGON. COLD-CORE FUNNEL CLOUDS DO NOT USUALLY TOUCH THE GROUND. HOWEVER...IF THEY DO TOUCH THE GROUND THEY ARE DANGEROUS AND CAN BE DAMAGING.

And on the front page of the Democrat Herold, this photo by Mark Ylen, looks similar to what I saw, but further SE.

What a weird weather year. First a bunch of snow in January, a couple of really hot days in March and a very cool April, May and June (so far). I wonder what else the weather has in store for us this year? Come what may, I'll be watching.

Reverse Race for a Non-Runner

Portlands "Reach The Bridge" Race

Have you ever heard of this race? I haven't, but I'm intrigued. The concept is that the end time of the race is known, you need to be on the east side of the Burnside bridge before it raises at 9am. There are two courses, an 8K starting at the World Forestry Center/Zoo and a 2K beginning at PGE Park. You chose your distance and start at a time that will allow you to make it through the DOWNHILL course before the bridge goes up.

Sounds cool, doesn't it? The race is open to walkers and runners, and is sponsored by the American Lung Association of Oregon as a fund raiser for lung disease research.

My goal has been to do one "fitness event" each month this summer, and I missed the Strawberry Festival bike ride this month, so I'm considering doing this race. Would you like to be on my team? I need three others to join me, and we can walk together. Or, if you go faster than that, we'll meet you on the other side!

Registration is $25, and a minimum $50 in fund raising is required. Websites are provided to help with that effort. Email me by June 23rd if you want to be a part of team "Downhill Walkers". A link to the official website is provided here: http://www.reachthebridgerun.org/index.html

More Birthday Celebrations.

N.A. lead singer looking to leave group.

NExtra has learned that Notorious AARP lead singer and hottie, Candi-tone, is looking to start up her own girl band. While celebrating her 39th birthday at local fab hangout Elmers, family members overheard Candi-tone and drummer Christi discussing the singers plans. One blonde guest vying for her place in the new band, sang Happy Birthday to the singer. K.B. Jo, the bands keyboarder was present at the party and seems to remain close to the singer, despite rumors of Candi-tone being seen with a much younger man last month in Virginia. The absence of popular bass guitarist Rand, at the party caused further speculation of the bands demise.

Candi-tone's manager Carl and glam stylist Granny, were present but declined comment.

Notorious AARP first hit the scene on August 9th, 2005 with a successful concert at Experience Music Project in Seattle Washington. Since that time the group has toured the Northwest, but have yet to have had a second concert.

Mother's Day, Here and There.

Mother's Day was Sunday and I split my time between Beaverton and Corvallis.

I drove up to Beaverton that morning and hung Mom's beautiful flower basket, then we went to brunch. I called Jason up, he was headed to Mom's anyway, and had him join us. We had a nice meal at the Village Inn, just the three of us catching up. Jason also gave Mom a hanging flower basket and I brought that home with her. After spending some time with Mom and Dad at home, I headed to Corvallis to hit the party on the other side of the family.

Candi hosted the Mother's Day party and it was just getting to the good part when I arrived. No mexican food Brianna, so I didn't call you. Candi and Joe BBQ'd fanastic steaks and burgers with plentiful adult beverages. Randy was happily salivating over his plate of steak, sauteed mushrooms, garlic toast and pototes. There was salad, but no room for it. It was a perfect meal. After dinner on the patio, we started up a competitive game of badmitton. You know how brutal those can get. And it did. One added feature was the blowing of the cottonwood trees seeds -- it looked like it was snowing at one point. Annie was a new player and was slow to get started. It's apparent though that she is going to be killer once she gets this down. We'll just keep reminding her that badmitton is not a contact sport. After we were hot and sweaty and had humiliated our opponents, it was time for the strawberry shortcake truce. Yum! Both teams were losers, there were no winners. Players included Randy, Candi, and Brice vs Derek, Annie and Chris.
Who was there besides anyone already mentioned?...Carl & Granny, Tom & Wendy (Ashlyn was at work). We all missed Betty, but she wasn't feeling well. We sent food and hugs home with Carl for her. We missed Dustin & Brianna as well. Hope your first Mother's Day was super special.

SoTo & Turkey Chili -- YUMMO!

New York has SoHo, Seattle has SoDo, and Corvallis Oregon is now home to SoTo, aka "South Town".
While I don't live South of the Marys River, I would love to! I've worked in the area for close to 10 years and SoTo has sure grown up during that time. SoTo is home to a couple of the best parks and river frontages in the city. Willamette Park is the largest park in the City at 287 acres, and has a disc frisbee course as well as river views with hiking trails. Willamette Park connects to Crystal Lake Sports Complex, which boasts 8-10 soccer fields and 9 baseball diamonds. The Willamette Landing Boat Ramp is accessed from the Sport Complex parking lot. This park system is a hub of activity spring through fall. The residential areas in SoTo have been expanding over the years because buyers can find a good value in SoTo homes without the "Timberhill markup". SoTo easily connects to the downtown bike paths and is home to the orignal First Alternative Co-op grocery store. What else? Marysville Golf Course, the Airport, indoor soccer arena and beautiful vistas of Mary's Peak. In years past the term "South Town" carried a negative stigma. When we first started seeing people in the area running for fitness, we were shocked. Generally the only people we saw running were being chased by someone or the cops. SoTo, you've become a gem.

What got me on the topic of SoTo? One of our favorite recipes at the SoTo Firehouse is Turkey Chili. Enjoy!

SoTo Turkey Chili

2 cups chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 cup green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 (35oz) cans of stewed tomatoes, crushed
2 (15oz) cans kidney beans, drained
2 TBSP tomato paste
3/4 cup chicken or turkey stock
1 tsp chili powder ( or more if you like to only taste chili powder)
1 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP dried hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBSP salt, more if desired
1/2 tsp black pepper
3-4 cups of shredded, cooked turkey meat
Sugar
Shredded cheddar, chopped red onion, fresh squeezed lime juice, sour cream and chopped cilantro for garnish
Marie Callenders Corn Bread mix, make an 8x8 pan.

1. In a large, 8 qt., thick-bottom pot, cook the onion and the green pepper in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, over medium high heat. Stirring, until golden, about 5 mins. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for a minute or two more. Add a bit more olive oil if needed.
2. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, beans, oregano, salt and pepper, and cooked turkey meat. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for an hour.
3. Salt to taste. Add 1-3 tsp of sugar to take the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes if desired.

The chili may be made in advance and chilled for 2 days, or frozen for 2 months.
Serve with the optional garnishes. Serve alone, over rice or corn bread (best).

Makes about 12 cups. Serves 8.
Or 4 hungry firefighters, with some left over.
Unless we get up that night, then it's gone in less than 12 hours. Yeah, I think it's even more delicious after midnight.

Granny's Birthday Bash Pictures

I'm still waiting for pictures of the whole group, but here are a few candid moments.

Spring at Home

Spring is always a good time to take photos. The sky is so variable, with puffy white clouds and blue sky over here and dark blue, stormy clouds over there. It all works together to make spring pictures the most vibrant ones of the year. Here are some of our spring flowers in the back yard.

Below is a new hellebore that I found and had to have because it was so different. I'm starting to have quiet a collection of hellebores. They are so versatile in that they are happy in shade, bloom early and long, and don't require much attention. This one didn't have any identifying variety, other than "pink and white".




Look at the coloring on that new growth, isn't that crazy! The leaves are a very pale yellow with pink highlights. I can't wait to see this specimen when it has established itself. Stay tuned...

April means: Spring and Birthdays!

Yesterday we celebrated Granny's 90th birthday with a party at the Hilton Garden Inn in Corvallis. Family and friends traveled to Corvallis from California, as well as Stayton, Albany and Monroe, to spend time with Granny and enjoy and nice meal. While it wasn't a surprise to Granny that she was having dinner out with relatives, she didn't know the details of "who and where". I think she was pleasantly surprised, especially to see her cutie pie great granddaughter Cameron. I'll post group pictures when I have access to them.

See pictures posted on May 5th, 2009

Randy gave me one of my best birthday presents ever. After shift I walked into the house to smell chocolate chip cookies baking! Yummy, my favorite food of all time. I wish I had thought to ask for warm chocolate chips cookies many, many years ago. Perhaps this can become a tradition?!

A new family member will join Granny and I with an April birthday on Monday or Tuesday. Dustin and Brianna are expecting their first child, a boy, to be born during that period of time. We are following his life journey closely at The Motes blog.

This past week I traveled to Florence to deliver my stamps, over a 100 of them, for the used stamp sale at Inkspirations! It was good to be back in town. The Rhododendrons are starting to bloom and should be in full bloom for the Rhodie Festival on May 16-17th. It was beautiful day in Florence, windy but sunny and clear. I am looking forward to my first river kayaking trip this spring.

Fur vs Feathers; Witches and Worms....

Fur vs Feathers: This past weekend Randy and I followed the OSU Beaver baseball team to Eugene Friday, and then Portland on Saturday and Sunday , as the Civil War baseball rivalary between the Beavers and the U of O Ducks was rekindled after a 28 year hiatus. Everyone knows the Ducks restarted their baseball program due to the success of OSU's program and recent trips to the College World Series, so the rivalary was as hot as ever. Fridays game was at the newly constructed PK Park in Eugene. You'd think PK stands for "Phil Knight", 'cause what at U of O isn't of his making? In actuality, it's another guys' intials and his name escapes me now (sorry guy). Unfortunately for the "other guy", most people will associate "PK" with the Nike guru. The park is not done yet, but it comes ready with plenty of annoying Duck fans. I know the stadium will develop into the icon of U of O sports and be obnoxious is some way. I can't wait to see how they do that. We had to buy "standing room only" tickets to that game and stood along the "fowl"line in left field. Probably better that way, as we weren't 360 with Ducks. The Beavers won the game easily, so we left as happy campers. The days was warm and sunny, neither of which we expected.

Saturday we headed to Portland where Randy and I checked into our hotel, the "Hotel de Luxe", just 3 blocks from center field at PGE Park. Being in Portland is such a culture shock for us... one way streets, "No Turns", credit card parking meters, light rail, etc. Luckily, I still remember some of the tricks for getting around town and once we got parked we didn't move the car until it was time to head out on Sunday afternoon. The hotel was an older Portland building that had been renovated to feel like old time movies stars frequented the place. There was a doorman and the staff was exceedingly pleasant. Our room was small, but nice. I noticed later that all the pictures I took in the room were in portrait mode, because the area was so narrow. From this hotel we walked 1 block to the Commodore Grill for lunch and breakfast the next day. I'd say this hotel was a perfect location for the weekend. On Saturday the weather was what you'd expect in Oregon in the spring, cool and wet with rain squalls. The 6pm start time was delayed an hour and a half due to rain. That was a hint of what was to come as the Beavers didn't play well and lost the game in extra innings, 2-3. Many, many obnoxious Duck fans were very happy. We did get our happy ending on Sunday as the weather was beautiful for the 1pm game and the Beavers won easily.
After the game Randy took me to my parents house, where I changed into nice clothes and picked up Mom for our night on the town.

Witches: I drove Mom ( we weren't the witches!) downtown Portland to the waterfront district and we had a nice dinner at Stanfords before going to the Broadway play "Wicked" at Keller Auditorium. We had pretty good seats and enjoyed the play and our time together. Want to know what Wicked is about? Try this YouTube video.



I look forward to seeing it on DVD some day so I can see the details up close.
I stayed overnight in Beaverton with Mom and Dad before heading home on Monday morning.
Worms: As I'm writing this blog, our cat Lucy is bring worms inside to play with. Yuck, they are slimy and she gets that slime all over her face and chin. I wish she wouldn't do that, the great worm hunter! I've had to return two of them to wild this evening. It could be worse, she hasn't found mice or voles yet. I guess I'll be satisfied with worms.

Zen Weekend

This past weekend was my annual "Zen Weekend" with Susie. Once a year we go to Yachats and relax. Our big girls weekend consists of doing puzzles, dumping our "stress closet" (mine was empty), yummy food, reading, garden talk, and watching the ocean.



This trip I discovered the wonderful trailways of Yachats. These trails must be new because I don't remember seeing anything about them before. The trail along the ocean goes from our ocean front house, north past the Adobe and on to the beaches. The view of waves crashing on rocks is beautiful. I can't think of another place in Oregon where you can walk along the rocks and waves so close and easily -- a true gem. This picture is taken from just south of the Adobe, which is the building you see, looking north. Sorry, it's a cell phone photo, so it's not very good.






Two days never sounds like it is going to be enough, but it is and I always leave refreshed and ready to get back to my home, family and garden.

On the way home, I stopped by a gift shop in Yachats and saw this cute driftwood decoration on the side of their wall. I'm going to try this myself this year!

Painted driftwood, pretty cool, huh?!

Gut-Buster Birthday Bash!

Too much food and many good laughs, that's the kind of get together it was at Candi and Joes' tonight. We were celebrating the Birthdays of Derek and Carl with food and merriment. Candi made a feast of a wonderful mexican foods. Yummy appetizers of guacamole, chips and salsa with Margarita's started the party off on the right foot. We watched the basketball civil war, and rooted the Beav's on. They won, Yippee and HA HA Uncle Phil! Present this night, besides our Hosts and honoree's, were Granny, Kris, Randy, Chris and Annie. Annie is Derek's girlfriend, and this was her first introduction to the family. I'd say it went pretty well. She's a beautiful girl and fit in perfectly. I bet we didn't scare her off and I look forward to having her join us again in the future. On to the main course....The three or four different types of enchildada's kept us all busy for dinner, with only a select few able to make it to the taco/burrito bar. Even though we were all full, we gathered our forks up and finished the evening with the choice of cheese cake with fruit or coconut cake. Both YUMMY!! Now I'm too full. Time to sit and let it all digest. Dustin and Brianna, and little E, we missed your presence and look forward to your upcoming visit.

Reincarnation of a King

"The King" had a birthday party, and we had tickets to it. Saturday, January 10th we traveled to Three Rivers Casino to watch Justin Shandor impersonate Elvis. Randy and I stayed at the Casino and Carl and Joe drove over just for the afternoon/evening. We had a great meal at the buffet, I don't think any of us over ate too much. It was seafood night, Yum-o! We did a little gambling before the show, generally not doing bad there either.
As for the show, I will admit that I was sure I wouldn't enjoy it. But I was wrong. Justin did a great job of keeping us entertained while singing songs that we all knew. We were in the third row and had a great view of all the "action". Justin had many visits from ladies in the audience, who came up to get kisses from "Elvis". If the real Elvis was this charismatic, I can see why he was a popular guy. I would highly recommend this concert if you get a chance to see Justin. Here's a sample of Justin, I mean "The King", at work...

After the concert some of us gambled (you know who that was) and some watched football on the big screen in the bar before Carl and Joe headed home.
The next morning Randy and I tried the breakfast buffet and found it to our liking as well (Yeah, surprise). I gambled a little before we made some trips around town and headed home. I ended up with more money in the wallet than when I started, so I call that success.

Do you Synch or Swim?

I synch better than I swim! I'm talking about synchronized swimming of course. Synchronized swimming has taken bad rap and most people think of ladies in pink swimsuits with plastic flowers stuck to their caps. Want to see what I mean? Check out this YouTube clip. The swimming starts at about 1:37

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What synchronized swimming really is, is a wonderful water workout with friends. We work together to perfect our water routine. The moves will tone your abs and your arms, and if you keep moving you will get an aerobic workout as well. I love getting a workout while playing around like kids in the water. It's so much fun, I urge you to give it a try.

If you can make it to Corvallis twice a week, we'd love to have you join us. Our group consists of 5-6 ladies of all ages and abilities. We swim from 10-11am on Mondays and Wednesdays at Osborn Aquatic Center. You can watch our group from the observation deck, or pay the drop-in fee at the front desk and give it a try. We have a great coach and there's no pressure to be perfect, we just want to improve.

For those that laugh at this sport, I urge you to watch the "pro's" do it. How they do what they do is truly athletic and graceful. Check out the inspiration below. These girls are amazing and they are never touching the bottom of the pool.

Our Christmas tree with a view of the backyard. It doesn't look like the snow will stay in time for Christmas.

Snow, snow, snow!!! This is from our backyard, at the back fenceline, looking towards the house. Granted we don't have a lot of snow, but it's enough. The temperatures have been very cold lately. Charlie loves to fetch his ball in the snow. He prances on it until it turns into a snowball. I need to figure out how to post video's to these sites, then I'll show you how cute he is.

Hi! Here's the first post. I started telling people about this site, so I figured I'd better get something up for them to see.

We had only 2-3" of snow on the ground today. I was hoping for more. I have to go to work tomorrow, and other than having a high 0f 27 degrees, it should be good as no precipitation is expected. I like having the snow around. It adds interest to the day, it keeps us busy doing the stuff we like to do. Without new precipitation we won't need to chain up the vehicles. That is a major pain, and then it really slows us down as we try to drive around our district.

The forecast is for more snow on Wednesday, perfect! My day off. I think we are ready for Christmas, with all our shopping done. I still need to get the Christmas cards out however. You haven't been forgotten or ignored, just procrastinated against. Have no fear, they will come.

In the mean time, Lucy says "Meowy Christmas".

Cheers! Chris