This tree was there as the road filled with water, unable to drain due to the embankments of snow on each side.
[daily log: slip-sliding, 500m; slush-shoveling, 1hr]
Category: My Photos
Caveat: Après moi, le déluge
The rain came. Two inches so far today, in our rain-counter. And it’s not dark yet.
But on top of 6-inch-thick layers of ice on the roads, and 2-3 feet of snow piled on everything, it’s not enough, even there, to clear anything. It just creates lakes on the road, on top of the ice, and it turns my carefully-hewn network of snow-shoveled paths into slush-swamps, ankle-deep and devoid of friction.
My network of paths also created a bit of a problem: they channeled the rain and melting snow down our stairs toward the house, which would, of course, make a mess under the house under the upper front door. So I built a “dam” of ice and snow across the stairs and dug a channel off to the side to divert the waters.
For future reference, I should try to make sure to dig out “drains” when putting in snow-paths.
Good thing I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.
Caveat: Tree #1080
This tree saw a dog see a duck. Said dog then chased said duck off down the snowy beach for a very long ways.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; dogwalking, 3.5km]
Caveat: Tree #1079 (for reals this time)
This tree was meditative, beside still seawater that was littered with patches of frozen riverwater floating along, after an appropriate numerologically-induced respite from tree pictures.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 5km]
Caveat: Dogwalking #17 and a thought on solitude
I walked the dog yesterday after a long break from dogwalking due to excessively icy roads and my own under-the-weatherness over the New Years weekend – mostly it was burnout from the hard push of extra hours working at the gift shop up to and through Christmas. She behaved quite well yesterday.
Today I walked the dog again, but she was quite badly behaved. She decided to chase a car, and pursued it at least as far as the shooting range – about a mile from our house. I had to walk to catch up to her, in very cold weather and calling for the dog. Then when I found her, I had to convince her to come close to me so I could catch her and put her leash back on. That was time consuming and difficult.
Then we made the trek back to her house, on the leash rather than letting her run free.
She seems to realize the leash is a problem, and frequently pauses and engages the leash in a game of tug-of-war to show her feelings.
It was a longer walk than usual, anyway. Probably good for me.
I had a thought about solitude. Actually, the following quote is my own modification of something I must have run across somewhere online, which I have been unable to track down.
I like being alone. I have full control over my own life and my imagination has free rein. Therefore, in order to win me over, your presence has to feel better than my solitude. You’re not competing with another person, you are competing with my own mental landscape.
Caveat: Tree #1079 (cancelled for bizarre numerological reasons)
I’m going to take a break from posting tree pictures. Gotta shake things up for the new year, right?
I’m not done posting tree pictures. But I think it’s very weird that the enumeration of my poems and tree pictures ended up “in sync” – which is to say, each day the last two digits of each posting are the same. This wasn’t planned, and in fact it causes me confusion, sometimes. So… if I stop posting tree pictures for a while, then that number alignment problem will go away.
Anyway, they were getting repetitive. Not that they won’t still be repetitive, when I return to posting tree pictures.
Meanwhile, I continue to neglect the neighbors’ dog. I have been feeling a bit “under the weather” as they say, and also perhaps a reaction to the weather, which is not conducive to dogwalking: road coated in layers of slippery ice…
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Tree #1078
This tree witnessed a pinkish dawn.
There was a lot of ice on the road. So I ended up not dogwalking, and cancelled our Thursday shopping trip. I suppose I could be be crazy and reckless, like those guys that zoom down our road as if their trucks were hovercraft, but I prefer not to.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Tree #1077
This tree hung out along the desolate road to town.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1076
This tree (among the young alders in the foreground) saw the sun set behind San Juan Island.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1075
This tree is cold.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1074
This tree saw a waning moon in the morning.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km; dogwalking, 3.5km]
Caveat: Tree #1072
This tree allowed a dog to lurk and hide.
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 4km]
Caveat: Tree #1071
This tree was witness to the collapse of the storage tent.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; dogwalking, 4.5km]
Caveat: Dogwalking #12 and the collapse of civilization (again)
I went out this morning to discover that my storage tent (sometimes called the “studio”) had collapsed under the load of ice and snow. I suspect it got bombed by chunks of ice or snow falling off nearby trees, which didn’t help.
This is not the first time my storage tent has suffered the inclemencies of the weather. Last year it got blown down off its foundations and ended up caught up in a tree – which was impressive for a structure that is 20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet tall.
Anyway, I am dismayed, but not overly so. It has provided approximately the value I paid for it, which wasn’t really that much – a couple hundred dollars. I think in the spring I will build some other type of structure, which might weather the weather better, so to speak.
Meanwhile, I went and took the neighbor dog for a walk.
Caveat: Tree #1070
This tree was near an eagle perched on a snowbank beside a road on the side of a mountain.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1069
This tree was there as the greenhouse slowly tried to become an igloo.
[daily log: walking, 3km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1068
This tree saw the moonset over Sunnahae mountain.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1067
This tree was next to stump that had bonus snow on top.
[daily log: walking, 3km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1066
This tree was being rescued by an enthusiastic dog. “Rescued” in the sense that the dog, for some reason, decided to excavate the snow around the base of the tree, and then sit in the hole she’d made and admire the world passing by, while resting her chin on the embankment of snow. I suspect she smells mice or such in their little lairs, and digs for them.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 4km; snowshoveling, 0.5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1065
This tree had blobs of snow like blossoms.
The dog was happy on her dogwalk.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 4km; snowshoveling, 0.5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1064
This tree is not far from the dog’s home (Mike and Penny’s house).
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 3.5km; retailing, 3minutes]
Caveat: Dogwalking #9 and other studly pursuits
Art and I had a busy day today. We had lots to do in town. But first, I walked the neighbors’ dog.
The dog always runs down to our dock when we get to our house. I think she likes the smells of sea-creatures and such. We saw the morning sun touch Sunnahae mountain.
Maya likes to climb over the big snow embankments generated by Pat’s road-grader-as-snowplow. Of course, she sometimes gets stuck.
Eventually, she liberates herself, and then takes a moment to slow down and reflect. Maybe.
Art and I drove to town and first we went to the doctor, at SEARHC. After that, I dropped Art at the library and I took the Blueberry (Chevy Tahoe) to the mechanic shop. The Blueberry got brand-new snow-tires with studs. This does wonders for my peace-of-mind and confidence driving our road-as-bobsled-track back and forth to town.
You can’t really see the snow studs in the picture – but they’re there. You can see the tire’s brand name, though: “Snow Claw.” A reassuring name.
While the car was in the shop, I did walking errands in town. I went to the sporting-goods store and bought some new gloves of the sort I like to wear when working. I went to the bank. I went to the post-office. And I even stopped by work and helped a random customer looking at some of the factory-made picture frames.
Then I fetched the car, fetched Art from the library, and he and I did the Thursday grocery shopping and got a pre-made, bake-at-home pizza from the local pizza establishment. This last was our “normal” Thursday in-town routine.
Then we got home as the sun was setting, and had our pizza.
Caveat: Tree #1063
This tree saw aging snow and a malingering, waxing moon in the purple dusk after the 3:30 sunset.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: Tree #1062
This tree bent over the road-to-town, and a deer in the distance, that was jogging along.
[daily log: walking, 3km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1061
This tree tolerated some snow.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; retailing, 6hr; snowshoveling, 0.5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1060
This tree was near a dog at play in the snow on the beach. Can you see the dog? She’s a black speck on the distant beach on the neighbor’s lot. I took this picture standing on the dock.
We received so much snow.
The power came back on this evening at around 7-something. That’s good – I was feeling anxiety about our water-system’s ability to survive sub-freezing temperatures without electricity – we have thermostat-driven heating mechanisms on the pump and pipes.
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 4km; snowshovelling, 3hr]
Caveat: Tree #1059
This tree is a local interpretation of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
In fact, I’d brought my young coast redwood in from its outdoor spot a few days ago, worried it would freeze to death with so much snow and ice. And I thought, that’d make a good Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I watered it with some snow from outside, just for the photograph.
I’m going to wait and see if Arthur notices it. I’m predicting a 60% chance he doesn’t notice (and/or, if he does notice, he decides not to comment in any way).
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; dogwalking, 4km; snowshovelling, 1.5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1058
This tree was over a dog – the dog is quite far in the distance down the road, but she’s there a black speck of hyperactive doggedness.
We got a lot of rain last night, on top of the snow. It didn’t really melt the snow – rather, the rain landed on the snow and froze.
Then the weather added some more snow on top of the ice layered on the snow, making a delicious layer cake of bad driving conditions. I was glad not to have to drive today. Here is a picture of a rain-sculpted chunk of snow on top of a post.
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 4km]
Caveat: A printer to call my own
Arthur has struggled, recently, with issues with his old printer that he has set up down in the kitchen. Several times I tried to figure it out, but at least once he reset things such that whatever I had done failed again.
Rather than make a battle over “printer configuration” I decided to proactively buy my own printer. It came in the mail a few days ago, and today, Arthur wanted to print something. So I set the new printer up, upstairs in the main room, but made sure it worked from his computer too. It took a bit of finagling to get the printer to connect to the wifi network – the instructions that came with the printer were quite opaque and atrocious. But once that was accomplished, it worked quite beautifully. Both Arthur and I successfully printed things to the new printer from our respective computers.
So now we can print this blog post, for example.
Caveat: Tree #1057
This tree (excuse me, what tree? – the one on that island way in the distance, which you take on faith) saw the sun set at the “62 pit” turnout on the Port Saint Nicholas Road.
When Art and I were in town this afternoon, I stopped by the gift shop, and Arthur actually came in and was sociable for a while. Jan took this picture of him as he came behind the counter at my frame-shop work area.
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 4km; snow shovelling, 2hr; slip-sliding in a giant Chevy Tahoe, 1.5hr]
Caveat: Tree #1056
This tree, beneath glowering, snow-laden clouds, saw that I had tried to put chains on the Blueberry (the Chevy Tahoe).
I say “tried” because not once, but twice, the chain on the right rear wheel came off, and I had to get down in the snow and readjust it. After the second time it came loose, I gave up and removed the chains. In all, it took me more than an hour to drive to town with these delays, and so I was late to work. I came home without the chains installed, too, although honestly I really would rather have had the chains – it’s pretty difficult managing the Blueberry’s momentum on the ups and downs of the road when it’s buried in foot of slush.
It was a very stressful day because of this issue.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 6hr; crawling in snow, 1hr]
Caveat: Tree #1055
This tree was near where I parked the car on the level driveway of lot 73, rather than in Arthur’s somewhat steep driveway, which is hard to get out of when there’s a lot of snow.
[daily log: walking, 3km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Tree #1054
This tree saw a gift shop (lower right) and the setting sun at 3:30 PM.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; retailing, 6hr]