Snow in Astoria, Dec 21, 2008

Last night the wavs pounded so hard and the building bounced. I thought we had a big log, but I never saw one. Morning was a peaceful contrast. Here's one of the hundreds of photos I took today. I narrowed them down for my Picasa Album. I read a few more things about my camera today and did some experimenting. I was also walking in the rain and/or falling wet snow for most of the walk, so some of the pix are artistically blurry. You can see them in the web album. By the time I got to Links Outdoor, my hands were so cold I could barely work the camera. I had some thin knitted gloves, and they were very wet, so I bought a pair of better gloves that still allow me to push the buttons. It won't keep the lens dry, but it will help the fingers!

I love the way the ice completely encased these branches.

The day started with icicles and with snow on the ground, but it was crusty and brittle, not like the powder from yesterday. Then it melted more and it rained some. It was supposed to rain all day, but as it turned out, it snowed hard most of the afternoon instead. The ground slushed up during the middle part of the day, as you will see from the photos. This is all so unusual for Astoria. If we get snow, it's usually a fraction of an inch for part of a day, or else it doesn't stick, or even if it's 2 inches, it's gone in a few hours. Now the forecast is showing snow all week, but the high temps will be above freezing, so we'll see whether it's rain or snow or mush or all of them together. It's interesting, and I had a blast walking and taking pictures yesterday and today. The Hanukkah gathering was put off because nobody could get back to Astoria. I have new orders to get out for the gift shop and I don't know if I'll have employees tomorrow or not. Saturday I slid on the road with my summer tires. Today would have been OK, but I walked instead. We'll see about tomorrow. I have several Express Mail orders that should get to the post office before 1:00.