Bits and pieces of December 16

The image that struck me first this morning was the tide going out over the base of the radio tower. The water is low when the base begins to show, and I liked the way the sheets of water formed patterns over it. I got my camera out a bit late for the best patterns, because - what can I say? - it's a work day and work interrupted my camera fun. I'll try to get it right another time. It's always different, as the tides' height changes by about an hour each day and the weather and lighting all have an effect. It was cold this morning. You can see a bit of snow on the catwalk in the upper left, although the day was sunny and beautiful . . .

. . . and cold! It was still a little below freezing when I went out on an errand. Here's our front door. There isn't much snow left this morning. There's a bit of black ice. I wonder how long the plants will look green.

They had more snow remaining on the flat concrete next door at the old Englund Marine building.

Here's contrast on the river. The small fishing boat Marie Kathleen (built in 1966, as I found out), passes the cargo ship Port Kelang, at anchor. Port Kelang is in Malaysia, but "Kelang" is also the name of the female Malayan tapir at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I have a lot of photos of her and her half-grown calf from our last visit to Seattle that I want to put online soon. I don't have time today, as we're still busy in the gift shop and I have to find and sort the pix. The only SHIP Kelang I could find online was a Hanjin Port Kelang, which looks different from this one.

Then something unusual came by - first downriver, then it turned and came back after only a short time. It was a bright red crane on a barge being shoved by a tow boat. Cool. That's the Port Kelang again on the right. She stayed around for several days and now appears to have moved a bit or maybe moved on up or down the river.

December 14: Snow, logs, and small black birds

There was a bit of snow overnight. Not much remained on the catwalk in the morning.

Do the seagulls like snow? They don't seem to mind. At this point the snow was only teasing, and not sticking very hard.

We have flotillas of small black and white birds around our building quite often this season. The round-headed ones may be the ckicks, with white cheek patches. (See below.) I'm not sure what kind they are.

Here's one of them, separated from the rest. Usually when I come out on the deck with my camera, they retreat quickly, but this guy wasn't too worried. He was heading away, but not as fast as usual. I slowed down and tried to look non-threatening.

More seagulls. I like this photo because I like the shape of the building and the windows. Two seagulls are on the lower roof. The one on the right was inspecting something in the gutter. Earlier he had his whole head buried in the gutter, digging at whatever it was.

A bit after 1:00 p.m., the snow was gone, but here's a log blown in by the weather. By nightfall, the logs would be pounding the building again. The logs today are nothing compared to the huge one that hung up on the building last January. This year we also have screens around the pilings to keep them from getting caught. They still give the underpinnings a good pounding, though, before they're deflected and wash out again.

Still not much snow, but you can see the boards and logs brought up by the waves and tides. This is our building on the left; you can see where it touches the river bank. There's an inlet here that typically catches logs; in this case there was also a lot of floating milled lumber. Later the snow started falling again, this time more steadily for most of the afternoon and evening.

Lee in the snow in Astoria - some December online merchant musings

Here's Lee out in the snow in Astoria in front of The Animal Store leaving for the Area Properties Christmas Party. I took a bunch of time off yesterday and did some things, so I opted to stay inside where it's warm and work my tail off. This is the couple of weeks when online retailers go crazy filling orders, trying to get more orders when they slow down, or worrying when things break down, run out, etc. It keeps a person busy. Yesterday I did take time off and our orders slowed down, so today I'm working. Even making a blog post like this one can help link things together and boost our gift shop's findability online. Lee was busy all morning playing Santa by helping to fill orders.

Yesterday I went to Laurel's baby shower (photos to come in another blog post), to the pool to shower and relax in the hot tub (NO photos to come, no no no :), had dinner out with Jane and Tom, and watched a movie on our wonderful new hi def TV which replaced the ancient little one that had to be pulled right up to the foot of the bed so we could see it. Yeah! We saw Les Miserables with Liam Neeson, Geofrrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes. We really enjoyed it, but now Lee wants to see a version with the original Dickens ending. I read the book in Jr. High or High School, but Lee didn't. We filled a lot of orders, too, but when I stop blogging and posting things online, the orders slow down. Every year there is some new thing to make December interesting!

Laurel's baby shower, with Teagan in attendance!

I think everyone brought diapers. Laurel has just posted on her blog about the shower. As she says, the timing was not exactly as planned. Teagan wasn't supposed to be born yet, but I'm glad he was. He was a good guest :)

Laurel's friend Jen gave the shower at Laurel's Aunt Jane's house. I had nothing to do with it except that I went and had a good time and, as usual, took pictures of many things, including some people. Laurel looked radiant - very pretty, and very happy. Here she's holding up a pair of very cute little shoes. After awhile one of the game rules had to be changed so nobody could use the word "cute" without losing the clothes-pin around their neck to the person who caught them saying the banned word. EVERYTHING was cute. Imagine all the newborn-size baby outfits with ears, bears, pockets, etc.

Ashley helps one of the guests with . . . something-or-other.

From the back left: Erika, DeLyne, Laurie, Jane, young lady whose name I don't know, Laurel, and Laurel's mom, Chris. I think that's Maggie's head in the lower right.

Nice table setting - nice food :)

Outside it was drippy and rainy. We were having snow and storm warnings. For the moment it was just a lot of rain and colder-than-usual weather.

Kids. The two little girls in front are Maggie's twins. The kids are entertained.

One of the games the adults played was about the names of baby animals. Everyone said, "Sheryl's going to do well on this one." Ummm. Not. I love animals, but I didn't know a leveret from a pout until the game was over. Some I should have known, but I must have been working too much and retarded my brain. I got eight right. I think Erika won with a whopping 18 out of 21 or something like that. Here they are, for the reader's education and so I won't ever forget:

Raccoon: kit

Wolf: pup (I put cub, and I might argue that it's at least in common use, if not correct, or maybe it's an alternative-type wolf baby)

Goose: gosling

Elephant: calf

Swan: signet

Turkey: pout (and who has ever heard of THAT?)

Zebra: foal (I had "colt" - not close enough)

Eagle: eaglet

Rooster: cockerel

Owl: owlet (at least I got that one)

Lion: cub

Goat: kid

Fox: kit

Kangaroo: joey

Ostrich: chick

Tortoise: hatchling

Rabbit: kit (don't ask me how I got it, but I did)

Hare: leveret

Bat: pup

Koala: joey

Shark: pup (!)

Well, that was fun.

Also at the party were birds at the feeder. (Fun with long lenses.)

James and Teagan had been napping (?) in the bedroom, and they finally came out. Laurel presented Teagan, the second guest of honor (or vice-versa).

Dad (James) joins the party and feeds little T. in the front room.

Cake. I wasn't going to, but I did. With ice cream (2 scoops).

Hello!

Here's Maggie feeding Teagan as the party winds down and people begin leaving to get home ahead of the storm.

Here on the water we had loud crashing waves like on the ocean and logs banging against the building all night. It's kind of romantic and even comforting unless you're the one paying for upkeep on the pilings (which I am not).

December 12: Gearing up for a storm in Astoria

There was a storm in the making out over the Columbia and beyond to the north. The day started with rain, and the waves were higher than usual. It almost looks like the ocean, but remember - the Columbia is only a river. Here in Astoria, we're about 10 miles from the ocean.

Dark skies to the north make this ship stand out dramatically.

Here's a pic of the same ship with the pilot boat alongside. I left the original large. If you click on the photo, you can see the pilot climbing up the ladder and people on board waiting for him.

The background as the stern went by was even more dramatic than the first picture.

Here the sun popped through for awhile and warmed up the lighting. The waves seem to have gone down a bit also.

Yes, this is the same day a little bit later. These waves again look like they belong in the ocean. I was informed by one of the pilots that our storms normally come from the oceans to the south of us, which doesn't give the waves a chance to build on our side of the river. This storm was coming from the ocean to the north, across the water. The river is about four miles wide here, so allowing for the angle, that's maybe six miles or so that the wind has build the swells before the waves reach us. They're not huge - they're nothing to worry about - it's just unusual and it makes a lot of noise when they strike the pilings.

High waves at high tide on the other side of the old Englund Marine building. One car, just out of the picture on the right, was getting a bath.

The underside of the River Pilots' building on our east side wasn't that much above high water, either. We had a 10.6 high tide today, which may have been the high for the year. Tomorrow or yesterday had one equally high. Barbara and I had both noticed how high they were just looking at them, and later I checked the tide book.

To our left is the other River Pilots' building. Here a door to the "basement" (well, not really, it's just the screened area under the building) was knocked off by the bigger-than-usual waves. By the time I alerted someone and we tried to snag it with the pike pole, it was too late. It washed out pretty fast.

Just another shot of the river - a boat on the choppy water, dark skies beyond.

Later in the day Lee and I drove across the Youngs Bay Bridge to Fred Meyers. I couldn't quite catch the beam of light coming down through the hole in the clouds. Drizzly day.

This is a shot from the other side of the bridge. Again, it's taken from the car and isn't too great, but I like the colors and muted feeling of the sloughs here.

And we returned through Hammond or Warrenton back toward the bridge - the decorations are trying to be cheerful. I like the lights against the soggy sky, but it doesn't come through quite the way it looks in real life.