Go West, Young Man.

Another question about Catcher in the Rye, is why did the book group facilitator (an emeritus professor of literature) choose this book as part of a series on American Character?

On one level, the answer is trivial. Holden Caufield is considered a quintessential American Character. A teen, 50's, boarding school, all popular topics. Many people know of Holden even if they haven't read the book. But is that the reason enough to include it in the list?

I suspect there's a bit more than that. I don't think it's an accident that Holden ends up in a psych ward in California. Just like Huck Finn & Jim, just like Jack Burden in All the King's Men, he doesn't fit in civilization and looks West for salvation and a place to call home. We never know if Huck and Jim make it. Jack lies around Long Beach, creates his own god -- The Great Twitch -- and goes back East where he belongs. Holden? What has California to offer him? What he needs is family, connections, support --- as well as professional psychological help. All he wants to do is save kids, but who will save him? California does have his brother, but only for an occasional visit. It doesn't have his sister Phoebe who probably needs Holden by now as much as he needs her. California implies that Holden is the problem and he can get fixed in isolation. California for therapy, chosen by his parents. How is it different from Holden's plan to run away to California, get a job pumping gas and pretend to be a deaf-mute?

Did Salinger mean to allude to Twain? Or is it just burned into the American psyche to look West to follow your dreams. Are we all a bunch of misfits out here?

Safe Craft?

Or can I knit with pencils?


From the Municipal Court of Seattle Office of the Jury Commissioner:

Waiting is an unavoidable part of jury service. [...]There is an extensive and current magazine collection but we do encourage you to bring reading materials, crafts and other projects to pass the time.


(further down)

Everyone entering the Seattle Justice Center, except law enforcement personnel, is required to pass through a security checkpoint. [...] You are also cautioned to leave at home items such as scissors, knitting needles or pointed objects over 2" long which are routinely prohibited from the building.

Multiple topics in one handy post

First: Happy Anniversary to me! I've been extra stressed lately and I forgot all about it. I don't feel too bad because so did my husband. It wasn't until I read Canadian Dorothy's blog that I realized what day it was. Turns out that she and I have the same wedding anniversary. So go over there and wish her and her husband many more years of happiness.

Second: Although I am really good with numbers in general, and dates in particular, for some reason, I can never remember my wedding date. I wrote three checks yesterday, all of them accidentally postdated, since my brain insists that we got married on the 18th. Oops.

Third: We went out for dinner, and while it was fine, it was less than perfect. We ended up taking Zach, so not necessarily a romantic getaway, but logistically it made the most sense. Time for romantic meals sans offspring are being planned. As we have rediscovered our inner carnivores after a long journey into vegetarianism, we were hoping to go to Jak's for bacon cheeseburgers. Alas, we got a late start and the dinner rush was underway, the wait was an hour. So we walked across the street to Ciao Bella. We'd had some really nice meals at the old Ciao Bella, but have only been to the new location once, and it wasn't memorable. Last night was memorable because of the awful service. Was it because we had our teen with us on a Friday night? Was it that they noticed we came from Jak's? Whatever reason, they treated us like dirt the whole evening. And my salmon was way overcooked (but the rest of the food was good). Not that they were too crowded or busy with much besides stopping to flirt with the two thirty-something blonds at the next table. I am usually a generous tipper. But last night, no way.

Fourth: I managed to get a lot of errands done yesterday and for the first time in weeks, felt that I had gotten several monkeys off my back. I almost have some monkeys off the needles too. This one just needs a wee bit of decreasing then some grafting. The second sock is at the heel turn.


Fifth: Anyone who's been reading my blog for a while knows that I have enjoyed dyeing yarn and that I am a bit of a math geek. I think that the geekiness is one of the aspects of dyeing I most enjoy. I like to take the time to make very long skeins, so the final result is a bit unusual in that it won't pool or stack in the same way as many hand-dyed yarns. That's not to say it won't pool. I have seen hand-painted yarn with that assurance, but I just don't see how anyone can make such a universal claim. My latest endeavor involves at PVC niddy-noddy that makes skeins more than five yards in circumference. Using a dye process with multiple mason jars simmering in a roasting pan, I can make skeins that won't repeat their color pattern for 190 inches of yarn. But there are still so many factors, the colors may still stack or pool. It all depends.

This swatch is done with Brown Sheep Wildfoot that I dyed using the above long skein method. It has 75 stitches, started on US1 needles, I switched halfway to US0s. The ribbing on US1s gave 5.25 rounds til the yarn color sequence repeated. The stockinette on US1s resulted in 5.5 rounds til the colors repeated. After changing to US0s (and going from about 9 stitches per inch to almost 9.5 stitches per inch) the colors repeated at 5.75 rounds.

What does this mean? Well the long skein and the fact that it took at least five rounds for the color sequence to repeat means that even hugely wide socks in a pattern that takes lots of yarn ought to be able to get a couple three rounds before the color sequence repeats. That should alleviate a lot of dramatically disturbing pooling issues. However, it won't remove them. If the color sequence repeats at exactly N or N+.5 rounds, one could easily get a stacking issue that looks especially nice or especially unbalanced. And having a the sequence repeat at other intervals might end up with nice spirals or weird streakiness. You just never know, do you?

Some Summer Fun

Our two weeks with a Japanese Home Stay guest flew by. I had been so anxious, but Hitomi turned out to be a wonderful guest and is now a friend. She was able to relax and feel right at home, fulfilling the philosphy of a foreign exchange program. Of course she was the tour coordinator and seasoned traveler, not a high school student on her first overseas trip, so it was easier for her. I heard that the high school students all had great homestays as well. We met one of the two teachers whom we took to Stitch & Pitch. This was her first trip outside Japan and she was having a blast. However, I heard that the other teacher was finding the whole trip kind of stressful. We taught Hitomi an American idiom to describe that sort of person: High Maintenance. She laughed and agreed.

Hitomi likes to hike, so what better way to show her around than to take her to the mountains. We did the easy Barclay Lake hike, with its dramatic view of Mt Baring looming 3000 feet over the lake. I didn't get any photos. Before coming home we detoured a bit on Route 2 to Skykomish, a small town with a big problem. For about 100 years, the railroad has dumped or leaked or spilled fuel and who knows what else onto and into the ground. In order to clean it up, just about every building in town is being picked up, the contaminated dirt dug out and hauled away, then clean fill poured in and the building restored.

Our second weekend we had more adventures. Saturday we hiked to Snow Lake, a popular hike with an easy access trailhead at Snoqualmie Pass. The parking lot (a large lot for the Alpental ski resort) was quite full and we had to wait in line at the trailhead at the self-register station (because we were bozos and didn't notice that there were two(!) registration stations) but the trail did not seem crowded and the lake front was even less so.

The Japanese student group had been to Snoqualmie Falls, but a local bus driver who got lost (argg) meant that they hadn't had much time to walk around. So we took Hitomi back, on the way home from Snow Lake. No pictures, but if you ever watched Twin Peaks, you've seen the Falls.

Sunday, our last day to be tour guides, we took a quintessential Seattle trip on a ferry boat. We took Metro downtown and walked on the Bremerton Ferry. Not that we wanted to do anything in Bremerton, we just grabbed lunch and came home, but because it's a pretty ride. This was the last day of the airshow and the Blue Angels buzzed the ferry as they were playing around getting ready for the show.

The water was full of jellyfish, more than I had ever seen. The view of Seattle was clear and pretty (yes, that's the space needle above Hitomi's head) but we didn't see any orcas. I don't think I have ever seen them from the ferry though.







Our tour-guide hikes with Hitomi served a second purpose. With an upcoming backpack, we especially need to get some hiking in for conditioning purposes.

Our family vacation will occur at the end of August, a 4 day loop of the High Divide in the Olympic Mountains. This area is popular, so to keep it from being overrun, the National Parks requires reservations and permit. Franz called and got our campsite reservations, plus information on the bear can requirements. Bears? Yes, checking the trip reports of the Washington Trails Association, black bears are common.

Yesterday, I took Zach to REI for new boots.
clerk: NOLS trip?
me: No, we're going to do the High Divide.
clerk: You mean in the Olympics?
me: Yes.
clerk: Awesome. I was just there in June. In one afternoon we saw 7 bears and some cubs. They were having so much fun, eating berries and glissading on the snow.
me: Seven Bears! I'd heard they were around. Now I am really worried about getting eaten.
clerk. Nah, black bears don't eat people, they just maul.

Only in Seattle?

.EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 11 PM PDT WEDNESDAY...

TODAY...SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID 80S TO LOWER 90S. NORTH WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

Tomatoes

Stupice
Originally uploaded by madorville

Early July and we have fruit! More proof that Seattle summer came earlier than usual. More photos and details on my flickr page.

Regatta with wool and monkeys

I spent most of the past weekend at Green Lake, sitting by the water. Those of you in the Northern Hemisphere but not in Seattle might think that sounded lovely, pass the sunscreen and lemonade. However, Summer in Seattle begins July 9th, says Cliff Mass, atmospheric scientist and local weather guru. While we often have some nice weather in May, June invariably is cold and damp. This past weekend was no exception. I wasn't at Green Lake because the weather was so nice it forced me to go, I was there because my kid was in his first regatta.

Saturday we did have some sun, and Franz and I had the opportunity to walk around the lake (about three miles) so that was fine, but Sunday was cold and wet. I had volunteered to work with the finish line officials. I wore a T-shirt and a long sleeve shirt over it and brought my Knitting Olympics wool sweater, just in case. I brought my knitting bag, mostly to finish a Dulaan hat. Little did I realise that instead of sewing in all the ends, I would be wearing the hat instead. And was I ever glad to find my wonky fingerless mitts hiding in my bag. The ones where I never sewed in the ends because I wasn't happy with the bind off and intend to redo it one of these days.


Quite a fashionable outfit, eh? Believe me, everyone else in the officiating tent was envious.



Zach's first kayak race. This is sprint kayaking, Olympic style. If you've ever been in a nice stable sea kayak, you need to know that these boats are different. They are designed for speed, not for stability. It takes lots of effort to simply stay afloat. There were enough new kids to warrant a novice division. Therefore, several of these ribbons are in the novice division sans competition and demonstrate that he (and in some cases, three teammates) were able to stay upright and paddle 1000 meters. Two of the second place ribbons were hard fought; he finished right behind another novice team member, a bigger and stronger boy.

Gardening requires optimism

Will we get enough sun for tomatoes? Will these tiny starts grow and produce by August? Will I water them enough to keep them healthy but not too much nor too sporadically so that the fruit cracks? Will this year's staking job work to hold them up or will it just break their stems? Will I be able to keep them weeded?




Will the crows leave the basil alone? Will I keep the container watered and the flowers pinched? Will we have enough for pesto?





Will my raspberries survive their recent move? Will they flourish in their new spot? Will they get enough water? Will I get a pie?




Tasty has shown a surprising appetite for strawberry leaves! Will the cover keep her off the leaves and the squirrels off the fruit?





Will Dumbledore compliment my agapanthus?

Farmer's Market

Nancy took me to the farmer's market today. Although it is about two miles from home, I embarrassingly admit that I only attend occasionally. Good finds today. I got some fresh ricotta from Sea Breeze Farm and from some wild foraging dude, some urtica dioica. Along with my very fresh Tasty eggs, I'll turn this into manicotti filling. Sounds yummy, eh? And full of vitamins.

Erika, if you want, I'll save you a piece.

Get it while it lasts!

Seattle Craigslist has a posting of interest to knitters!

Someone is liquidating their retail business and will sell you 150 skeins of imported Italian Nylon/Rayon Eyelash yarn for only Five Hundred Dollars!

My week

• Snaked the bathtub drain.
  
• Contemplated getting hair cut short to avoid that chore again.
  
• Mowed the lawn.
• Almost fell for Google's April Fool prank.
  
• Knitted on but did not finish

sea silk triangle shawl

green pullover sweater (EZ meets Pippa)

mini-clapotis in angoravalley Lacewing


sleeves for fibonacci sweater

• Renewed car license tag on-line.
• Found out I had waited to long to have it mailed to me before current tag expires.
• Took bus downtown to pick up car tag. Spent $2.50 in bus fare because I refuse to pay $4.00 to have the tabs sent to a local agency.
• Treated myself to latte and muffin downtown.
  
• While downtown, went shopping and bought myself new underwear. It had probably been 10 years since I bought underwear. I can now get hit by a car without embarrassment.
• Took car to shop for 90K check-up.
  
• Vacuumed car. Helped put roof box on car.
• Arranged temporary stop of newspaper, mail and milk for next week.
  
• Arranged foster care for Tasty Chicken for the week.
  
• Looking forward to a week of car-camping in SE Washington, emphasis on Washington State History and geology. History because it is a state educational requirement and we are homeschooling history. Geology because geology is fascinating and Washington's geology is visibly fascinating.
  
• Logged into checking account at credit union about two dozen times looking for IRS refund.
• Once the refund arrived, wrote checks for and mailed mortgage and property tax bill.
• Finished a marathon Harry Potter reread of all six books.
• Inspired The Nerd to reread them also. He's also finished.
  
• Discussed same with The Nerd and hypothesized about Book Seven.
• Tutored math at The Nerd's middle school
• Found out that he got into his first choice high school, even though for the upcoming school year, it has the longest waiting list of any Seattle public school ever. Very relieved.
  
• Found out what a close call it was. District uses a distance tiebreaker. This year, the boundary for enrolled vs wait-list was 1.81 miles from school. Mapquest puts us at 1.79 miles.
  
• Updated alumnae email and snail mail addresses for upcoming 30 year high school reunion
• Started searching airfare prices for Fall trip back East.
  
• Discovered that waiting a week to purchase airfare for reunion increased the cost by 35%
• Found out that by flying into Baltimore instead of Dulles, I could reduce airfare back to original estimate.
• Purchased ticket. I'm confirmed to attend Reunion and my niece's wedding on East Coast in October. Just me. Not going to disrupt high school attendance in the first semester.
  
• Started thinking about what shawl/stole/wrap I should knit for the events.
• Took The Nerd to an open house of a youth kayak racing club.
  
• Passed a Float Test at a local pool. I only needed a renewal if I want to take another sailing class which is a long shot. Really I did it so The Nerd would have company taking his float test, necessary to take a sprint kayaking class. Float test: wearing long sleeves, long pants, tread water for 9 minutes, then put on life jacket while treading water --- not as easy as it sounds but there's a trick that helps. Nice lifeguards share trick.
  
• Signed The Nerd up for the beginner sprint kayak class and braved Spring Afternoon Greenlake traffic getting him there and back again.
• Walked around Greenlake for the first time in years. Anyone free on Tues or Thurs at 4 PM and want to walk the lake with me? (starting April 17th)
• Rest of today will be packing, organizing, grocery shopping for trip. We leave tomorrow morning. Fort Vancouver here we come.
  

Some Evening Sky

Tuesday's sky. Ain't it pretty? The most important thing is that this photo was taken Jan 23rd at 5:06 PM. And it wasn't pitch dark. w0O |-|o0! Good-bye dark winter.



I'm off to Madrona. Will not have internet access til Sunday, unless I beg some knitter for a little laptop fix while in Tacoma. Hope to see some of you at the Fiber Retreat.

To catch the bus to Tacoma, I will be leaving the house an hour before sunrise, half hour before Twilight starts. Oh well.

From sunrisesunset.com:

Dec 19th: <--- no wonder we have the winter blues

• Twi: 7:17am
• Sunrise: 7:53am
• Sunset: 4:18pm
• Twi: 4:54pm
  

Jan 25th: <----- days feel longer

• Twi: 7:11am
• Sunrise: 7:44am
• Sunset: 4:57pm
• Twi: 5:31pm
  

June 19th: <---- put that in your pipe and smoke it.

• Twi: 4:30am
• Sunrise: 5:10am
• Sunset: 9:09pm
• Twi: 9:50pm
  

Tales from the City

I can parallel park better than my husband. I considered this for the list of weird things about me, but it really isn't that odd. I grew up in DC, started driving at 16 and hung out in trendy Georgetown. I got good at parking. Preferably with the zippy compact VW Rabbit, but sometimes I got stuck with the VW Bus. I got way beyond simple rules such as "when the steering wheels are aligned start the turn..." because hello! cars vary and the steering wheels are in different locations relative to the length of the vehicles. Can I articulate what I do? Nope. Could I guide someone while I was seated in the passenger seat? I've tried, but is it my fault they won't listen? No. My husband, on the other hand, learned to drive while living in the burbs around L.A. Land of driveways and parking lots.

Neither of us owned a car when we started dating, but once he borrowed a car to take me out. Someplace with limited on-street parking. So after driving around a bit with me saying "there's one," and him saying "that's not big enough," I timidly suggested I might try one of these too small spots. He was impressed. Good thing he's not too macho to admit it. He tries, but he still is trapped in the simplified rules and just doesn't understand how when he follows those rules and lines up the bumpers or steering wheels just so, the car refuses to go where it should. Instead of arguing over how the rules don't apply, if a trip will require parking skill, I drive. My high school and college find-a-spot-weekly-to-have-fun years turned into the Chicago find-a-spot-daily-so-I-can-get-home years. Therefore while I still have the magic touch, I've used up my quota of tolerance for the hunt. More than five minutes driving around to find a spot and I'm a complete grouch.

Franz saw that author Jennifer Ouellette was speaking at Elliot Bay Bookstore last night. Zach had gotten Black Bodies and Quantum Cats for his birthday and just finished reading it. He thought it was pretty good. She's on tour for her new book: The Physics of the Buffyverse. I was a bit reluctant to go, partly because of the weather and partly because of the hassle of either driving or taking the bus to Pioneer Square. If I gave in to my initial reluctance to go places I'd never leave the house, so I dismissed my desire to get a headstart on Sunday's International Pajama Day and agreed to go. Car or bus? Well, in order to have time for dinner, it just seemed less hassle to drive. So we did. Parking was involved; I drove. That means I got to choose the route which means getting on I5 at NE 50th where we merge onto the freeway from the right instead of Franz's (admittedly more logical) preference of 520 with the left entrance ramp onto I5.

Should have realised that things were not going our way when the NE 50th leg took forever and then was closed before the I5 exit for an accident investigation. Then NE 45th was a mess, but I figured that was just because of the closure of Ne 50th. I5 wasn't too bad, but when we got off the freeway and entered Pioneer Square the sign on the Sinking Ship garage read Event Parking $30. "Holy crap!" I said. "What's going on. The only thing that would warrant that would be the Seahawks." Franz said "Um, yeah, Seahawks. Didn't think of that. I think they are playing Dallas. Don't know if it's in town or not." Well, I think he had the answer right there. At this point you can pity my family, but I asserted my authority as driver and declared that I was not going to stress out over a futile parking spot hunt. I headed north on First Avenue and said if a spot appears I'll take it but otherwise we are heading home. Way up on Union there was an open garage with the sign Weekends and Evenings $4.00. Turned into it and was told they close in 10 minutes. Then why don't they take down the damn sign already. In the space of time it took me to turn around and exit, at least 6 other cars pulled in. So, no author lecture for us.

Coming back home via Montlake the U District congestion was explained as we intersected traffic leaving the UW Husky basketball game. Took a while before we got through, but at least it wasn't Husky Football where the cops would have diverted us a good mile north out of our way.

I'm wrong

but not unhappy.

I predicted our power would be out til next Tuesday, Monday if we were lucky. But Friday afternoon and w00t! power! Only 15 hours of a chilly house and melting ice cream.

Seattle and environs got the windstorm as predicted last night. Power went out at midnight, I heard the smoke detectors beep as they changed from electric to battery mode, but otherwise it was no big deal. Morning was kinda chilly, but I have a gas cooktop and thus was able to boil water for drip coffee.

Franz is in CA on a business trip, so I slept downstairs away from the noise of the wind. Thus, I missed hearing this fall across the street. My neighbor's spruce used to be about 50 feet tall. Now it's about 20 feet. Anybody want a 30 foot christmas tree? The top did fall between the two houses, so probably little or no damage to L's house. Her bedroom is right at the corner of the house where it fell, so she didn't get any sleep last night. It severed next door neighbor Nancy's phone and internet connections though. Bummer, but it could have been worse.

yes, this tree is being supported by the power lines.

An FO. Reverse Bloom Washcloth from Weekend Knitting and Interweave Knits Winter 2003, wrapping a bar of Blessed Juno soap. I don't think I will knit this pattern again. It's not that special and requires 10 ends woven in. If I do make it again, I'll make it smaller, only 19 stitches per petal. And I will do the decreases differently, 5 regular double decreases from each petal join might look better than the ones in the pattern. But I'll most likely try the fancy washcloth in Mason Dixon Knits instead.

gonna get cold tonight.

raccoon foot.
chicken foot.

Easy-Bake oven.

the rain that raineth every day

PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY.
CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN BECOMING LIKELY.
RAIN LIKELY.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
RAIN AT TIMES.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
CLOUDY WITH RAIN AT TIMES IN THE LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON.
RAIN TURNING TO SHOWERS EARLY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE MORNING... THEN A CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN AT TIMES THIS AFTERNOON
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN LIKELY THIS AFTERNOON
RAIN DEVELOPING
RAIN...BREEZY
SHOWERS LIKELY
SHOWERS AND SUNBREAKS.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
SCATTERED SHOWERS EARLY OTHERWISE PARTLY SUNNY.
CLOUDY WITH AN INCREASING CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF A SHOWER.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN.
OCCASIONAL SHOWERS.
BECOMING CLOUDY WITH A LITTLE RAIN DEVELOPING EARLY THIS AFTERNOON.
SHOWERS DEVELOPING THIS EVENING.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN.
MORNING RAIN...THEN MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
RAIN DEVELOPING.
RAIN.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
SHOWERS LIKELY AND OCCASIONAL AFTERNOON SUN BREAKS


real Seattle weather forecasts accumulated last winter. Then of course there was the record breaking lack of rain over the summer. This past month it's been nothing but rain and more damned rain. We finally have something new in the forecasts. Here's the current week ahead...

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS...POSSIBLE MIXED WITH SNOW ON THE HIGHER HILLS.

SATURDAY...RAIN OR SNOW LIKELY...MAINLY IN THE AFTERNOON. SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH POSSIBLE ON THE HIGHER HILLS.

SATURDAY NIGHT...RAIN OR SNOW. SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH.

SUNDAY...RAIN AND SNOW.

SUNDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY.

MONDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY.

MONDAY NIGHT...SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY.

TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS.

WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN OR SNOW SHOWERS.

THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 40S.

THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.

snow? bah... if any accumulates in the city the rain will turn it to slush and puddles soon enough.