Let it Snow

Well I woke up to freezing temperatures again this morning and a gloomy sky. The minute I looked out, the word "snow" came to mind.  Sure enough, I open my email from KOMO TV in Seattle and there's the "s" word.  I will say, I don't live in either county that's named as a possible sight for snow, but you never know in the Pacific Northwest.

Dear Linda,

Updated Monday 4:20 a.m. We are tracking a cold front sitting off the Washington coast. As the front gets closer to us, the cloud cover will be increasing. Rain will develop along the coast Monday morning and spread inland during the afternoon. Monday's highs will be in the middle 40s. The front is forecast to move to our east Monday night bringing some colder air into the Sound. The cold air combined with a convergence zone that will form behind the front means some parts of our area could see the rain changing to snow Monday night and Tuesday morning. The most likely spots to get a dusting of light snow are the favored convergence zone neighborhoods of northern King and Snohomish counties in the higher hills. Skiers and snowboarders will be glad to know the Cascades will get a healthy dose of snow. 10-14 inches of new snow is expected to fall in the mountains by Tuesday morning. A Heavy Snow Warning is now posted for later today into Tuesday. All of the passes are included. Tuesday afternoon, the clouds start breaking up and the sun makes an appearance. High temperatures will be in the lower 40s. Most of Wednesday will be dry. The next round of rain comes Wednesday night and off and on through the day Thursday. Highs both days are going to stay in the lower to middle 40s range. The longer range computer forecasting models are showing another ridge of high pressure building for Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday. Patchy morning fog will be followed by sunshine. It will be on the cold side with highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s and overnight lows below freezing. more...

Sincerely, KOMO 4 Weathercaster Jim Castillo I have set aside all the wrapping stuff and yesterday I went to out to my front storage shed and retrieved my "already decorated, wrapped in plastic, 4 foot Christmas tree."  I brought it in and positioned it on the cabinet here next to my computer and plugged it in.  Then I wrapped a pretty Christmas table cloth around the base of it and turned on the lights.  Done deal !!     Today I hope to start on the Christmas cards, once I get into my stash and decide which ones I 'm going to use this year.  I still haven't located those flannel sleep pants for my son-in-law so ordered another pair yesterday when I did my Avon order.  I'll just return the extra pair when I find them.  There's a picture in this morning's paper of a Pierce County Sheriff deputy and a Marine Corps reserve member collecting bags of new toys that were donated by employees of the Regal Cinema just a few blocks from my house.  That was nice to see, as most of the staff there are mostly part time employees of  high school and college age.  I love to see young people involving themselves in charitable activities.  For those of you that don't live in the U.S., Toys For Tots is an agency, sponsored by the Marine Corps that see to it that needy families have toys for their children each Christmas.  Volunteers sort the toys by age groups, and gender, put them into wrapped boxes...and then they are taken to various sites, and those parents who qualify, can come to the location closest to them and "shop." This event was started in 1947 in the Los Angeles area and a year later it was adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps and went nationwide.  Yesterday, it was so pretty out, sun shining, etc.  So I was out there for awhile, collecting scraps of wood, branches, etc. for future use in my woodstove. My neighbor was cleaning up the last of the branches from his yard and I brought several of them in under my carport, to cut up later.  He's the one who had two Douglas Fir trees fall on his place in the storm last December 14th.  It was up to the park management to get those trees cleared away and that was just done the first of September.  And the people who did it, only took the big wood and left a horrible mess of branches and debris behind. He's trying to get his place ready to sell, and had a buddy there yesterday to help haul the stuff to the dump.  While I was out, I filled up the bird feeders and hung a new suet feeder for my feathered neighbors.  So far, no one has visited but I'm sure someone will come across the fresh food soon and then the word will be out. Well, it's time to get off here and get my day started.  Happy Monday..... remember there's only 29 more days until Christmas.     Linda