When the Homily is about Immunology

Thanksgiving Weekend finally ends

My wife organized an "open House Weekend" in which many of our east sound dwelling friends were invited to join us at their leisure. Thus, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they showed up in varying packs, with Friday being the busiest.

It was wonderful to see many folks who we have not seen since we left St. Paul's. The chickens were a huge hit, especially amongst the kids. The gentlemen present on Friday opted for a road trip to Head's Up Brewery and Silver City Brewing in order to try some of Kitsap's better beers. Upon our return I was somewhat astonished to discover the tremendous entertainment value that could be had by splitting logs. Everyone got involved and by the time we were done the remains of the harvested alder were entirely split.

November has proven to be the wettest month we have ever seen in recorded Washington history. And the days leading up to last weekend promised more rain and wind. However, as is often the case, the weathermen showed themselves to have all the predictive ability of a crack addict making money working for the psychic friends network. The weather was for the most part dry until Saturday night, when it began to snow - a very wet slushy snow. But as I noted in the previous post, shortly after we left Church the weather shifted and the now began to fall in abundance - again proving that the meteorologists' tools in western Washington could just as well be limited to a window. We watched as the National Weather Service website change their alerts to match precisely what had already been happening outside our home.

By Monday morning, things were very ugly around my neck of the woods. Much of the slushy snow had frozen. In order to avoid a precarious downhill stop and turn from Widme to Totten, I headed north and Widme, but was abruptly halted by a fallen tree. The chainsaw was in the truck, but making a road through the tree would have been self-defeating in terms of making it time feasible for me to get to work. So I headed back south toward the hill I was hoping to avoid.

Luckily, a neighbor in a Honda was ahead of me and I stopped at the apex of the hill to watch his descent. Amazingly it went about as bad as I could have imagined. There was no stopping at the intersection, and the little car glided easily past it and into the ridge and ditch on the other side of Totten. This confirmed my inclination that I would be staying home for the day.

Despite the driver's valiant efforts, his little Honda was not going to get out of the ditch. He got out and marched carefully up the hill and I got out to meet him. He wondered if I might tow him out, and I tried not to laugh. "Do you have a 200 foot tow rope?" He looked at me quizzically. "Well, my 4x4 might get me up this hill, but it ain't gonna help me get down any better than you got down it. I suppose I could head down and bounce off your Honda and then pull you out."

AAA said the tow truck would arrive in 2hrs, so I gave the poor guy a ride home. Then I went home.

More snow came that afternoon and evening. Seattle commuting was apparently a horrible nightmare - and I was glad not to participate. I heard that some folks who'd been to the Hawks game were STILL trying to get home at 5am this morning. The "hill of doom" had been plowed and sanded; despite the colder weather and additional snow I have made of go of commuting this morning. It wasn't too bad. Totten road was scary in parts, but steady going seemed to be the solution. Portions of Highway 305 on Bainbridge Island seemed really bad - but that was the bus drivers responsibility.

The low in Seattle tonight is expected to be 18. The wood stove is working overtime and so I am happy to see a few non-dangerous trees on the property succumb to the weather.

Despite the "hardships" (and I use the term very lightly), the scenery is beautiful. Our little cedar, green metal roofed house at the end of Diamond Drive dresses well in snow.