Wi-Fi On The Water!
Right now, I'm about 300 yards out into Puget Sound on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry but have high speed internet access for free. How cool! I think I remember reading something about internet access on the ferries but have only used a ferry once in the six years I've been here. I opened up my MacBook Pro and saw an available wireless network. How Cool!!
Off To The Olympic Peninsula
Even before I moved to Seattle in the fall of 2000, I had set my sights on a long hike up the beach on the northwest coast of Washington but 6 years later and I haven't been north of Long Beach.
It occured to me yesterday while watching the Seahawks squeak by the Cowboys that I have a unique opportunity to do some exploring and shouldn't pass it up. So starting in a few hours, I'm taking the first Edmonds to Kingstong Ferry and am hitting the Peninsula. The plan is to not have a plan. I have no idea where (or even if) I'll be sleeping, or where I'll go. For safety reasons and to keep my family from freaking out and calling the coast guard at noon today, here is my rough draft:
1) Monday: Rialto Beach to Hole in the Wall (low tide is at 9:54 am), will likely stay somewhere in Forks
2) Tuesday: Point of the Arches & Shi Shi beach
3) Wednesday: Ozette Loop?
4) Thursday: Crescent Lake?
The weather? I'm not looking for a sunny day here. Meteorologists are expecting a pretty good storm to roll in off this part of the coast tomorrow afternoon and I'm hoping to see some pretty impressive surf. Other than mist, most of the rain forms between the beach and the Olympic Mountain foothills 20 miles inland, that being said, I'm still expecting to get extremely wet.
Point of the Arches from the air
I'm taking my good cameras and hopefully there will be some decent pics here in a few days.
Braggers Suck.
[DISCLAIMER: As much as I hate it, there will be a hint of bragging in this entry]
As much as I like to beat myself up about sucking at this or that and not being perfect at everything I try, I know that I have one innate skill. Driving in snow and ice. Allow me to explain.
Being extremely close to finishing the project I was hired for work, I elected to stay until I was. Around 1:15 am, I stepped out into the Cingular parking lot and got into my car. It was raining rather heavily. Less than a mile later, I hit a serious wall of large snowflakes with an inch or snow on the ground. I knew this was going to be trouble, it was fairly warm out and snow when it's this warm is wet and much slicker than powder. One more mile and I was now into 3+ inches on Route 202, a two lane country-ish road with deep enough drops off both sides. My car was going everywhere and I cursed myself for not bringing my cell phone and not balancing the weight of my car by filling up the tank (I was pretty much on empty). I knew this road like the back of my hand however and knew when to give it gas to make it up the gradual inclines and when to lay off.
It was just after Ames Lake Rd. where I lost it. The rear of my unbalanced car spun wildly to my left putting me into a 180 and then hard up against the guard rail (though I cursed its existence at the time, I thank the gods of Alpe D'Huez for placing it there). Screwed I thought. No phone and 8.1 miles (I told you I know this road) from home. But I couldn't just leave my car here, it was on th wrong side of the road in a blind uphill corner. So I took some breaths, did my little chant and with some funky moves that any physics professor would be proud of, got my car going back towards Redmond. I resolved to go back to the Shell Station, balance my car out and try 'er again. Filled my tank and got some compliments from some guys in trucks that witnessed my escape moves. I called Amy and told her that if she did not see me in one hour, to drive up 202 towards Redmond where she would find me walking in the middle of the road.
I had some incredibly close calls on the second try but my techniques proved useful and I took an alternate way home that had minimal stops and inclines. About 55 minutes after I called Amy, I opened the garage door and was pumped up! I must have seen 25 cars along the roadside, some of them with AWD/4x4.
Oh, so my coping mechanism, it's none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's infamous developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS speech. He's a psycho crazery bastard but for some dumb reason about 4 years ago, while driving in some treacherous snow in Colorado, I found myself chanting this instead of "keep it together, keep it together." It' stupid but it must work.
Back On Line
Despite the new storm blowing in as I type this, we finally got power today and even internet too. One helluva wind storm out there right now (they called for only 40 mph winds but they tend to me stronger here 'cause of Mt. Si and Tiger Mt.) so we'll see if it lasts through the night.
I’m Dreaming of a Dark Christmas…
Ok, so it turns out that it will be a little longer than expected to get power back. As of noon today, Puget Sound Energy reported 170,500 were still without power, almost all of those in Eastern King County. The latest update can be seen here on the PSE.com site. People back in Ohio that don't believe me can read the Seattle Times article here.
Aside from the neighbors' outrageously loud generators, we are fine. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have a gas fireplace in our bedroom which is ironic because I'd always thought about having that thing ripped out. The dogs and cats have gotten along well though Ellie is tired of just sitting around so she wants out every hour or so. The ambient temperature in the rest of the house is around 45 so she usually wants to come back in pretty fast.
And no, there isn't any baby makin' going on, lol. If anything, we'll strangle each other due to cabin fever! I'm sure she's sick of me leafing through my Linux books and magazines with my dorky looking headlamp!
