Wet and Windy

We seem to be getting the edge of the major storms that are dropping snow in Seattle and Portland, and causing authorities in Corvallis, just 50 miles away, to delay or close classes in schools and universities. Here it's just a lot of rain the last two days, nearly an inch yesterday, and 1.38" so far today (at 3pm).

We did have some snow over the weekend, and I had fun driving my RC vehicles around outside the house.

Twelfth Night

Following the madness of pre- and post-Christmas shopping which required longer and harder work hours, I'm now entering a period of relative inactivity, with reduced hours. I'm off four of the next five days, and this comes as a welcome opportunity to recharge my batteries, reorganise my sleeping times, clean and tidy the house a bit, take down and pack away the Christmas decorations, and dispose of the tree.

I also have the opportunity to enjoy some of my Christmas presents. Beth puts a lot of thought into her gifts, and she got me several wonderful (and hard to acquire) books about automobiles, and particularly the history of motoring in America, plus a book entitled "Rivals of Sherlock Holmes", a collection of detective short stories by contemporaries of Conan Doyle, that did not acquire the same eminence as Sherlock Holmes.

My brother Richard sent me a boardgame which is going to take some study to understand but looks a lot of fun. My brother Brian sent me an Amazon voucher, and with it I bought the book of "A History of the World in 100 Objects", a wonderful podcast which I enjoyed listening to in 2011.