Eerie

There was a strange silence this afternoon. The rain was falling in a silent mist and the clouds or fog was hanging close to the ground.

Christmas Snow!

The snow was falling and the dogs and kids were playing.

Throw a ball!!

A snowball??

Be right there…

This stuff is deep,

I love playing in the snow.

Someone had fun today!

Christmas Lights!

We went out to dinner tonight, quiet in the restaurant as we were the only ones there. I took my camera so that my wife would let me take some pictures of the lights down at the lake. My daughter went to dinner with us and helped me with some of the pictures, before she got too cold and went back to the truck to enjoy the heat. The Merry go Round that the city put up at the lake is wonderful.

The snow makes the pictures look much better.

 

I hope everyone has a chance to go to the lake and see the lights while the snow is still on the ground.

Home for Christmas!!

The things that happen when loved ones try to get home for Christmas. My son and his girlfriend have been away at school for over a year now. They always come home on breaks and spend time with their families. Last year my son drove one of the cars that I owned over to Pullman. At Christmas break they loaded the car up with presents and personal belongings and headed for home. On the way home they lost a rear tire and wheel and damaged the car. So my wife and daughter took to the road and went and brought them home. While they were home for Christmas my son's girlfriend got a loan so that she could buy a newer car that they could use to drive back and forth to school. We went looking and found her a newer Intrepid with low miles that she fell in love with.

This year they had to wait until late in the day yesterday to turn in their final papers for classes before they could head for home and family. My wife and I have been talking with our son for the last week and trying to talk him into waiting until Friday morning to come home. Well I could tell that he was not going to wait, the call of home and family was too great. I called him last night after I had talked to a truck driver that had just drove over from Idaho on the same route that they were going to take to get home. The information that I had received was that the Washington roads were in better shape because Washington road crews had been using salt on the roads to control the ice and snow. He told me that they had bought chains for the car and were getting on the road right then, which at that time was close to 5:00pm last night.

I waited till 8:22pm to send them a text message and ask how the roads were. I had a feeling that depending on the roads they should have been close to the tri-cities at that time. At 8:25pm my son called me and I could hear his girlfriend crying very loudly in the background. Before I could ask what was wrong he told me that they were in Kennewick, Washington. They were driving through a traffic light when someone ran the red light and crashed into the drivers side doors and wrecked their car. They were both shook up and both were complaining about back and neck problems. My son talked to me for a few minutes and then gave the phone to his girlfriend so he could talk to the Police officer. I spent close to 10 minutes talking to his girlfriend and calming her down, telling her we loved them and all that mattered was that they were alright. After she had calmed down some I let her talk to my wife for a while, she told them to make sure and go to the hospital and be checked out. And we would figure out a way to get them home. They did not get an ambulance ride to the hospital, they waited for a taxi cab to take them.

The other driver had no insurance, good thing they had full coverage on the car. Now what trials will they have to endure to get either the car fixed or get a new car to take them back to school in January.

At 3:51am this morning we got a text message saying that they had got a hotel room for the night and that they were safe. Hopefully sometime today we will be able to see them and give them hugs and LOVE. So what should have been a welcome home late last night will have to wait until later today or this evening.

This year her parents drove over to rescue them and hopefully find a way to get the car back to town. If the car gets back to town I will post some pictures of the carnage.

Update:

Well after getting everything done that the insurance company wanted, and putting a roof carrier on the car they are finally on their way home. When I talked to him just a few minutes ago he said they were at Boardman, Oregon and headed this way. Just a few more hours and they will be back home for a while. Hallelujah!!

Last Update:

Just heard a few minutes ago that they have finally made it into town at 9:00pm. My son got some pain pills at the hospital for his back pain last night and they are not working, so he is being dropped off at the hospital to see about getting something that will work and give him a pain free night. His girlfriend showed up here and we helped her unpack the car, she seems a lot better today. Now we just have to wait for our son to show up, soon I hope.

Is this Cold??

Still waiting for Snow to fall. For some reason the cold is not affecting me too much this year, maybe the lack of wind has something to do with it.

Just last night I talked to my mother and we were talking about the weather. She was telling me about when my sister and I were just wee little ones and lived in Kansas. My sister was less than two years old and I was less than four. We lived on a farm that my dad and mom ran for another gentleman. They had to work the farm and make sure the animals were fed and all the other farm chores were taken care of. First thing in the mornings they had to take the feed truck out to the feed bins and fill the bins for the cattle. Mom said they always filled the truck at night so it was ready to go in the morning. She said she bundled us kids up one morning and put us in the truck, then she had to take the tractor and pull the truck to start it. Dad drove us out into the field where the feed bins were and got out to make sure the feed was filling the bins right while mom drove the truck. Well they finished and took us back to the house and dad and mom were listening to the radio, when the broadcaster came on and said that the weather that day was one of the coldest days they had in recent memory. He went on to say that it was so cold and the wind chill was so bad that they were advising people to stay in the house and not go outside for any reason. My dad turned to my mom and said that he wished they had told him that before they went out in the weather and did their chores. Mom said she did not think about how cold it was, she just bundled us up like she always did and away we went. Back then we went everywhere that they went, no matter what the weather was.

Water

Water falling on the rooftops

Kept me from sleeping

Snow was in the forecast

But rain was all I heard

Arkansas

My mom sent me a website about Arkansas, the state that my dad and her were born in. She also sent a little note about how she was feeling after watching the movie on the website. The red car in the movie was like the one that my dad owned when they were dating, and she was reliving the memories of the fun times they had together and shedding a few tears. Well just a little way into the movie and I was shedding a few tears myself. And the car did look like the one in this picture of him and his car. This picture was taken in 1950 and it is a 1930 A-Model red convertible with a rumble seat. It was his first car that he bought. He bought this car when he was 16 from money he saved from working the peach orchards and doing a paper route for the Little Rock, Arkansas paper. He said the route was 60 miles on weekdays and 120 miles long on Sundays. After he got this car the paper route was cut back to just a Sunday delivery, so he would drive 60 miles and his dad would drive the other 60 miles. They would arrive back home in time to go to Church, something they could not miss.

Thanks for reminding me what a treasure he was Mom!

Colorful

The colors at sunset tonight were a sight to behold. But all things this time of year are fleeting. By the time I managed to get the lens changed on my camera most of the colors were not as brilliant. But I did manage to get the camera ready to take this shot. The Moon is coming back to us! Lets hope that we get some clear days to be able to see her in all her glory.

Artistic !

Getting to spend some time this weekend with my son. He is spending part of his weekend catching up on homework. And because I am a little nosy I found out that he drew this sketch for his art class. Now he is in the process of redrawing it to a larger size. I hope the second sketch comes out as good as this one.

For Nana!

A little something for Nana. A wonderful person who tries to find the Sunshine even on a gloomy day. May your days be filled with Sunshine and Kindness!

GPS!

Driving in the fog this morning reminded me about something that I have been wondering about for a few weeks. We were over in eastern Washington for a little visit with our son. We went to dinner in Lewiston and were on our way back to Pullman. The fog had settled in and since I was not driving there was time to look around at the other drivers. A weird thought came to me as we were tooling along the road. Some of the cars that we passed had GPS systems on the dash, and I began to wonder how many people would try to use them to drive as the road got harder to see in the fog. The very next weekend a friend of mine took me down to the beach to work on one of his cars. It was foggy and he had his GPS on the dash and I started bugging him about being able to drive in the fog with his GPS. So how many drivers would think that their GPS would be able to let them navigate roads with zero visibility?

Foghorns

What a lovely sound to wake up to in the morning. It is so peaceful this early in the morning. Well off to drive in the fog and see if I can find the road. --------------That was a sight, got half way to work and saw the sliver of the moon trying to break through the fog.

Time passes Quickly!

Well this has been a strange week. New opportunities at work that keep me busy. And good news about a friend at work. Hopefully she will stay healthy for a long long time. And the time is passing very quickly nowadays. Six months ago my father left us for a better place. Does not seem like it has been that long ago. When I talked to my mom this week you could hear the heartache in her voice from thinking about it. This holiday season is going to be rough on her, I will just have to spend more time with her. Got lucky this week, managed to get close enough to a flock of Geese to get a couple of shots of them. They were very skittish so this was as close as I was able to get to them.

Father's Appreciation Day.

Just got back from a wonderful weekend visiting my son and his girlfriend at school. The scenery on the drive over was very lovely, the fall colors looked great this time of year.The wind towers are getting closer to the river on the Oregon side of the gorge. Should have stopped and took some pictures of them but when you see them everyday they loose interest after a while. The kids gave me my birthday present when we got there. And tonight I got to eat a piece of the carrot cake that my son's girlfriend made for me. YUMMY!!!! We spent part of the day Saturday at the football game. The game started out nice but they could not hold off the other team. Saturday night we drove into Lewiston, Idaho for dinner. The gas prices were $2.09 a gallon, too bad we filled up in Pullman earlier in the day. The drive back on Sunday was long because of fog around Pullman, but we did make good time after the fog lifted.

Some Shots around an old Defense Battery!

Just a few of the things that I found interesting at the Fort Steven's Battery Russell.

October Scenes!

Another month has passed and I need to be shooting more pictures. A new month is just beginning and new opportunities are just around the corner.

A Rose

Just a few different views of a lovely Rose that blooms in our yard. Taken a few days ago, and today looks like a good day for a little road trip to find some more Roses to shoot.

Spider Webs

So this morning the dew was on the ground and the plants. I noticed some spider webs with water droplets on them and decided to take some shots. I was very lucky to find the owners of the webs camping in the middle of their homes.

Red Flowers

Just a little bit of red for today. Which goes about right with my mood today. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Exploring our World

Just a view of the fields from Steptoe Butte. Late in the season and the fields are being worked for harvest and to get ready for the next years planting. It was a mostly cloudy day when my daughter and I were up there looking at the scenery. A little too early in the day also as the sun was a little brighter than I would want to take very good pictures. But we only had a certain time when we could be there so we made the best of it.