A Day Off...

Wednesday (January 23rd) was a rare day. Valerie didn't have to work on her day off, as she so often does. I didn't have anything going on as I thought I would -- I had our local union newsletter to print and mail, but had only received the final submission the evening before. The real kicker was that, while cold, the day was BEAUTIFUL. Not a cloud to be seen, sunlight so blinding that sunglasses weren't just an accessory. We were heading to McCall.

McCall, Idaho, is a town nestled on the south shore of Payette Lake, perhaps 110 miles or so north of Boise. Every winter they host the McCall Winter Carnival, and the main attraction for the people who drive up are the ice sculptures. Here are two links that might provide pictures of some of these sculptures.

http://mccallwintercarnival.com/

http://www.idahostatesman.com/397/gallery/271050.html

As of this writing, there aren't many pictures uploaded to the Idaho Statesman site, and the McCall Winter Carnival site only has photos from 2007. (This will no doubt change once the carnival is over.)

One of the biggest butt-kicking moments I had on our trip to McCall was that as we were leaving town to come home, we saw someone working on a sculpture that looked like it was going to be a few running horses. I was too absent-of-mind to stop and get a picture or two of this work-in-progress... this was no small work, and would have been interesting to have captured the moment.

The photo posted for this entry was taken about halfway between where we live and McCall; I love when the trees are heavy with snow and as you can see in the distance the sky was clear! The road shown is State Highway 55, and is the main link between Boise and McCall. Today's weather calls for a 90% chance of snow, and that's enough to keep us from even THINKING about going up for a look at the completed sculptures. Why? The road is narrow, and every time it snows when there is a lot of traffic there are always people either sliding off the road or else into the lane of oncoming traffic. There are a few folks that think that because they have four wheel or all wheel drive they can zip through icy corners just as fast as if the pavement was dry. You can spot these people easily because of the banged up vehicles they're driving!

Winter Continues...

It's Sunday... and Monday is a holiday for postal people, so after a week of pretty nice weather I was looking forward to --maybe-- getting the bike out and doing a short ride in Boise. We woke up this morning to snow... and the same is predicted for tomorrow. At the moment the sun is out, but I imagine everything is pretty wet. We can't ride in Garden Valley because of the accumulation, but Boise works well except if it's snowing!

Maybe things will change before then, or the weather will simply change its mind and give us a second chance. Then again, it's supposed to be getting colder and nastier with Tuesday having a projected high of 24 degrees. That's going to be a fun day of mail delivery!

Go Ahead and Mail It!

I just e-mailed a relative of mine who called me with a question yesterday. She's got a good idea, and if she wants to share it MAYBE we can urge her to post a comment on this post! The question involved mailing certain items, which reminded me of the following:

There are always weird things that people like to mail. What I personally hate are the damned coconuts people mail from Hawaii... they tend to roll around the truck, and are a real pain to hammer in through the mail-flap in the people's front door! (OK... we actually just hand them over to the people, or leave them on the porch by the mailbox.)

There was one occasion where some bo-bo mailed a BANANA -- and it actually arrived at the Boise Main Post Office while it was still yellow and UN-bruised! That's some kind of record... I would have expected something black and very mushy!

There was a disabled veteran's group that used to mail light bulbs out as a fund-raiser. There's nothing more entertaining than getting an accordioned package with glass shards spilling out of it! It would seem that during transport these lightweight boxes ended up underneath something that was not lightweight.

We've seen wooden postcards, Frisbees, basketballs wrapped in brown paper ("Gee, I wonder what this is?"). We've delivered envelopes from exotic beaches (with a small part of the beach spilling out of the envelope, a.k.a. SAND). We've seen rocks, tires, bottles with letters inside them (clever advertisers?) and small packages with cell phones that are STILL charged and ring while we're driving on our mail routes -- there's nothing more unsettling than a package that starts making weird noises! And there's nothing more maddening than one of those musical greeting cards that has been damaged in handling and the thing keeps playing its little tune over, and over, and OVER!

The thing that used to bother me the most was a beekeeper on my first route that ordered honeybees through the mail. They would come in a little square, screen-meshed box and I was certain that at anytime they'd find a way out and come to visit me in a way I'd rather not think about. Queen bees were different; they came in little individual padded compartments and were well sealed and protected.

All in all, we're seen some entertaining items in the mail over the years... no doubt we'll see a few more interesting mailings before our working days are done!

Ice and Stupid People

In the last week and a half since the snow started falling in earnest, we have seen several wrecks either early in the morning as we drive to work, or in the evening as we're heading home. Most of the time they're within an area of about half a mile of the summit of "Horseshoe Bend Hill", as we call it, on state highway 55.

The hill tops off at about 4200 feet and there's a nice curve right at the summit, just to make things interesting. It's a four lane road, and many people feel that this is the best place to pass the "slow-pokes" in front of them.

They seem to forget that what might have been rain at the base of the mountain is snow up at the top. Many of them seem to forget that snow, when driven over repeatedly, gets packed down and turns to ice. And still others seem to mentally misplace the concept that, while all-wheel or four-wheel drive is nice for getting through bad conditions it doesn't do a damned thing for you when you hit an icy corner with the same gusto as you would on a hot summer's day.

People who live in snow country know these things... yet there are still some who seem to leave this knowledge at home when they get in the car for a nice winter's drive. I wish to salute these people, as seeing their vehicles smashed with the tires pointing skyward, and emergency crews with flashing lights trying to clean up their mess certainly adds an interesting change of scenery to my otherwise slow and monotonous drive!

Making Up For Lost Time

It would seem that this winter we're actually going to have snow sticking around for a while, whereas the last couple of winters have been almost "snow-less" at our elevation. When Boise gets a little snowfall, it melts away within a few days. We live at slightly higher elevation than do the people in Boise, so when we get snow it tends to stay for a while. This past week has given us several flurries, and the result is evident: we have a real-live winter this year!

Attack of the Snow Cat

Valerie finds it amusing to throw the cats out in the middle of the yard when it snows and then watch them leap and disappear, leap and disappear all the way back to the door.

The only trouble is that our cats are now almost 16 and 15 years old, so Valerie only walks them out to where the snow is and then sets them down gently. It certainly was more entertaining when you could fling them half way across the yard!

Did I mention that today (Monday) was my day off, and that it snowed from late Sunday night up until about 3:00 PM today? Hey... I got to go for a walk with the snowblower twice today! I also found my cross country skis and went out for a little while, heading down to the local Chevron station and then back around our subdivision's loop (which has a big climb involved). I only wiped out twice... both times after a downhill glide where I needed to turn abruptly but didn't quite make it.

It's dark now, or I'd seriously consider going out for more abuse!

The Blog From Nowhere

I suppose the question is going to come up at some point -- what's the name of this blog mean? Unlike so many of the cute blogs, the ones with a purpose or those that target a specific interest this blog has no goal whatsoever, other than to reach out and say hello to our friends and family and be there for them to read at their leisure. Maybe along the way something will come along that suddenly gives this blog a legitimate reason to exist. Until then... no pressure, no worries!

In the mean time, I've been slowly exploring a site dedicated to knitters and crocheters:

http://www.ravelry.com

As of now it's in the Beta stage, and you need to put your name on a waiting list to gain access, but if you really enjoy any of the fiber arts, this is a good site to visit. If you happen to sign up, my name over there is: RichMcKay (original, ain't it?)

Also, the photo-sharing site "Flickr" is another haunt of mine; my name there is "tandemtwins".

And just in case anyone cares... it snowed on and off all night so I got to spend my Sunday morning taking yet another walk behind the snowblower. For the past winters where there hasn't been much snowfall, this winter is trying to make up for the shortfall!

Blow Me Down!

What an appropriate title for the day! The temperatures rose from the 30's to the very high 40's, and along with that rise came some serious wind. There were gusts that were supposed to have hit 85mph; the ski area was closed down because of this. Have you ever tried to deliver mail in REALLY strong wind? Here's a revelation: paper and wind are not a good combination!

Tomorrow we're supposed to go back to winter, with snow and all the "normal" stuff... and without the gusts!

The Herd

I was whining about the elk earlier in the day, and while driving into town to see if the store was open, we spotted the herd. They were situated about one half of a mile west of our home, very close to Garden Valley's Pioneer Cemetery.

Greetings, 2008!

2008 has arrived, and looking out the window I can't see any difference between yesterday and today. Perhaps I need to look inwardly... nope, nothing different there either.

Elk have been sleeping in our yard. They like to paw through the snow looking for grass to eat, and apparently then dig an area large enough for them to lie on without lying directly on the snow. This is speculation on my part, as I've only seen the end result. Valerie heard them last night and watched them for a little while; I slept through the whole thing.