You may have heard about a little windstorm that swept through the greater Seattle area last Thursday evening. It’s been all over the news, or so I’m told (news, and other modern commodities, were unavailable to me until about four hours ago.)

I had intended to spend the three-day weekend doing some writing, but instead I spent it re-learning how to build a fire out of wet wood. Which, unfortunately, I failed to do. I did find a novel use for those little glove/boot warmers you can buy at ski resorts — we used them as bed warmers.  :-)

Gripes aside, there were some pretty interesting side effects of the blackout. For example: so many people were burning wood and coal that the valleys in this area were visibly choked with smoke. (See actual pic, above.) It smelled like the inside of a wood stove. I call this “interesting” because it gave me a tangible idea of what things must have been like 200 years ago during the winter in major cities. Smell is such a powerful thing; it’s too bad we can’t tap it in games yet.

Anyway, in the ~three months I’ve lived here, we’ve had:

• The heaviest month of rain since 1952.
• One of the earliest and most problematic snow storms in recent memory.
• The big bad wolf incarnate. It even ripped some of the side-boards off my backyard barn… just like the fairy tale.  ;-)

I wonder if someone upstairs is trying to tell me something?