He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

I like this poem, I thought you might too.

Baby, it's cold outside...

Not as cold as the mid-west, but cold enough for us Puget Sounders. The weatherman keeps predicting a "warming" trend and every day it has gotten colder. Our thermometer has read 36 degrees all day and little snowflakes have been falling off and on. There is also a bit of wind blowing (the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind). I have a big pot of stew simmering on the stove and a loaf of garlic bread heating in the oven. Ahh..comfort food.

If you haven't visited the dolly blog for awhile, I've been posting new pictures: letsplaydolls.blogspot.com or click on the doll picture on this blog and it will take you there.

A visit to Mud Mountain Dam

A week after the flood, we decided to visit Mud Mountain Dam. The Army Corps of Engineers released water from this dam last week following the cresting of the rivers, only to flood a small town (Pacific), a few miles from here. This dam, and several others in the area, were built as flood control dams to keep the valley towns from flooding. Usually this works well, but this time something went wrong. It was probably a combination of heavy snowfall, followed by heavy rain, full rivers, full dams, and miscalculation of how much water to release and how fast to release it. A lack of notification to the citizens in the affected town did not help either. This dam is a very interesting place to visit, so we went to see for ourselves just how much water had been released. From the visitor vantage point, it was clear that a LOT of water had been released. The water had been up the sides of the dam, higher than the trees that were growing there. It was an awesome sight. I am surprised that none of the local media has done a fly-over or shown any pictures of the inside of the dam. Go to the Army Corp of Engineers website to see pictures of the dam and its specs.

Flood Watch

The mighty Puyallup River is expected to reach record flood levels today. Big logs have been seen floating down the usually calm river. In some places the river has merged with the road and this is in areas where there is not expected to be much flooding. We live on the hill, if the water gets to us the flood will be in biblical proportions. Our main problem is the septic system. The pump alarm went off at 6 a.m. We are not sure why, since we weren't using that part of the drain field. The backyard appears to be under an inch of water in some places, so probably the drainage fields are flooded. Perhaps this would be a good excuse not to do any laundry today. At least we are not in Spokane where they have 6 1/2 feet of snow on the ground and roofs are collapsing.
I was visiting with a friend yesterday who lives a few blocks from the river. I asked if she had flood insurance. She said they are not considered to be in the flood plain, although the rest of the subdivision is. We laughed over that, since the topography is flat, will the water automatically stop on the street before hers?

Happy New Year

Wow, I can't believe it's 2009 today. The past year has gone by so fast. I wish you all health and happiness in the coming new year. Let's all be more kind, more patient, more forgiving of ourselves and each other in this new year.