Rain, rain go away….please?

As many residents of Oregon do, I suffered from the winter blues. Whether you call it SAD (Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder) or simple a hibernation instinct I find the rainy season particularly difficult to handle on any year. This year, however, I am finding it particularly tough. After an entire year without seeing winter (I left for Australia in October and returned in March) I feel the cold and the inescapable wet as an almost physical weight on both mind and body. I don’t want to do anything except eat, sleep, take hot baths, and sleep some more. However, I must go to school, play with the dog, cuddle the cat (best done while napping though) and perform other seemingly pointless chores every day. How do I do this? Honestly some days I dont. I stay in my pajamas, I drink lots of tea and cocoa and I play video games if I am not napping or bathing. (Some times I think I should grow gills the amount of time I spend in the tub.) Previous years I have battled the blues by retreating to that haven of warmth and skin cancer known as the tanning salon. Peter has made me promise that I will save my skin and future health by ceasing that uplifting practice. So I have replaced it with workout at least once a week (twice or more is best) and sitting in the sauna in the women’s locker room when I am done.

On the plus side, the complete lack of any desire to go outside has given me many long days in the office working on school and research. I have come up with a couple of good ideas and gotten some rather good experiments run.

So, how do you deal with the rainy season?

Fall Visit

I started writing this in early October and here it’s the middle of November and I am just now getting around to finishing it. As most of my post seem to have been lately this one is about Peter’s visit. Of course there will soon be another because I pick him from the airport the 13th.

On the trip photoed below however we had a rare bit of leisure time before the term started so we decided to take a road trip. We drove up to Seattle and spent two days exploring and eating. We then adjourned to Bellingham to visit my step-brother and his partner. We had a lovely time, taking a walk and cycling downtown for some dinner and beer. Since Erik and Erin had plenty of bikes we used theirs. This little mini cycle instilled an unholy lust in me  for a cycle-cross bike. Light weight, agile and fast but still sturdy enough to jump curbs and use tires suited to mild gravel I want one of these bikes like I have seldom wanted anything. It only made it worse to take one on a test ride from Corvallis Cyclery.  Back to the visit. Deciding that another trip down I-5 was a terrible idea we detoured through Mount Saint Helen’s Naitonal Park on the way home and drove all the way to the crater lookout. Then down to I-84 and back to I-5. While this is a gorgeous drive I don’t recommend trying to do it all in one day like we did. We were exhausted for days. The visit was rounded out with Fall Festival in Corvallis and the great band Stairway Denied.

Peter Pets the Pike St Pig

Arwen and Pike Pig

WTF? A wall covered in gum?

Flying Pig!

Thpppppppp!

Peter, Peter Pumice Picker

Part way up Helens

Corvallis Fall Festival