Blackout.

Nancy's turn again tonight. We woke up to rain this morning; what a surprise. The storm grew slowly but steadily in intensity all day culminating in high wind warnings for late afternoon and evening. Fortunately for Jim, he was hard at work all day. So was I, but mine also involved two quick trips into town, one under quite blustery conditions. Then about 6:00 the power went out. So we lit a fire in the fireplace and what candles we could find and were grateful no lightning was involved to make us panic about computer damage. After a couple of hours about the time we were going to give up and make peanut butter sandwiches for dinner the lights came back on. Maybe a generator is in order for those living full time up here.

A Break in The Weather.

Some rain for a couple hours at midday, but the wind has relented, and that's a relief. Lot of folks with minor property damage after the winds last night, and a few trees and branches in the roadways. Joe H. at the ranch had a top of his (metal) chimney blown off, and the horse arena roof lost some metal. The storm noise at the beach was so loud it kept waking us up; after at while I made up my mind to stop worrying about it - I put in my earplugs so I could get some sleep. Things settled down in the late afternoon, folks were out front on the beach, walking and searching the sand: looking for agates, we presume.

Sightseeing in a Gale

It's Sunday and we thought we should get out a see a bit more of the surroundings. Steady wind-driven rain seemed to preclude just about every activity expect a driving tour: we headed north of Newport to check out together the Yaquina Head Lighthouse that I had been by yesterday on the bike ride. It was wild! At the lighthouse itself the wind was steady at 40mph, gusting to 65. Even at the visitors center, back a half mile in the shelter of a hill, the wind was still so fierce that everyone inside the building was preoccupied with the noise of the weather battering the roof. Further north, we stopped for lunch (Nancy had some very good chowder) and then on to Lincoln City, the next town of size (7,000) north of Newport, where we stumbled into a substantial outlet mall. Some light shopping later, we headed home.



I boosted this image off the web. It was nothing like this when we saw it. We would have taken our own photo, but we were afraid that if we opened the car doors the wind would tear them off.

After a Big Storm.

A really remarkable storm last night: high winds, lightning and thunder, and an intense hail storm. Small piles of hail were still to be seen at noontime, while I was off on a fairly arduous bike ride with a few of the local riders (boy, I'm really not in shape in January!). After my second puncture of the day on a highway covered with storm debris, I called for Nancy to come and pick me up with the Pathfinder. I was only a mile or so short of our finish, but I was too tired to change another tire just for that short distance, and I didn't want the others to have to wait for me again. I'm still learning the ropes of local riding, wearing more layers and sporting more foul weather gear than I've ever used before; new today: neoprene over-booties that cover the entire shoe and ankle, and clip-one plastic fenders that prevent water from spraying one's legs and backside. Good times.
Much of the coast is really beautiful, not unlike Big Sur or the rocky coast near San Simeon. It sure has been cold and windy, though, perhaps better suited to gazing out a picture window than riding a road bike.

Rain and coffee.

Nancy's posting for the first time today.
It rained on and off today until late afternoon when a more serious storm rolled in. Between showers we managed to get on our mountain bikes and ride a couple of miles down the road for lunch and coffee and escape home before it started really pouring. Sorry, no photos.
A few of my observations about life up here:
1. Oregonians are very serious about coffee while being quite independent about it. Even the smallest hamlet has at least 2 or 3 drive-thru espresso stands. The vast majority are privately owned. We only have one Starbucks within 10 miles, but probably have 20 espresso places of various types, most have drive-thru capabilities. We haven't had a bad cup yet.
2. Oregonians are also very serious about wine. We stopped the other day at a very rural roadside market. The shelves offered the basic necessities, a few frozen dinners and quite an extensive wine selection, mostly local, oh, and of course, espresso.
3. I thought I would miss big city grocery stores. Both local markets have my Pasadena Von's beat by a mile! Up here they have twice the selection of tortillas and greater variety of fresh produce not to mention other things, oh, and of course, espresso. So much for my preconceptions.

Rain. And a movie.

Another day inside working, and it was blowing pretty good outside at times. Cousins Roland and Vivienne called on Skype (free internet phone) from Italy, and we all had a long chat. Isn't technology amazing? Doesn't it just make you feel good to be alive?
As an extra bonus today, those of you with a DSL/Cable connection (or with dial-up and a little patience)) can check out the Quicktime movie I made today - go to

Our Little Rain Movie

It's about 750K.

The rain returns.

We both worked on computers inside all today ('though Nancy made a run to the bank). A mild storm came in, and there was rain a good part of the time, occasionally turning to hail. A good day to stay inside. Fedex and UPS have both proven themselves at this point, I got some bike rain gear from Colorado, Nancy received an overnight package of documents from Los Angeles. One of the older computers flipped out evernight, but fortunately we weren't really depending on it (we hadn't trusted it to store data for some time). We'll see if it can be fixed. My nearly-new Mac G5 tower is doing well after a main processor transplant that it received just a short time before we left town. It was under warranty, but jeez, the hoops I had to jump through with Apple support!
Thanks to everyone for your emails of support. Feel free to leave comments on the pages if you are so inclined - click on the word "comments."

Visit to the Ranch.

Nancy and I were both working today, but we were invited at lunchtime to go out to the Hitselberger Ranch for a quick look-see. The place is owned by our hosts and run day-to-day by their youngest son Joe, who showed us around today. The ranch is located a few miles from the beach house up one of the local canyons. The scenes in these small valleys are beautiful; few folks have homes back there, there might be more barns than homes, really. The low areas between the pine-covered hills are mostly used as pastureland for cattle and horses; some have some sheep or goats. It may be a couple of weeks before we have another day as nice as today, and I'm looking forward to going out in search of paintable compostions.

Exploring.

An absolutely clear sunny day on the coast. We decided to take advantage of it by checking out the town of Corvallis, due inland from us; a tactical error on our part, as that inland valley was completely socked in with low clouds and with temperatures significantly lower, in the middle 30's. In the end, we weren't even sure if we found the pertinent part of Corvallis for a good "read" on the place:. We found their "old town": several blocks of 1880-1930 commercial buildings with a high concentration of bicycle stores and coffee bars. It was okay, but with the cold and the gray we didn't quite get our bearings before it was time to head back to the coast. The coastal range of hills, by the way, was quite striking, a dense pine forest with small ranches in the valleys. The whole layout is a bit like the relationship between Malibu and Thousand Oaks, at least in terms of population and shopping options. But with many, many more trees.

No Rain.

Yes, our first full day here with no rain, and our first day to climb down the slippery wooden steps to the beach. The beach is broad and long, but the high tides mean that there is essentially no dry sand, at least not now. Occasional individuals and couples walk the beach, usually accompanied by one or more large, friendly dogs (always running free and having a great time). Apparently the early risers among the beachcombers are in search of agate stones, which wash up daily.

Riding in the cold and wet.

We visited the only bike shop in Newport (Bike Newport) yesterday, and I was encouraged to join a local ride today. I wasn't especially looking forward to it - in Pasadena we call 45 degrees and probable rain a day to stay inside - but I felt obliged to give it a go. Five of us showed up (mercifully, at noon) for a mostly flat 28-miler around the bay. I followed the locals' advice on layering clothing, and surprisingly, I was not terribly miserable despite our going through frequent heavy showers on the 2-hour outing (yes, do the math, we weren't going too fast). Lessons learned: cyclists in Oregon own waterproof over-booties and gloves, and some will even clip a rear fender on a road bike; soaked gloves and shoes on a short ride won't kill you, but they do make things a bit unpleasant.
Nancy stayed home and surfed the web in an easy chair.

Nancy at work in the den.

Woof.

Settling In

Our first "normal" day here; Nancy and I both working at our normal computer-based tasks, "telecommuting" with clients in Los Angeles. Although our location seems fairly remote, our DSL connection is very good, downloading testing as somewhat slower than our service in Pasadena, but actually uploading at a FASTER rate. We've been using iChat video without any problem, which is a good sign. Really, functionally, there doesn't seem to be any meaningful difference.
I'm not sure why there is good DSL here (my parents still can't get DSL in the Trancas area of Malibu) but I suspect that it has to do with the many small hotels along this part of the coast; or perhaps it is part of a program to lure tech industry to the area. Interestingly, there is cable TV here (Charter) but they don't offer high-speed internet as part of that service, the needed equipment has not been installed yet.
Our view of the ocean and sky changes dramatically almost minute by minute – we could have posted a long series of photos just on this evening's sunset. The colors are unlike those in the Southland sunsets, with stronger contrasts between warm and cool tones. Interesting.

Not bad.

Snow in Yreka, just before entering Oregon

Well, it was a long drive, but we're finally here. The little Uhaul trailer we were pulling kept us below 60 mph most of the time; in the mountains we kept company with the big rigs. We ran into some snow in the passes between California and Oregon, just long enough to put the chains on and almost immediately take them off again.
The house that our friends have so graciously lent us is wonderful, right on the beach with picture windows facing the raging winter surf. We've spend the first day here getting the computers set up for work, and putting in some supplies. It rained hard last night, but today just a little heavy drizzle in the morning and a dramatically clouded sky in the afternoon.