SNOW DAY!!

Today it snowed, it began about 6 am.  I looked up and the moon was gorgeous.

This is the first time it has snowed before Thanksgiving in over 25 years.  We love to break records.  The snow fell heavily, slowly, majestically.  Then the Orange Hitachi machine started moving piles of trash.

The rhodies just outside the north entrance accumulated about an inch of snow.  The snow cloud circulated around the valley several times, dropping snow hither and yon.  The hospital is at about 135 feet elevation.  One lady said her husband drove to the beach and took pictures of snow coming on the waves.   Weather man says the Arctic Express will move in tonight with temps in the teens, it will be icy in the morning.  I'm so thankful my driver is waiting to take me to work.  Tonight I made enough filling for three pumpkin pies but I only cooked one.  The rest of it are being made into pumpkincicles in the freezer for later. 

TODAY WAS MASSAGE A LITTLE DIRT DAY

The orange Hitachi used the bucket today to move some dirt via dump truck to improve the "logging road" between the clinic and the hospital. 

I showed this picture to April who promptly left to go move her car, not the blue one, the one in front of the blue one.

The weather has really socked in some winter rain, fog, wind.  At one point one of the loggers was in the gully sawing some trashy trees down, it was blowing fairly good, he had a spotter just in case.  What!?  "Help I've fallen and I can't reach my chainsaw!"

ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF....

Nominating Nadia G of Bitchin' Kitchen to be a judge on Iron Chef America, say "Yo, how you doin'.."

This is a cover of her cook book.  She started out with 5 minute webisodes on the net out of  Montreal and the brave souls at Cooking Channel picked up her shtick, although Italian chicks may not actually use the word "shtick".   I find it helpful to google her shorter episodes especially for the pronunciation ones for terms I ain't never heard way out here in the rural pretty much not Italian Southern Oregon Coast. Her show is an amazing combination of comedy and cooking, completely unique.  She gives acting tips on how to obtain forgiveness and I'm thinking they probably work! Did I mention clothes, Hoo boy!  Makes me wish I actually owned stiletto heels never mind actually wearing them.

MILLION DOLLAR VIEW

This is the parking lot after the majority of the trees were removed and before the orange safety fencing went up.  Actually this will be closer to a 22 million dollar view.  The patients will have this stunning view out their windows only a little higher up.

BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES

BEFORE

AFTER

The before picture is the parking lot about 7:30 am this morning, before the guy in the Orange Hitachi boom tractor, carefully positioned the bucket on the opposite direction of the fall and jumped down with his chainsaw, checked wind direction, hopped back in the Hitachi and gently nudged the trees over. One right after the other.  Very quick, didn't crush any cars, very professional.  I stood in the lobby and got a little misty.  The view is quite spectacular, we can see clear across the valley to Fat Elk Road.  Next project is set up electric supply for the new spot for the MRI van on Wednesdays, it will take up eight spots of employee parking.  Lots of us are car pooling, I fortunately have a private chauffeure.



The wood pile is getting deeper

I heard one of the nurses explaining to one of the patients some of the timber logged off would be utilized in the new facility.  Hmmm, lemme see if they get those logs to a local lumber mill and get them turned into usable lumbar and get to a lumber kiln they might make it or we can just pretend that the  laminated beams used on the project actually came from here. 

Today the orange Hitachi machine thingy knocked down trees by the clinic just down slope, I took the picture from the edge of the parking lot.  Today it smelled hauntingly of fresh dirt, Christmas trees and diesel, what a combination!  At least a couple of people have expressed an interest in obtaining some dirt from the site.  From the looks of the drop off just outside the northern exit door, we will need every speck of dirt to go there to make a helicopter landing pad. 

BOOK REPORT...

Barbara Metzger wrote this in 1992 and it has been reissued for the season!  Yay!  In 1992 I was living in Barrow, Alaska and I was not reading much in the way of Romance.

The story involves Juneclair Beaumont an orphan who lives with her aunt, Lady Stanton who is a horrible pinch penny and threatened to harm Pansy.  She is essentially a sweet natured, unpaid servant but enough is enough, she packed up, took Pansy and walked away

The hero is Merritt Jordan Earl of St. Cloud.  He is 30, his family is pressuring him to marry.  He is driving his team of chestnuts home and he is robbed.  He continues on his way and finds odd and ends left beside the road all left there by Juneclaire as she had run away from her servitude with Pansy and all of her belongings, which became heavier and heavier the further she walked.  The Earl picked up the discarded belongings and eventually finds Juneclaire.
He offers to take her and her baby up on his horse.  She hands up Pansy to him and he allows as how he has never held a baby....
pig.  From there on the story gets funnier.

My two favorite comments were:

"They had him by the shoat hairs"

and

"Swine, women and song."

You had to read it in context but I laughed out loud.

The author has written other witty books, I have a couple and I think collecting more Metzger's will be my next literary project.