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Saturday, January 14, 2017

snow


This week, with snow as the starring event (if I don't count our first lamb being born), has seemed longer than most. Some of that might be due to the sense of isolation icy highways create. The political stuff out there doesn't help. I don't like writing about it here but do touch on various aspects in my rant blog. I want to keep this blog for creative ideas for life as well as photos. I want it to stay positive. I don't see much positive in our political atmosphere-- and that doesn't matter which side of the divide one is on. A lot of it is set up to depress or enrage. How can that be healthy?

In my writing, I have been thinking more than putting down words. I began this book in September and, after under 10,000 words, set it aside to write two feel-good novellas, Red Hawk Christmas and Sonoran Christmas. With the presidential campaign as it was, I wanted to be writing something that made me happier. A Price to be Paid (title of that book) touches on a very difficult topic and it wasn't making me feel good. I now think by waiting to write, i came up with an element of the hero's soul that I hadn't seen before. A LOT of writing happens before fingers touch keyboards or pen.

For now, here are more snow photos covering the way my world changed as the snow fell, melted some, and then fell again. This part of the Pacific Northwest rarely gets snow; so when we do, we take a lot of photos. So far it looks as though it will melt gradually enough to make flooding minimal... *fingers crossed*











Ranch Boss took moon and snow photos early Friday morning and froze his fingers to get enough shots. January's full moon is called the Wolf Moon. The reflection in the melted snow came out beautifully. With snow is one of the few full moons we've never gotten. At least he didn't get frostbite. For more about this moon, check out this link (always in my blog list) Beyond the Fields We Know. Always beautiful blog but reliably fantastic when of her moon shots.


7 comments:

Annie said...

I especially like the moon shot but your photos of the snow are beautiful. Glad you are avoiding flooding.

Rain Trueax said...

thanks, Annie. If we had gotten what Portland got, we'd have been toast. We got just enough to be pretty but not so much we couldn't get out if need be and now it's slowly going into the ground *fingers crossed*

Ingineer66 said...

Nice photos. The good news is that the drought is over.

Rain Trueax said...

I read that and now the flood is on? lol

Unknown said...

Your thoughts are lovely, and the photos are, too. The photographer did a great job!

Tabor said...

Love that moody shot of the forest of pines. Yes, you did get snow. Much more than we did. Ours is all gone now and it seems like late fall. My daffodils are emerging!! Yes, politics is depressing and while you try to stay in the middle I know in my gut where evil lies. Thos who lose their health care and get a chance to save money in a tax free account or search for help in another state will see why this does not work and their voices will be small because they do not get the bully pulpit.

Rain Trueax said...

I think with health care it would be good to wait to see what the proposal ends up being. Trump is not Ryan. But time will tell. Obama made some mistakes with not allowing bargaining for lower prices, The end result for some meant a yearly premium of $20,000 and $6000 deductible before they got coverage. Some depending on the state where you lived. It needed to get fixed and sky high profits for drug companies might've been good for them and the stock market but not so much for the rest of us. If you ever looked at what your drugs cost the insurance company, it could be a real shocker. In the end somebody pays for that even if we didn't with our copay.

The irony of the snow is how it fell this time. we were at the southern edge of getting very much. The middle of the Willamette Valley hardly had any but Portland and southern Washington got hammered. Our snowfall wasn't a lot but it stuck and is still here. Side roads like our gravel road still only have narrow ruts for driving. When we drove into Corvallis for sheep molasses cakes, their snow was gone. Driving back out of town to the north, about five miles and it was back. Out here it looks about like it did when it fell as we are still getting nights in the teens and days hovering in the low 30s.

What irks me on how the Republicans are seen as the racists is how we Democrats didn't do much to make life better in places like inner city Chicago. We talk a good game but the unemployment rate for young black males has been astronomical. Their schools were not as good. Obama might've been good for some but he was not much help for some of our worst problems. I don't say it was his fault either but racism seems to be worst by most people's reckoning and from what I remember too. What Trump has said to the black community is-- what have democrats really done for you? Well, we'll see what he might do with a little time. Sweet words don't give someone a good job or a neighborhood that is safe for a walk in the evening or for that matter of a stray bullet going through a wall-- and that with a city having stringent gun regulations. It's the gang activity that is causing a lot of that violence and it comes from those who see it as the way to get money and protection. I am not sure what will change it. A minimum wage won't if there are no jobs. Even a minimum income being paid everyone won't if they see that's less than they could get other ways. What I think it takes is real jobs that have respect and a product that the person can feel proud of producing. It's what we all want. Manufacturing used to have that but when we sacrificed it to overseas and cheaper prices here, we hurt a lot of the lower income level people. How do we now fix it? Having a sweet talking president didn't.

Last night Paul watched more of a documentary on the end of Eisenhower's time in office. I didn't stick with it as I felt I had lived it. He said though it emphasized how much Eisenhower worried that Kennedy didn't have enough experience and was naive. He could be talking about Obama. Some would say that about Trump too but he has his experience in a different world but he had it. Although, I am not sure we want experienced politicians as they seem to be the ones most often cutting us down.