Pacific Northwest | Piss and Moan

Baked ham

Posted on June 28, 2021 by backuphill

OK, it’s hot! It’s really, really hot!

These temps, up here in the Northwest corner of the United States, are not normal. If anyone asks, it rains all the time. Don’t move here. But, seriously, there are nice days here…except the the last two, and probably tomorrow too. It’s just unusually hot.

It isn’t the hottest part of the day, but the forecast is calling for a high somewhere in the neighborhood of 104 (105 depending on where you look) today. Of course, we all know those guys are rarely correct, so it will be hotter, for sure. At 12:31pm, it is currently 95 degrees outside.

Now, if you have been reading this blog for the last year and a half you will know that I have been working from home for the time of the “flu that is known by another name.” And, you will also know that my home office is in my garage. To further give details of my situation, know that my home and garage have no AC.

So, currently, at 12:31pm, the garage temp where I am working is 88 degrees and the house is 85 degrees.

I know know what a baked ham feels like, or a baked chicken. My family would probably say turkey. A baked turkey.

Anyway, stay cool out there…

Avoidance

Posted on February 16, 2021 by backuphill

It snowed for about 36 hours this last weekend. The snow was light and fresh and was covering everything. We got about 9″ of the white stuff.

For a short time, the world was quiet. Peaceful even. There is something very comforting in watching it snow. For me, it causes me to slow down and enjoy the stillness. Silence. Fresh.

But, under that blanket of white there is a yard that just makes me cringe.

I can honestly say this is the time of year where I just think the NW is plain ol’ ugly. The trees are naked. The grass isn’t green yet. Everything feels grey and cold, not to mention sopping wet. The snow helps hide this dreadful scene.

With the snow, the yuckiness is gone. It just goes away. It can be avoided, put off, ignored. The ugliness is replaced by something beautiful, divine, perfect.

So, while the snow lasted, I avoided even thinking of all the work that has to happen in the yard before Spring arrives. Now the snow is melting quickly and the sopping, rain soaked ugliness is returning.

Avoidance is no longer something I can hold on to.

I am just gonna have to do it.

Conflicted

Posted on January 15, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Michiel Alleman on Pexels.com

There are a few things in life that I just have a love/hate relationship with. I love them and yet hate them at the same time. Those two emotions don’t usually go together and often are in regard to different things, but today (well, really the last several days) I am conflicted because of weather conditions.

In particular, snow.

I love snow. I love the peacefulness and quiet as the snow falls. There is comfort in that. The blanket is leaves, at least for a while, causes he world to slow down or pause. A stillness ensues. I love the look of snow on the landscape – there is beauty in it! Sun glistening off freshly fallen snow. White mountains and trees framed by bright blue sky is stunning. Anyway, you get the picture. There are aspects of snow that I love. As a kid, I liked playing in it.

But, on the other hand, I hate snow. It’s tough to drive in. I can do it, but I don’t like it. I would just rather not, but when necessary I can do it with relative ease. I especially don’t like other people driving in it! People are idiots most of the time, so adding slippery white stuff as an ingredient to travel just makes for trouble. Snow is cold. I know that is an obvious statement, but I don’t like being cold. It is just miserable. I don’t particularly like that snow has to be removed (sometimes multiple times) from the sidewalk and driveway. That can be hard work! No, like REALLY hard work. As an adult, I don’t enjoy playing in it. Not even a little.

I am sure there are more things I love and hate, but those are the ones off the top of my head. So, how can I be so conflicted on this? “Why?” is maybe a better question. But, I don’t really wish to know. It just is what it is.

So, there you have it. One item I am conflicted on. There are many more, but let’s just put this out there since that is on the forefront of my mind as we deal with snow and ice up here in the upper left corner (Pacific Northwest) of the US.

Do you have something you are conflicted with? A love/hate relationship, so to speak?

Lack of memory

Posted on September 9, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by veeterzy on Pexels.com

Rain.

We have it here in the Pacific Northwest about nine months of the year. Yeah, it’s probably less than that, but it sure feels that way at times. Anyway, it’s something we have a lot of and we spent a good portion of our year getting it.

So why, when summer ends and the rain returns, do NW drivers have such a hard time remembering how to drive in the stuff? It’s not like it’s a mystery and it isn’t a new skill that has to be obtained. This should be “old hat” by now!

Seriously, people, get a grip on that steering wheel and slow down. It won’t hurt you unless you’re stupid…

Maybe what little optimism I have is being too generous.

I keep hoping.

I’ll stop.

I can do without

Posted on April 19, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

There is an old saying out there…”April showers bring May flowers.”

Yeah, I could do without the flowers. Just saying.

Wet, wet, and more wet.

Does it rain a lot in Washington? That is a question I get a lot when I travel and people find out where I am from. Yes. It rains a lot.

I don’t need flowers. I don’t even really need May.

Let’s just get to summer already.

Like mowing rocks

Posted on April 1, 2019 by backuphill

douglas-fir-cones_1024x1024

Up here in the PNW we have trees. Lots of them. They’re everywhere. Well, mostly everywhere. There are places that have a shortage of trees, but don’t feel sorry for them. Feel sorry for me. Please. Like right now. Feel it.

Right now I would like to cut down all my trees. I don’t really need them and I don’t really have a use for them. They’re really more of a pain really.

I think I have talked about one aspect of the pain on the blog already, pine needles. I think I also mentioned in another post about trees and their freaking leaves falling in the yard too. BUT there is another aspect of pain that I haven’t yet mentioned when it comes to my trees.

Pine cones.

No, not the great big ones with pokey things on them that smell like cinnamon that you can buy at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby or JoAnn Fabrics during Christmas time. While I am sure those are an issue for someone somewhere, they aren’t my issue.

My pine cones are from the Douglas Fir trees in the yard. (see the photo at the top) These stupid trees produce (seemingly) millions of pine cones every year and then during the winter months they shed them all over my freaking yard. When spring comes and it is time to mow the yard, these pine cones are in varying degrees of opening (so some are “soft” – meaning opened, and some are hard as rocks because they are wet and closed).

It takes time to pick these things up, bent over for hours scouring the ground to find them all (used to bride the kids to do it for money – one year they picked up 40 gallons [8 5-gallon buckets] of them). The kids are old enough now they aren’t going to fall for Dollar Store trinkets any longer.

So, rather than pick them up this year, I just decided to try and mow over them. Oh man the racket!! It was like mowing rocks.

So, between the pine needles and pine cones and sap from some of the trees, and falling leaves from some of the other trees, and moss all over the yard – yeah, this place is a modern day paradise for landscaping nightmares.

#smh

Blink of an eye

Posted on March 18, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It was nice here in the Pacific Northwest this weekend. It got up into the 60s and there were lots of people out without coats and washing their cars. I happen to have been one of them!

When the weather turns nice (and yes, in the NW 60s is nice) it is time to get out and work in the yard, getting ready for Spring. So, the weekend was a weekend to get off the couch and cast away the sluggish attitude to “get ‘r done!”

Well, I got her done. And I am paying for it this morning. All that activity made this old guy stiff and tired.

You know that feeling when your tired and you just want to stay in bed? Yeah, I got that this morning, but really the issue here today is that time that goes by in the blink of an eye.

Literally, as I was driving to work this morning, I think I could count the seconds go by with each blink of the eye. There was literally time in each blink to think, “It feels good to close my eyes. Wait, I’m driving, open back up.” Then the next blink comes, “Why did I get out of bed? Do I really have to do this?” The next blink, “It would be nice to just leave them closed. Why are they so heavy? Open, open, open…” And so on…It was a really long drive to work this morning.

Anyway, here’s to a slow-brained, slow-blinking kind of day…oh Monday…

Stir the crazy

Posted on February 6, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

In the PNW, we have had cold and snow and ice. Reality check = it doesn’t look like it will let up any time soon. The overnight lows are high teens and daytime highs are mid thirties. Yes, I realize those aren’t polar vortex numbers, but for our area this is cold and it doesn’t usually last this long, nor does it give the prospect of lasting long.

Anyway, my job affords me the opportunity to telecommute (you know this already) and I have taken advantage of that since driving with stupid people (more so than typical days) isn’t my thing (I’ve mentioned this already this week too).

That being said, I think I might be going a bit stir crazy. Cabin Fever. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” kind of crazy. I haven’t left the house since Sunday evening. My interaction with others has been limited to those in the house and those I can communicate with at work, via Skype, Zoom, text, and email.

While I haven’t hacked my way through a door with an ax, yet, I think I will venture out this afternoon and try some human interaction before the next wave of snow and ice comes this weekend.

Moss knows no bounds

Posted on August 8, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Photo by Daniel B on Pexels.com

Well, except for a rolling stone, supposedly. If you are familiar with the quote, then that will make sense. Otherwise, it won’t. Anyway, I think here in the Pacific Northwest moss would give that rolling stone a challenge, for sure.

Moss is everywhere. In the trees. In the grass. In the shade. In the sun. On the roof. On the sidewalks. In the driveway. On the windows. Dare I say, even some have it on their cars. Hanging low. Hanging high. It is freaking EVERYWHERE!

A couple years ago I tried to kill the stuff in my lawn. Guess what? Yes, it died briefly. Along with the grass that was barely hanging on because of it. Then it came back in the fall, thicker and more robust, like it was just taking a breath before it decided to take over the rest of the yard. So, I gave up. I am just letting it take over the lawn…I mean it’s green, it’s soft, and it needs to be mowed less often than real grass…

The war on moss is not over, but the battles have certainly no gone in my favor. I will continue to battle, right after I take a nap on that soft stuff in the shade.