An open letter to the traffic on our street:

Specifically those who choose to remove the mufflers from your vehicles. I'm talking to you.

You're very proud of the noise you generate. I can tell, because you step on the gas every time you pass our house. This causes our walls to shake, and our windows to rattle, giving the overall impression that our house is about to implode upon itself. It is not an enjoyable experience.

Actually, as I'm writing this, I realize that I should like to extend this letter to emergency response vehicles as well. I won't argue that your use of sirens is necessary. Though I find it very interesting that you have an uncanny knack for blasting your sirens past our house, and then TURNING THEM OFF two houses down. Because apparently it is very important for us to hear that you are on your way to an emergency. Really, it's just weird.

Storms make the situation worse. I realize that the noise coming from your vehicles doesn't necessarily get louder during a storm, but couple that with rain gushing in through old, poorly fitted aluminum windows, and wind threatening to huff and puff and blow our house down, it really does seem worse.

Yes, un-muffled exhaust-laden vehicles, you have proven to be worthy adversaries these last few years. But we have finally won a round with you. Oh yes.

Please allow me to introduce new addition installed into the front of our house, and the inside of our bedroom: NEW WINDOWS!



That's right boys and girls. Brand new, double paned, vinyl shiny goodness from Jeld-Wen. TWO OF THEM!! Do you know what this means? In case you've skimmed the rest of the letter to get to the pictures, I'll tell you. It means that when I am laying in bed at 11:00 at night trying to sleep, and one of you Speedracers goes blasting down our street in all your un-muffled glory, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. Nope. Not anymore. And when those sirens are screaming past our house on their way to an emergency, I DON'T HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT IT!!!

It also means that I will not have to layer my windowsill with paper towels during the winter to soak up all the water that leaks through. And I won't have to watch our windows bend and bow in the wind when it is stormy.

Score one point for our team. Actually, there are two new windows so I think that allows us two points. TWO POINTS for our team!

Plus, we can have the air conditioner in our room now!! It used to be in the spare room across the hall with a strategic series of fans and open doors to cool off our bedroom. Because we're sensitive flowers and do not enjoy the heat. Yes, I'm well aware of how ghetto it may make the front of our house look. And no, I don't care. But thank you for that opinion.

In conclusion, to all the loud, un-muffled, siren-equipped vehicles in Tillamook, if you should so desire to stage a parade past our house at 1:00 in the morning, I say BRING IT!!! Because I won't hear you.

XOXO


P.S.

A special thanks to my father for coming out to our house when he had hoped to be out fishing to help MacGyver install those windows, and even taking one for the team when one of the old windows decided to explode on him. By the way Dad, Snoopy Band-aids are definitely your style! :) Because let's face it, I talk a good talk, but I'm pretty useless when it comes to helping with a lot of this stuff! :) Thanks again!!!

Long time no bloggie...

Yes, yes, I know I've been slacking; however, I am very excited to announce that very soon we will be picking things back up and starting in again! In the mean time, enjoy some pictures of my first real Christmas Tree!!




My Twinkly tree!!!!

(I know it's sideways...I can't figure out how to fix it. Any suggestions would be appreciated!)



That's Ross' Mazda Protege sitting underneath our 8.5' Christmas Tree! We got the tree the same weekend it monsooned and Tillamook almost floated out into the ocean. Here are some pictures of the flood.


The steeple blew off the roof of the Bay City Church. The "wind-mometer" out at Cape Meares broke at 120-something mph.


The Nehalem River flooded a lot of dairy pastures.


This was the road to Oceanside from Tillamook. They were without power for nearly 2 weeks.



This is pretty self explanatory!

A mud slide in Bay City onto Hwy 101.\



Here is the view of Hwy 101 through Tillamook. In the background you can see a Red semi up to its doors in water. The cell towers were down and the long distance was broken. All raods leading out of Tillamook county were either flooded or blocked by mudslides. The radio stations had to be boated in (quite literally) and were then stuck in the station until the waters receded. It was quite an adventure! Thankfully, Ross and I live on "the island" - otherwise known as the only section on Tillamook that doesn't flood!

Beating the cold...

We put plastic on the windows tonight. 'Nuff said.


P.S. It is a cozy 70 degrees in this house right now. What a welcome relief.

The Night the Lights Went Out in Tillamook...

Well, we survived the storm! I left work early on Thursday so that MacGyver and I could get out to town and clean out the apartment. We packed that car full of the rest of the stuff we left behind and high-tailed it back to the coast. We checked ODOT before we started over the mountain, and it was clear. By the time we were halfway over they had closed the road due to downed trees. It was like driving through a forest floor there was so much debris on the roads. Not to worry, however, MacGyver's expert driving abilities got us home safe and sound!

We were home for about 20 minutes when the whole town went dark. Very, very dark. And cold. So very cold. We bundled up in three down comforters, put the dog in a sweater (with MacGyver protesting loudly) and we hunkered down for a long night.

The wind was blowing like mad, and at some point in the night MacGyver boarded up the windows in our room with cardboard in case the windows shattered in on us (it sure sounded like they were trying!). The storm blew itself out around 3am. We woke up to find that some of our tree had gotten up close and personal with our (and I think some of the neigbors') yard.



We went to the beach on Friday (they closed the office - I guess therapy in the cold and dark wasn't anyone's idea of a good time). That was fun, and the dog seemed to enjoy himself as well.



When we got back to town, we saw that The Pancake House was OPEN! Bless those people, they had coffee! We ate a hot breakfast and drank our coffee - it was heaven. I even brought back a few pieces of bacon for Linus. He was a very happy little schnauzer! After it got dark we played more "Yes 5" (a.k.a. knock-off Yahtzee) and Monopoly by flashlight. When the batteries ran out on the flashlights we lit some candles.

At about 1am this morning the lights finally came back on. MacGyver turned to me and said "Do you see what I see?" It was a very welcome sight. We turned off the light, turned on the heater, and went back to sleep.