A different Cherry Picker experience!

Some days ago now, we had another experience of a person in a cherry picker reaching out with a very long stick!. This had a lot more personal consequences, than the man painting the silo with a long stick, in a previous post. We were expecting 16 people for dinner, followed by a presentation from a young friend who has just spent two weeks in Afganistan with the organization Mountain2Mountain.

The weather around here had been very wintry with torrential rains and wind roaring through the area. Several quite serious effects ... sliding houses, mud slides closing train lines, local flooding etc had occurred.

Just after 2pm, on that day, a violent wind storm with pounding, torrential rain blew through: it last maybe 4 minutes. In the midst of this blast there was a moderate "boom", coming from the power pole across the street from our home, and our lights went out. A call to Tacoma Power ascertained that no one else on the street had called, but they would have someone out here as soon as possible.

We lit every candle we could find in our pantry, which created a lovely warm glow in our living room. Dinner was stove top cooked on our gas stove and our gas fireplace warmed the living room at least.

Without detailing all the steps to re-establish power it was more than five hours before our power was reconnected ... following some major work on the pole outside our home ... in torrential rain and wind off an on. The workers who came to fix the problem couldn't have been more helpful. I always feel for the people who are responsible for getting power up and on again following power outages and I know from a friend (whose husband works for a NW power company) about how badly harassed power companies often are, following power outages, by people frustrated by living without power.

We simply want to say Kudos to Tacoma Power for their professionalism and hard work on our behalf.  At the moment our guest was about to give up on the idea of showing her pictures of her time in Afganistan  ... the lights came on.  Anna's stories were so interesting and images fascinating!

Tacoma Power crew arrives to diagnose the problem

The technician reaches with a long stick ... followed by another boom!

Removing all the "bad" non functioning equipment in the rain and wind.

Anna, by candle light, arranging the Afgani dinner before speaking about her experiences

                               Check out www.mountain2mountain.org for images of our friend's time in Afganistan.

Far from the end of my garden ... storage tanks appeared!

 Not really visible from my garden, but for the past few weeks I have watched, fascinated, the construction of a group of  enormous storage tanks on Port of Tacoma tideflats land. I see them as I drive from my home into the city of Tacoma.  It seems as though they appeared overnight! I am sure it was just that the construction of lower parts of the tanks were hidden behind other buildings ... but one day there they were! Giant grey cylinders!
Following the completion of the construction the painting began. That was the interesting part for me! Two men, perched on the end of a huge cherry picker, with very long handled paint rollers seemed to have nearly completed the task.  Today as I drove home (see the last photo) I watched fascinated as the man with the very long handle ... at the end of the cherry picker ... extended as far as it seemed it might go ... closed up the remaining grey spot!  Others remain to be painted but the one closest to the road gleams beautifully white ... the painter's work on display!  Good job guys!

Several of the storage tanks nearing completion

Two painters working feverishly when the sun shines!

Turning the last little grey space to white!

Two mornings ... different views!

Looking east from my garden each morning, across Commencement Bay at our end of Puget Sound, is a never the same experience. The two images taken at about the same time on two different mornings this past week are graphic examples. Watching the patterns of light across the water when the air is almost still is equally as mesmerizing as watching that same body of water changed by wind shifts which alter the light and the patterns created. Every minute is different. Every minute an "oh would you look at it now!" moment.

How does one choose?

Veins!

         

Proctor District, Tacoma, tree

Closer view of the above tree

Schuster Parkway, Tacoma, moment

Sun lighting the leaves a few minutes later

Approaching storm maybe downed all the leaves

I always carry a camera in whatever bag I am carrying: sometimes I think it would be better left at home as I wouldn't be driven to capture so many images!  This autumn has been, or so it seems to me, particularly brilliantly colorful. No doubt  our prolonged summer and lack of cold has something chemical to do with the sugar in the leaves and the color.  As I recall those three things are what direct the leaves autumnal color. The rapidity with which leaves fall was illustrated graphically when I returned, the next day,  to take more photos of the leaves with amazing veins. Not a one on the tree!
But when you have all these images the choice then becomes which ones do you wish to share?  After much sorting and resorting ... these are the ones I chose. I offer the beauty of these leaves as a possible balm for the divided sentiments roiling around in the country the day after the re-election of President Obama.

Autumn leaves ... Compost.

Driving to the pool to exercise early this morning I passed this overflowing can of maple leaves heading for the compost pile in our city's yard waste site.  I actually stopped my car, turned around and went back to take a photo. Not sure just what it was that I found so comical about the overflowing can - but I was amused. Walking up the road to take the photo I glanced across the street and exactly opposite there were a whole lot more leaves, of beautiful autumnal hues, probably destined for the next yard waste collection in two weeks. But for today those leaves were still holding on for the perfect climatic moment to drop.  It's always encouraging to realize that those leaves will become "food" for future new  leaves in another spring time burst ... of green.

On a morning like this ...

On a morning like this ... not a cloud in the sky

As the sun rises, the air becomes a little hazy and suddenly across the bay the sun hits the windows of a building in downtown Tacoma creating blindingly bright patterns in the bay.

So still is the water even the steam from the St. Regis pulp mill is reflected in the bay.

And as suddenly at the building is illuminated and the reflections spread ... they start to fade as the sun moves higher in the sky.

              Another morning of amazing pageantry played out across Commencement Bay ...
              at the end of my garden.

At the end of my garden this morning

A very different view awaited us, at the end of my garden, this morning.  Rain had been predicted to fall last night. Rumor had it that Northwesterners were counting the number of days we have not had any rain fall! It was to cap at 49: however there was no rain last night ! Maybe a 1950s record of 50 straight days without rain will be broken after all. Fifteen minutes after I took the last of the 3 mountain photos ... no mountain showing at all ... just heavy clouds.

Early morning clouds above and below Mt. Rainier

Clouds coming up from the foothills, clouds coming down from above

Weather coming down on the NW side of the mountain.

Meanwhile a lone robin looks for water and maybe company?