Tag: weather

Slip Sliding Away

I don’t know why nearly every time I start to write something, an old song comes to mind.  I’m really not that musical!  The title song isn’t really about driving in a snow storm, but maybe it is.  You can find the lyrics here, https://www.paulsimon.com/track/slip-slidin-away/ if you want to mull them over with me.  There’s a lot of story in the ballad, but also metaphors.  Perhaps slip sliding away as you approach your destination is a metaphor for the current situation in this country.  Stop sliding!

Back to the snow.  Two weeks ago, we finally got a taste of winter.  Of course, I was in the Spokane Valley at an evening mending workshop when the squalls hit.  All the phones in the room starting buzzing with the emergency notice of poor visibility due to snow.  What could I do, I had to finish mending a pair of jeans with a worn split near the back pocket.  After the mending, we had to clean up, and by the time we all got to our cars in the parking lot, it was squalling away. 

I’ve done a lot of challenging drives from Spokane Valley to my home west of Spokane during my time here.  This was a good one, in that the snow was beautiful, fluffy, and coming down thick.  And it really was hard to see, especially as I drove further west and out of the city lights.  I followed the tracks of the car ahead of me and hoped they didn’t slide into the ditch where I would follow.  My neighborhood is often worse than the city, it’s a little higher, and a lot less traveled, and it takes a long while for the snowplows to get there.  The last few roads before my house are narrow, dark, and rural.  I drove slowly and only had a few wobbles.  I was barely able to see the correct corners to turn on in the dark snowy night.   Oddly, my last hill, the one that is often a skating rink that you have to hit the gas to make it up, only had light snow.  I think the pines along the road caught the snow.  The pine trees were looking out for me that night. 

I made it home without slip sliding away into the ditch.  It was still snowing big fluffy flakes.  I was happy that winter was finally giving us an appearance.  I was also happy I was retired, and could reschedule my outings for the next day, and go for a walk in the snow instead of a drive. 

Rain Coats and Feeling Oats

Mary Jane’s Farm magazine once again was kind enough to publish an article of mine: Feeling Her Oats, p.26, in the April-May Issue. This issue is on newsstands now and has several horse-related articles in addition to the usual fun and interesting farm, garden, and cooking articles. It’s a great issue!

I can’t share my article from the current issue yet. Instead, I’ll share my article, Rain Coats, that was published in the last Issue (Feb-Mar) of Mary Jane’s Farm.

Rain Coats

Where I grew up, it was all about the rain.  We had spring rains, summer rains, fall rains, and cold winter rains.  Rain at 34 degrees is so much colder than snow at 32 degrees.  It’s so wet!  As a kid I would put on my coat with a hood and stand under roof lines or gutters.  I would close my eyes and imagine I was standing under a waterfall in the jungle. 

We rarely used umbrellas, they just got in the way. When I moved to Seattle for college, I had to get an umbrella.  It was for self-defense, to be used as a buffer.  As a tall person on sidewalks full of mostly shorter people, other umbrellas came at me at eye level.  Walking on crowded sidewalks between classes was dangerous, you could lose an eye!  Umbrellas are challenging though; one has to remember where you left the dripping wet umbrella when entering a building and remember to pick it up again on the way back out. I lost many umbrellas by walking out a different door.  Some days in Seattle were two-handed-umbrella days, with wind strong enough to invert an umbrella.  They rarely went back into shape.  Those days, a raincoat with a hood was better. 

I eventually became a bike rider, and changed my foul weather gear to a rain poncho and rain chaps.  Did you know that bikes without fenders toss up a line of muddy water on your backside during rainstorms?  Fenders are necessary.    

My husband and I eventually landed in Eastern Washington, on the edge of a desert.  Instead of year-round rain, we get regular thunderstorms.  There is so much drama: a dark bank of stacked clouds, then a breeze, then a gale ahead of the storm, crack of thunder, flash of lightning, and if we are lucky, a downpour.  If we aren’t lucky, wildfires. We can even have thunder-snow in the winter. I love thunderstorms, they don’t usually last long, so you can often avoid being out in the downpour.  But I still enjoy popping outside with a raincoat and a hood, listening to the rain drum down on my head.

My raincoats got better over the years. I learned that boaters and fishermen use entirely waterproof rain gear made from a thick plastic-type fabric.  Those work great for horseback riding, too, because you aren’t exerting too much.  But for hiking or walking, Gore-Tex raincoats work the best, they are effective at keeping rain out and breathable to let sweat out. 

When I visit cities, though, I want something with style.  I’ve always looked for, but never found, a bright colorful flowered raincoat.  Preferably on sale, or from a thrift store.  I found a cool rain hat once that turned out to leak like a sieve when used in the rain.  I did find a black jacket with a hot pink lining and a pink zipper.  That would have to do for my city coat until I found something brighter.  I took that jacket with me on a trip to San Diego and tested it in a tropical storm.  It is not a good rain jacket, it’s more of a rain sponge.  It took two days to dry out after a walk in the deluge.  The hunt is on again, for a bright and cheerful raincoat, preferably with flowers, that actually repels the rain.  And once I find the right jacket, I will need to plan a trip to an exotic locale, maybe with a jungle and a waterfall, to test out my new coat.