Crazy Weather

We have had some unusually cold and snowy weather the last two weeks. While I laughed at the school (and town!) closures for 3 inches of snow last week, today's freezing rain was not funny. Altogether, this weather has caused some difficultities for my research. I have postponed a trip to my coastal site in Tillamook twice now and I'm worried that I'm not going to meet deadlines.

On a brighter note the cold weather has brought loads of beautiful, dare I say DRY, snow to the Cascades. To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Eric and I went cross-country skiing with friends Amy and Brett and their dogs Rosco and MJ. The snow was great and the trail was fun. I managed to cause two pile-ups. The first was a complete train wreck, domino style. The second was more controlled and Eric even had the wherewithal to document it. Here I have crashed and Brett trying to help me out ended up straddling the tree. It really was steep- you just can't tell from the picture. Amy fell down trying to take a picture of us and the dogs came to the rescue. Molly is somewhere in the picture but she is camouflage in the snow.