well, we survived it and there are still some folks without power up here. We got ours back last night (the 18th), but the house was still an icebox until this morning. Rach and Kieran headed off to England on Sunday, so they only had to endure 3 days of it.

For those who don't know, we had a really strong windstorm up here on Thursday night. 30-50mph sustained winds with 70mph gusts in some places. Our little area of Washington is littered with trees that have a tendency to fall over in high winds and knock out powerlines.

Our power went out that night at about 9pm and stayed out until last night, making for a cold few days since our heaters are electric. we stayed one night, then elected to find alternate sleeping arrangements the next couple days. I think i'm going to buy a generator for the next big one that hits....

Steve Irwin Dead: News.com.au is reporting that Steve Irwin was killed in a freak accident while filming one of his well known documentaries. Surprisingly it wasn't a crocodile, it was a sting-ray.

{from Slashdot}

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002732607_landslides11m.html

I know I live in the Pacific Northwest, but this is getting rediculous. It would be fine if it was jus the misting that we normally get on most days, but it has pretty much pured at some point each day and we just got a nice bit of hail....

:x

Mount St. Helens Spews More Steam (AP): AP - Mount St. Helens blew off more steam Monday, shooting a billowing white plume several hundred feet above the volcano and thrilling hundreds of visitors who had gathered below the rumbling mountain.

{from Yahoo! News - Top Stories}

now if I could only see it....atleast I could get a decent seat if Mt Rainier decides to pop its top.

Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased: DarkHand writes "Mount St. Helens has become even more unstable in the last few hours. The U.S. Geological Surveys Cascades Volcano Observatory has increased the volcanic alert around the volcano to level 2 and released a press release: 'Over night, seismic activity at Mount St. Helens has accelerated significantly, which increases our level of concern that current unrest could culminate in an eruption. We are increasing the alert level to the second of three levels [...]. Earthquakes are occurring at about four per minute. The largest events are approaching Magnitude 2.5 and they are becoming more frequent. All are still at shallow levels in and below the lava dome that grew in the crater between 1980 and 1986. This suggests that the ongoing intense earthquake activity has weakened the dome, increasing the likelihood of explosions or perhaps the extrusion of lava from the dome.' The most recent readings at the SEP seismograph stationed on the lava dome itself are totally saturated. The ground is now literally constantly rumbling."

{from Slashdot}

we're a good 100 miles north of the it, so no danger here, but if it does pop, I hope we can at least see something from here....

I've been everywhere in red....

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