Chasing Sunrises

I managed to catch a sunrise this morning, but the bulk of the color was to the south and I was north side of the bluff. It wasn't the greatest sunrise, but I'll keep chasing.

Sunrise . . . Sunset

Those of you who know us well know that I LOVE sunsets. The sun sets at about 4:45 these days in this part of the country, hence it's dark before you know it. Every once in a while in the winter, we get a clear morning and a beautiful sunrise, but sunrise isn't until 7:50am and most mornings, I'm teaching by then. This morning, before I left, I looked at my camera bag and SERIOUSLY thought about taking it with me, but decided it was too dark outside and there was no point in dragging all that equipment out for nothing. OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! It was the most beautiful sunrise we've had in months and I have no pictures of it! I even watched the weather last night and KNEW that this was a possibility.

So I've sat at my computer this morning, mourning and repenting for not going with the prompting to take my camera.  So in my remorse, I've looked through old sunrise and sunset pictures and found something to share anyway. I'm low on sunrise pictures because I'm either busy or asleep at that time of day, but I did find a sunset picture we took last summer that I haven't shared yet. (It's part of the not yet blogged pictures between July and November.) We found a great a place for beach fires south of Waldport a couple of years ago and go back regularly. This picture was taken after roasting hot dogs and marshmellows with Jan and Amanda in August at Patterson Wayside on the Oregon coast.

All Put Away Until Next Year

I got sidetracked today as I attempted to put away our few Christmas decorations. With the family gathering being at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, we haven't put up a Christmas tree for a few years. We've simplified Christmas a lot since the kids have married and have their own families. I have to say that I miss all the decorations, but not putting them up and taking them down. This year we sent the tree we've had for 20 years to Brad and Mel and bought a beautiful, fully lit, 4.5 foot tree complete with urn. Easy up and I think it will be easy down. I just have to stop taking pictures around it long enough to find out. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Snow? Really?

Yes, really. Out of nowhere last week we got four inches of snow in four hours. The forecast was for a little rain. . . maybe. At about 3:00 it suddenly started to snow like crazy. Dave was at work with no car and dependent on public transportation to make the thirteen mile trip home. We thought it would surely let up and I could drive in and pick him up, but it didn't and the insanity of snow in Portland took over. It took him two and a half hours to get from the office to the Expo Center Park 'n' Ride and me two hours to make the six mile drive from home to him. Northbound was a piece of cake and we were home in fifteen minutes. If we don't see another snowflake this winter, it will be fine with us.