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Subject: Postcard from Portland
Dear Family and Friends,
"Great" news!! Thanks to my niece and her husband, I am now a *gasp*
great uncle! Missy and Richard (okay, you know who really did the work!)
gave birth to Alexander Jake Pregel on April 25th. Mother and baby are
doing just fine :-) Of course, this makes my sister and brother-in-law
grandparents and promotes my mother to *great* grandmother! They are all
in Cincinnati kvelling[0] over the new addition.
On the home front, Elisha is also "great" - she's made great strides
this past month. On April 8th she joined Liz and me for a looong trip to
Florida for Passover. Elisha handled the journey better than we
anticipated - and certainly better than Liz and I. We dislike flying in
the first place. Combine that and the schlepping required when you have
an infant in tow and it adds another dimension. Fortunately, Elisha's
hunger coincided with several of the takeoffs and landings, so she
readily took a bottle - helped her to equalize the pressure in her ears.
She had her own seat (for safety sake) - we don't know how parents
handle keeping infants on their laps for long trips.
The coast-to-coast sortie in sardine class was rewarded by a multitude
of beaming relatives. Shelly and Mitch (the proud aunt and uncle) had
only seen Elisha on film. My mom was, of course, delighted to see how
her pulkas[1] had filled out. And talk about kvelling, the expressions
on the faces of my Aunt Charlotte, Uncle Morty, Aunt Perla and Uncle
Jule were positively luminous. It was a blast to show her off.
While we were in Florida, two "firsts" happened for Elisha. She joined
us at a restaurant for the first time - the whole clan went to Mitch &
Shelly's club for lunch where we dined alfresco, parking Elisha at the
end of the table in her stroller. She was fascinated. The other
significant event was that Elisha turned from her front to her back for
the first time on April 11th (her 5 month birthday). We had set her down
to sleep (on her back, as always) and soon heard her caterwauling. It's
not uncommon for her to kvetch[2] a bit, but this was quite a few
notches up the scale. There she was, stuck on her belly! One way tickets
at this age are a real drag!
On our first night back from Florida Elisha auditioned for a commercial
for Procter & Gamble (Missy's employer). Okay, she didn't exactly
audition, but she could be a spokesperson for Wow chips. I was crinkling
a bag of Wow chips and she got hysterical. We've never seen her laugh so
hard and long. She must have been punch-drunk from the long trip as
we've not been able to elicit that response from her since. She does,
however, laugh heartily at a variety of other stimuli.
Elisha has been very curious about the goings-on at the dinner table, so
we got her a highchair in order for her to have a better vantage. We've
also given Elisha her first taste of "solid" food - rice cereal (not
hardly what *I'd* call 'solid'). She's tried it a few times. She eats
some of it, but you should see the face she makes! Her latest facial
expression is quite the girn. I've yet to get a picture of it, but I
haven't given up.
Our little roly-poly is now turning back-front-back. In fact, she's
developed a preference for sleeping on her stomach. I managed to capture
on video her newly acquired acrobatic accomplishment. She's also
mastered "defense against onesie" on the changing table. She grabs onto
the side rail, arches her back, twists onto her side and does her best
to make changing her top troublesome.
On other fronts, the month of April (see stats below) made a lie out of
the .sig on these postcards (although we're still above average for both
the year and the season). The rainfall was less than half what we
usually get during April. Nonetheless, it sufficed for May flowers. Our
tulips have bloomed and withered, and our first iris has unfurled. It's
an Interpol - a deep purple (almost black) beauty. It looks very much
like the irises in the wonderful serigraph[3] we were given by Perla as
a wedding gift. Other varieties will soon follow suit. Furthermore,
there were rainbows galore - one of which shone intensely for a full
half hour! We also had one helluva thunderstorm replete with
pyrotechnics two days ago.
Our plans for this month include a visit from Liz's mom. Priscilla will
join us in time to celebrate Mother's Day (Liz's first :-). The day
after that Elisha will turn six months (we can't believe it!) and will
have another checkup (and more shots). We'll post her revised stats
afterwards on her web page (http://www.herring.org/elisha.html). I've
finally made some time to take more pictures and will publish those in
our web space in a couple of weeks.
We hope the month of May is indeed merry for you! Until next month...
we love and miss you all,
Sandy, Liz and Elisha
[0] Yiddish for "bursting with pride".
[1] "thighs", from right to left :-)
[2] "complain"
[3] see http://www.perlafoxart.com/
_________________________________________________________________
Data harvested from http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=pqr
CLIMATIC SUMMARY FOR PORTLAND OREGON
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
122 AM PDT FRI MAY 01 1998
...TEMPERATURE...
HIGH YESTERDAY... 90 ** EXCEEDED RECORD ** 82 IN 1976
LOW YESTERDAY... 57
MEAN TEMP........ 74 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 20
NORMAL HIGH FOR TODAY... 64
NORMAL LOW FOR TODAY... 44
RECORD HIGH FOR TODAY... 83 SET IN 1947
RECORD LOW FOR TODAY... 29 SET IN 1954
...DEGREE DAY DATA...
HEATING
YESTERDAY... 0 DEPARTURE... -11
MONTH....... 376 DEPARTURE... -44
SEASON...... 3649 DEPARTURE... -533
COOLING
YESTERDAY... 9 DEPARTURE... 9
MONTH....... 14 DEPARTURE... 14
SEASON...... 14 DEPARTURE... 14
...PRECIPITATION...
YESTERDAY............. 0.00
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH... 1.04
NORMAL MONTH TO DATE.. 2.39
TOTAL FOR THE YEAR.... 17.14 TOTAL SINCE OCT 1... 30.60
NORMAL YEAR TO DATE... 15.15 NORMAL FROM OCT 1... 29.29
...WIND DATA IN MPH...
AVERAGE WIND SPEED YESTERDAY... 6.6
FASTEST 2-MIN WIND YESTERDAY... 15 FROM 290 DEGREES
PEAK WIND GUST YESTERDAY....... 17 FROM 290 DEGREES
...ASTRONOMICAL DATA...
SUNRISE TODAY...558 AM PDT
SUNSET TODAY...816 PM PDT
SUNRISE TOMORROW...557 AM PDT
SUNSET TOMORROW...817 PM PDT
APR CLIMATOLOGICAL REPORT FOR PORTLAND OREGON
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
[this information was not updated for April by NOAA!]
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
512 PM PST TUE APR 28 1998
...VERY WARM ACROSS WESTERN OREGON THIS AFTERNOON...
WEAK WINDS ALOFT AND ABUNDANCE OF SUNSHINE ALLOWED THE MERCURY TO
CLIMB 15 TO 20 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL ACROSS PARTS OF WESTERN OREGON.
FOLLOWING ARE A FEW RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES BROKEN OR TIED...
LOCATION TYPE APRIL 28TH OLD RECORD
PORTLAND (AIRPORT) NEW RCD HI 82 DEG 81 SET IN 1992
ROSEBURG NEW RCD HI 85 DEG 81 SET IN 1992
NOTE: THE OLD DOWNTOWN PORTLAND OFFICE HAS A RECORD OF 91 SET IN
1926...THE YEAR IN WHICH MUCH OF THE WILLAMATTE VALLEY SET RECORDS.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
1000 PM PST THU APR 30 1998...CORRECTION
THE THERMOMETER AT THE PORTLAND AIRPORT NUDGED UPWARDS TO 90 DEGREES
THIS AFTERNOON. THIS IS THE WARMEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN ANY
APRIL SINCE READINGS BEGAN AT THE AIRPORT IN 1941. THE OLD APRIL
MAXIMUM WAS 87 DEGREES SET IN 1957.
IN ADDITION...A NEW RECORD WAS SET FOR THE EARLIEST 90 DEGREE TEMPERATURE
IN ANY YEAR DATING BACK TO 1941.
--
Sandy, Liz & Elisha Tigard, Oregon School of Herring
webfeet@herring.org bigfish@sns-access.com http://www.herring.org/
And that's the news from Portland
where everything is green, rolling stones gather moss,
and the rainfall is always above average.
Most Recent Update: Thursday, 14-Oct-2004 17:16:34 PDT
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