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Subject: Postcard from Portland
Dear Family and Friends,
"He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is
the thief of time." --Oscar Wilde
Actually, a full-to-overflowing plate at work, requiring long hours -
and an active toddler at home has arrogated my time. Elisha typically
wakes up around 05:30 and generally does not go to sleep until 21:30 -
which also happens to be my bedtime! Moreover, she likes mommy and daddy
to stay focused on activities that involve her. This pretty much leaves
out anything to do with the computer - although I have found a "keyboard
banger" program that she enjoys. It displays in screen-filling font the
keyboard character pressed. She likes to sit in my lap and wail away at
the keyboard (which, fortunately, is sturdy enough to tolerate the
abuse [the keyboard, not the lap] ;-).
And we have little choice but to stay focused on her. She's been getting
into *everything* within her grasp. We've got locks on the cupboards now
and we keep the bathroom, closet and pantry doors closed. Her mission in
life is to make certain that anything she can get her hands on ends up
on the floor. Mostly this duty is faithfully discharged in the vicinity
of the coffee table - which we populate with catalogs and toys for the
express purpose of keeping her entertained. It's hilarious watching her
pull magazines with totally serious intent - one after another - from
the top of the stack as she carpets the, uh, carpet with them :-).
She's become quite nonchalant in her couch cruising, often pausing to
look back while holding on loosely with one hand. This has resulted in a
few tumbles, but she's escaped any significant bumps. Elisha has also
become more daring in her exploits. She's started to climb the stairs!
Either Liz or I are right behind her, of course. She pauses after nearly
each riser to look back and give us a huge grin, obviously quite pleased
with herself for the big step she's taken.
Lately she's been starting to mimic us. She waves when we wave to her,
she points at things, and we think she's been trying to repeat some
words. We're virtually certain she said "clock" the other day. Well, as
certain as biased parents with active imaginations can be <grin>. Elisha
carries on a near constant conversation. She's progressed beyond
babbling to jargon (a professional evaluation by our resident speech
language pathologist). Elisha loves to sit with one of her books,
turning the pages while she "reads" aloud. She's also started to do
constructive projects - like putting blocks and balls back _into_ the
containers from whence they were extracted. We applaud those efforts!
Our little gobbler has been eating "grownup" food regularly. She had the
same Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed - turkey, garlic-mashed potatoes and
peas with little onions (but no wine!). Liz has cut way back on
breastfeeding sessions. It won't be long before Elisha is weaned. After
a little over a year of basking in that bonding, it will be harder on
Liz than Elisha. But now that Elisha is using her incisors in the
proscribed manner, it will soon be painful either way ;-)
Her appetite is paying dividends. We'd have to measure to be certain,
but we think she's gotten taller. I had to take her mattress down
another peg - it's now as low as it will go.
Last night we all joined in lighting the first candle of Chanukah.
Elisha was much more patient with the ritual last year. Hopefully next
year she'll be starting to get curious about it.
I ditched work early last Thursday, it being a rare sunny day, to join
Liz in a quest for our Christmas tree. November had one (1!) day on
which no rain fell (see below). We spent most of last Saturday
decorating the Christmas tree. Elisha is quite drawn to the lights, but
we've decided to keep her at some distance from the tree this year.
Liz's mom will be joining us next week for the holidays.
"Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." --Robert Frost
And with that notion and this PfP, we usher out another year and bid you
good tidings, cheer and health. Until next year...
we love and miss you all,
Sandy, Liz and Elisha
_________________________________________________________________
Data harvested from http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=pqr
CLIMATIC SUMMARY FOR PORTLAND OREGON
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
204 AM PST TUE DEC 01 1998
...TEMPERATURE...
HIGH YESTERDAY... 47
LOW YESTERDAY... 41
MEAN TEMP........ 44 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 1
NORMAL HIGH FOR TODAY... 48
NORMAL LOW FOR TODAY... 37
RECORD HIGH FOR TODAY... 62 SET IN 1958
RECORD LOW FOR TODAY... 20 SET IN 1985
...DEGREE DAY DATA...
HEATING
YESTERDAY... 21 DEPARTURE... -1
MONTH....... 475 DEPARTURE... -92
SEASON...... 846 DEPARTURE... -212
COOLING
YESTERDAY... 0 DEPARTURE... 0
MONTH....... 0 DEPARTURE... 0
SEASON...... 547 DEPARTURE... 176
...PRECIPITATION...
YESTERDAY............. 1.09
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH... 11.03
NORMAL MONTH TO DATE.. 5.34
TOTAL FOR THE YEAR.... 39.33 TOTAL SINCE OCT 1... 13.23
NORMAL YEAR TO DATE... 30.17 NORMAL FROM OCT 1... 8.01
...WIND DATA IN MPH...
AVERAGE WIND SPEED YESTERDAY... 8.2
FASTEST 2-MIN WIND YESTERDAY... 20 FROM 110 DEGREES
PEAK WIND GUST YESTERDAY....... 23 FROM 100 DEGREES
...ASTRONOMICAL DATA...
SUNRISE TODAY...730 AM PST
SUNSET TODAY...429 PM PST
SUNRISE TOMORROW...732 AM PST
SUNSET TOMORROW...429 PM PST
NOV CLIMATOLOGICAL REPORT FOR PORTLAND OREGON...RETRANSMITTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
204 AM PST TUE DEC 01 1998
TEMPERATURE DATA......
(DEGREES F)
AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE.... 48.9 OR 2.8 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL
AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE.... 53.4
AVERAGE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE.... 44.4
HIGHEST TEMPERATURE WAS 62 ON DAY 25
LOWEST TEMPERATURE WAS 34 ON DAY 28
HEATING DEGREE DAYS (BASE 65) COOLING DEGREE DAYS
MONTHLY TOTAL ........... 475 MONTHLY TOTAL .......... 0
DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL.... -92 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 0
SEASONAL TOTAL (JUL-JUN). 846 SEASONAL TOTAL (JAN-DEC) 547
DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL.... -212 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 176
PRECIPITATION DATA....
..RAIN..
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH......... 11.03 OR 5.69 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL
TOTAL SINCE JANUARY 1ST..... 39.33 OR 9.16 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL
GREATEST 24 HOUR RAINFALL WAS 2.41 INCHES ON DAY(S) 25-26
..SNOW..
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH......... 0.0
TOTAL FOR THE SEASON........ 0
GREATEST 24 HOUR SNOWFALL WAS INCHES ON DAY(S) __ __
..NUMBER OF DAYS..
WITH .01 INCHES OR MORE 27 HIGHS 32 DEGREES OR COLDER 0
WITH .10 INCHES OR MORE 20 HIGHS 90 DEGREES OR WARMER 0
WITH .50 INCHES OR MORE 8 LOWS 32 DEGREES OR COLDER 0
WITH 1.00 INCHES OR MORE 3 LOWS 0 DEGREES OR COLDER 0
SKY CONDITION......... SEA LEVEL PRESSURE............
NUMBER OF DAYS CLEAR .. 30 HIGHEST 30.31 INCHES ON DAY 19
NUMBER OF DAYS PTCLDY .. 0 LOWEST 29.27 INCHES ON DAY 23
NUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY .. 0
WIND DATA.............
THE AVERAGE MONTHLY WIND SPEED WAS 8.9 MPH
THE FASTEST TWO-MINUTE WIND WAS... 43 MPH FROM 200 DEGREES
THE HIGHEST PEAK WIND GUST WAS.... 51 FROM 210 DEGREES
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
1255 AM PST FRI NOV 27 1998
...YET ANOTHER RAINFALL RECORD ESTABLISHED AT ASTORIA...
A NEW NOVEMBER MONTHLY RAINFALL RECORD HAS BEEN SET AT ASTORIA. THE
NOVEMBER RAINFALL THROUGH NOVEMBER 26 STANDS AT 18.28 INCHES. THE
FOLLOWING ARE THE PREVIOUS TOP FIVE HIGHEST NOVEMBER RAINFALL TOTALS:
(RECORDS DATE BACK TO 1953)
AMOUNT YEAR
------ ----
1. 17.47 1995
2. 16.75 1983
3. 15.19 1984
4. 14.93 (????) [tx corrupted]
--
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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