Hello, you can turn the rain off now.

It has been raining since Friday night. Non. Stop. The Oregon coast has been experiencing hurricane force sustained winds, over 100 mph in some places. All of the roads west from Portland to the coast are closed, blocked by landslides and trees. It's a mess. Apparently, we are getting the tail end of two Pacific Ocean typhoons-- a "Pineapple Express."

I'm majorly bummed about this on two levels. First, all that snow I've been wanting? Well, it snowed A LOT last week, about 14 inches or so. But, since the temperature at Timberline Lodge was a balmy 37 degrees today and the freezing level was 8,000 feet, all of that snow is being melted by the buckets of rain.

And second, the Sitka Spruce fell. You know those cheesy tourist attractions that pop up along the interstate? The biggest porch swing in Kansas somewhere, that weird tree that grows out of a rock in Wyoming. Anyway, this tree was the largest Sitka Spruce (by mass, I think) and was along the main highway to the coast near Seaside. It was over 700 years old and the storm snapped it in two. That tree was older than this country. Guess I'll just have to drive my kids to see Wall Drug instead.