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I was just advised of this link. Trader Joe's location request form. For a long time now, I've been hoping TJ's would locate a store here in the Columbia River Gorge.

Thanks for the link, Chris.

Jan 10 update: It has been suggested that a location in The Dalles might be preferable, and I agree.

Babitz For Mayor

In an era where governmental fiscal responsibility is pretty much an oxymoron, there are some refreshing exceptions. Those exceptions exist largely because state and local laws require balanced budgets. But, as California's annual budgetary contortions demonstrate, there are plenty of ways to hide a deficit. "Kick the can down the road" politics at its best. Or worst.

Realistically, there's not a lot I can do to change global, federal or state fiscal irresponsibility, but I can act locally. And this year's City of Hood River mayoral race provides just such an opportunity.

City Councilman Arthur Babitz has thrown his hat into the mayor's race. After reading the position statements on his blog, he's got my vote. It's refreshing to have a candidate who has a specific, well thought out, and responsible fiscal plan, rather than the usual vague platitudes.

The Hood River Weather site's weekly poll asks how you will vote in this mayoral race. And if you aren't registered to vote in the real world yet, you have until Oct 14th in Oregon.

Now it's outside in the real world to enjoy this fantastic early Fall heat wave!

Never Mind

I guess I spoke too soon in the previous post. With the Feds apparently about to step in and cushion the collapse of giant AIG insurance company with taxpayer dollars, all is now good with the stock market. There will probably be a big jump in stocks tomorrow.

So here's the current investing plan: When the Feds appear to be stepping in and helping support otherwise bankrupt companies, the stock market will soar. When the Feds appear to be holding back from such taxpayer support, the stock market will plummet.

This would be really exciting, if it weren't so damn depressing and potentially catastrophic.

There seems to be a fire somewhere up valley from here (here being May and Rand Street); the evening sun is turning orange from the smoke. Haven't seen anything on the news about it yet; hopefully no homes are in danger.

9/17 update: It's apprently the Gnarl Ridge fire on the east flank of Mt Hood, which was started by lightening in early August and has re-emerged.

Harvested some pumpkins this past weekend (mellowed by the currently orange sunlight):

How Great Is This?

I've held off on posting about how great the weather is lately, since more often than not, whenever I mention how great the weather is lately, it takes a sudden turn for the worse. It's a knack of mine.

But I can't stand it anymore. The weather the past 2 weeks has been absolutely incredibly great. There, I've said it. Let the weather chips fall where they will.

September has always been my favorite weather month in Hood River (closely followed by the other 11 months). Typically warm days, cool nights, and the wind tends to die down in the transition from summer to fall.

Tomorrow marks the full Harvest Moon. Get out there and harvest, or at least celebrate the bounty from those that do plant and harvest. One excellent way to do that is to support locally grown food.

River Nose

At the request of numerous Columbia River water sports folks and the Columbia Riverkeeper group, the EPA is currently studying the mysterious (and rather freakishly named) set of ailments called "river nose". Some of the symptoms reported over the years include runny nose, sore throats, diarrhea, and cuts/scrapes that take longer than normal to heal.

So, for this week's Hood River Weather site poll, I'm asking what you think might be the primary cause. I'm thinking that it's probably multiple causes, but since my polling software doesn't allow multiple choices yet, just pick the cause you think is primary.

I am assuming that no other windsurfing area of the world reports these particular sets of symptoms, so I have left out my somewhat cynical theory of "just being out in the extreme wind and cold water and being smashed against waves and equipment and having water pushed forcibly into facial orifices and open cuts and scrapes". So my second theory is "pollen or algae", and I am leaning towards the algae.

We can only hope that the EPA studies help resolve the cause and can come up with a less visually disturbing name than "river nose".

There's A Pattern Here

And the pattern is: a very cold Spring, with a warm weekend two weeks ago, snow last weekend, and a warm weekend currently. Not that great of a pattern, but at least the few warm spells have been on weekends.

It hasn't been a good Spring for vegetable gardens. I planted radishes and peas March 1st, and they are at least 3 weeks behind normal growth. The cucumber seeds planted April 12 have yet to emerge, and at this point most likely won't. I probably should have put Walls-O-Water or something similiar over them.

May 1st marks the usual time to plant tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, basil, and other warmth-loving veges at our Hood River city location (500 ft elevation). I may hold off a week or so this year, as cold wet weather is forecast to return tomorrow thru next week.

Here's how part of the vege garden looks currently. From front to back: garlic, lettuce, snow peas, last year's overwintered celery, onion starts, overwintered cilantro, perennial artichoke bed, new celery starts, and sugar snap peas. Not shown is the newly planted asparagus bed, which is a long-term investment, taking a couple of years before it can be harvested to any extent.


Speaking of vegetables (and locally grown stuff), Gorge Grown Food Network has an interesting survey on their web site, part of their ongoing efforts to bring together local food growers and local food consumers.

You Want Data Points? You Got Data Points.

In the past few days, the WeatherUnderground map on the Hood River Weather site has dramatically increased the number of weather stations displayed, mostly by adding Agrimet, ODOT, and other government weather sites.

This is a major improvement in local weather data. The more data points, the better. And it doesn't bother me in the least that our home weather station data circle is now pretty much totally covered up with other stations' circles. Nope, doesn't bother me a bit. The more the merrier. *sniff*

2 Days of Summer

We get summer-like weather today and tomorrow, and then... summer actually begins Thursday June 21 at 11:06 am. Longest day of the year! Yeehaw...

Unfortunately, the weather then takes a un-summer-like downturn on Thursday thru the weekend (who'd have guessed?). For the most part, weekend downturns have been the rule this Spring (see previous posts). But still.... it's all good... it's all weather.

Lots of great local events happening this summer; check 'em out at the Hood River Chamber site.

Temperature Record

The past 4 week pattern of cool, cloudy weekend weather followed by sunny warm weekday weather has finally changed. In fact, it was so warm overnight that we set a new record today for the "highest low" temperature for June 2. This morning's low of 62 degrees surpassed the previous "high low" of 59 degrees set in 1968. For folks interested in such things, Hood River's official daily records are here.

The past week presented a classical heat wave event for this area. More often than not, the warm temps move west to east beginning on the Coast, then to the Willamette Valley, then the Mid-Columbia around Hood River, then east to The Dalles, followed by eastern Oregon. And as the heat moves east, the calm to easterly winds change to westerlies and moderate the heat.

Possible thunderstorms Sunday and then the week turns cool, cloudy, and hopefully rainy.

Hood River (specifically our wind sports and housing) made the New York Times...