31 Dec 2015

Happy New Year (and some December stuff)


December has been a busy time. W and I spent the past week with my sister and her boyfriend, visiting from Michigan, and we had a great time in and around Tacoma. One of the highlights was a trip up into the mountains.


There's almost never snow in the lower elevations in western Washington, but up in the mountains there is a tremendous amount. In fact, the highest levels of snowfall in the continental 48 states are measured here!


There was only 2 to 3 feet of snow where we went, Crystal Mountain. There was more at Paradise, but the road was closed due to an excessive amount of snowfall for this time of year. That's saying a lot, when you consider that it sometimes has snow as deep as 16 feet! (it's like driving through a tunnel and I'm looking forward to hopefully getting to see that some time this winter after a very bad winter last year with low snowfall)


We found a lonely abandoned sled at a little turn-out on the road, and went down this little hill a few times.


It was a gorgeous day and everything was beautiful and perfect.


The road into Rainier National Park was closed, as it always is in the winter.


We found a snowman. Or should I say, Jabba the Snow Hutt. 


The snow was actually kind of blue if you saw it at the right angle. Hopefully you can see this here.


Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of joining Scott and Cabot for a type-in in Kirkland, WA. I only managed to snap this one photo of Scott on Cabot's decrepit Underwood standard. That was a fantastic machine, it looked so terrible but true to the Underwood's reputation, it typed pretty great.
 

Happy New Year! I managed to snap this photo of the final sunrise of 2015 just as I am finishing up this post!


10 comments:

  1. Looks lovely up in the mountains. Have a great 2016.

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  2. Very beautiful mountains. Those old Underwood typewriters are surprising. They can look like a wreck and out perform most others out there.

    Hope you both have a wonderful New Year.

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  3. Happy new year to you, good sir. As always, I love your high quality photos. See you in the new year! (It's already 2016 here, try and catch up... )

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  4. Happy New Year. Good to see something like normal seasonal weather. :)

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  5. So great to see that snow - we are even getting some of that here in CA - Hilda and I had a lovely drive over the Sierra's to Reno for XMas visits with family. All the best to you and W. in 2016.

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  6. Thanks for some festive snow - in England there's not a flake - yet. Happy New 2016 Nick, hope it is a good one.

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    1. To my great surprise, I woke up this morning to it snowing right here in Tacoma. It will probably stick around for the rest of the day, too!

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  7. While not quite Washington, my best friend moved to Portland a few months ago. He sent me some pics via text recently: lots of snow. He even slipped on the ice and left some blood on the ground.
    It is truly beautiful to look at, an entire other thing to live in it like you do.
    Happy New Year Nick and be careful out there!

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  8. Dear Nick,
    Sorry to bother you, but I'm fixing a Facit TP2 my granddaughter collected at the recycling plant ( see here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5fypwdaa86psyyq/AACplDZxaCG9P3cLjYQ7VFa7a?dl=0 )
    We need some key return springs and ribbon springs if you had any. Want to sell me a pack? Or know a supplier?
    Barry Marshall PERTH AUS

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