Frost

Not a post about Robert Frost...
Perhaps a reminder to go reread something by that Frost however.


No, this is a post about normal morning frost.

Being the first winter I have spent here, it is interesting to see how the weather is different from past places I have called home.

This morning was different.


The cold has settled in here for a few weeks.
Lows in the twenties at night, recently dipping into the teens...
It has been clear, largely, so the front slipping through town last night was a bit sneaky.
I could feel it arrive, those teen temps warmed up to mid-twenties in about an hours time.

This morning, as the sun came up, things looked a bit different.
At first I thought it had snowed, the world had a crystaline veneer.
Not snow though, but heavy frost covering roof tops, the street, the trees...

Sun filtered through a fog.
Not thick fog, but very present and seemingly frozen.
A sheer curtain of mist.

As that fog has burned off, slowly the frost recedes.
Sun rising has gotten the roof tops steaming, but only on one side.
The shade keeping this skim frozen coating in place...
Even still, at mid day.


I have been pleased every morning I see a sunrise light up these mountains faces.
Those bluebird, clear days, when the peaks seem to be illuminated from within.
The clarity seems to be heightened as the temperatures have dropped.
The views, somehow, improved.

But seeing this frost was beyond average window scraping fodder.
Something I had not seen before, I guess...
Sure, frost is frost is frost.
The combination of the cold and fog, how heavily it covered the ground was it's own combination.
Quite lovely to see.

Fall

It's gone all fall here...

A few warm days still seem to be mixing in, but things get down to freezing at night.
The chill kinda caught me last night.  Letting me know it was moving in for a while.

Did the random pumpkin farm adventure.  Very family friendly style adventure, I guess...
With a clear few of Smith Rock, to remind me of where I am.
Seasonal gourds have been applied to the front porch here...

Folks here still run the lawn sprinklers, in spite of the cold nights.
The whole desert thing, you know...
Which can lead to some slippery bits of sidewalk on the morning dog walk.

A bit of training for the next change of seasons here, I guess...

Eclipsing

Yeah, the eclipse...


So, up the road from here, between here and Portland, is Madras.
One of the spots NASA told everybody was a good spot to see the eclipse...

It has a high average of clear days and is right in the totality path.
It is also a tiny, tiny town.

So, there are lots of people headed this way.
To rural, remote, central Oregon.

Predictions are vague and folks are planning on being inundated, overrun, overwhelmed.


Lots of people, two lane highways, peak fire season...


What could go wrong?


Well, they cover that in this article., if you are curious...


Cartoon credit.

Flutter Update

In that previous post about fluttering insects, I mentioned a plethora of monarch butterflies...

Turns out I am wrong with that.

The ones all over the place, here, are California tortoiseshell butterflies it seems.
Like that one in the picture...

You can see how one might make that identification mistake, as a butterfly layman.


No doubt, all of the local, native butterflies are pretty pissed off about these damned California butterflies...
Moving up here with their fancy lifestyles, driving up butterfly home prices and all that.

Flutter

Lots of fluttery things here, I notice.


We had a run of some normal looking moths earlier in the spring.

A few weeks ago was a big run of Pandora moths.
Big ones.  That picture is of one...
I guess their life cycle is a couple of years, most of which is in the larva and transition stages which happens underground.
Then every couple years they turn moth, mess around and lay eggs to restart the circle.
This year was one of those moth party years...

Last weekend, I saw more butterflies than I ever have.
Just a swarm of Monarchs, out in the hills and mountains...

And I hear there is another moth species about to show up as well.
The hawk moth maybe?
It's black and white, I think.


So, yeah...

This was a dull post inventorying the various fluttering bugs I have seen this year.

Fire Season

It's been a while since I lived someplace that has a fire season.


Think about that...

It's a season, fire season.




Yesterday, I went for a bit of a ramble.
Looping around the Brother John, stopping at some of the lakes up in the mountains
Generally, just poking around some of the things I love about this spot...
And enjoying the cooler air another thousand feet of elevation can deliver.


Heading home, I spotted that low haze, north of town.

It's been hanging in the nineties most days, lately.
Each afternoon brings the wind.
It has been a while since there has been rain.
Things are dry here.

That haze, was from a grass fire, up north of here a ways.
Some little spark that was whipped into a thousand acre fire in the course of an afternoon.


Now this fire isn't really near me, or anything really.
No need for worry, or anything like that, all safe here.

Still, pretty sobering to be reminded how quickly these fires can move/grow.

Badlands

Did you know Oregon had it's own Badlands?

I didn't really either.
We can just keep it a secret and leave any Badlands notoriety to the Dakota's.

Anyway, this past weekend we took some time to get out and enjoy the area.
You know, before the summer sun starts baking things.
Just a  short hike, well, a three mile hike to check out what is just a few minutes east of here.

I will let this video give you an idea of what things look like...

It's still on the spring side of things here, so the tiny desert flowers were putting on their show.
Really lovely stuff.

The video doesn't deliver on the scent from the juniper trees.
You'll have to imagine that...

Snacks

OK, so here is a dumb transition topic of conversation for you: Lunch.

You know, I moved, across the country...
Opposite side of the continent.

I still work for the same folks, so I follow their regular schedule.
It's an early start and that would seem like the hardest part to deal with...
Starting my work day at six in the morning.

But no, that hasn't been an issue at all, really.
Sure, I wouldn't mind lounging in bed longer, but no big thing.


The hard part about that schedule is eating.
First, maybe it's because of the long days, the altitude shift or whatever...
I seem to always be hungry.
Second, what kind of eating schedule goes well with that?
My peers are off to lunch about the time I am ready for cereal.
Cravings for random foods kick in about the time most restaurant kitchens are doing prep work.

First world problem, for sure.


Thought I would share...
It's 9:00 AM here and I am craving some Thai noodles.

De La

Yeah, how about a post about almost seeing De La Soul?
Well, that doesn't make for a good story.

They were booked for a thing, here in Bend, on Saturday.
Of course I have to show up for that, right?

The stage was less than full, as most of the group had some travel delays...
We got Plug-1 and somebody to run a laptop.
Which was, you know, better than nothing.
Dude did his bit from "Me Myself and I" which was pretty funny, given the situation.
And he had everybody put their hands in the air, for maybe three more songs.

I guess I can be satisfied by that...


It reminded me of this documentary thing.
It is worth a watch, maybe...
If you are in to that sort of thing.

In It

So, what have we been here, two weeks?
Maybe it's three...
It's been a blur.

Still tourists, for sure.
A "local" badge is hard earned in these parts.
It may be a while before I earn that mantle.
But as mentioned before, there doesn't seem to be much hostility towards the new guy in these parts.
In person, at least...


The unpacking keeps us busy, still.
It's kept us out of the kitchen, too.
Which is OK, a good excuse to get out and about.

I'll call it a town here, 'cause it seems pretty small
Smallest city I have lived in since the hometown kind of small.
Don't quite need to use the GPS sized town, for me at least.


We have gotten to a few of the breweries here.
There are a lot of them.
Ventured to some restaurants.

This song has been heard at more than half of the places we have hit up.

Maybe there is some sort of town playlist, that gets passed around?


Strangely, there is a homogeneous vibe to many spots we have been to, beyond that song.

Every brewpub I have been to has some sort of beat salad, a pastrami sandwich and signature (similar) burger on the menu.
I guess that is fine...
Kale, I can't think of one restaurant I have been to that doesn't have kale all over the menu.
I've probably had more kale in the past few weeks than I had last year.


On another subject, my vehicle and dogs are entirely undersized, as compared to local expectations.
Maybe not expectations, perhaps standards...

Ideally, I think a lifted, crew cab, heavy duty diesel truck would be the rig.
Color options seem to be either white or back, with any accessories blacked out.
Flatbed option not required, but does score extra points...

There doesn't seem to be a preferred dog breed, but the bigger the better.
Obviously, husky or mountain dog breeds demonstrate ones commitment to the local cause...


And one behavior note, observed only in our immediate neighborhood...
There is still a fair amount of construction around our place, residential, new homes getting built.
Those job sites get porta-johns, honey buckets or whatever your local vernacular calls them.
They are just scattered around job sites and street corners.

Now in my experience, those plastic shit pits are to be avoided at all costs.
Nobody wants anything to do with anything in those things...
But here, they seem to function as public pit stops.
Mail men, random folks passing by, driving through.
More than three times I have spotted somebody stopping for a bio break and getting on their way.
Like it's no big deal to stop and dump in a random box on the side of the road.
Which is weird...


Also, a blue Patagonia puffer jacket seems to be required.


Anyway, let's not dwell on all of that.

It's the (not so) Wild West.
Freedom and big skies.
Actual tumbleweeds on windy days.
Ice cold rivers and snow capped mountains.


So, yeah.

Here we are...

Here

Well, we are here now...


After watching some crummy movers pack and load our stuff into a big orange truck...
We set off in two cars, with two dogs, a cat and some crucial gear.
For six days.
Through booming thunderstorms, huge winds and thankfully little spring snow...
Three thousand eighty seven miles of driving.
Then watching all that stuff from the truck spill into our new domicile.
And rummaging through some of the hundred fifty boxes populating every corner of every room...
To find the bits that make us productive professionals.

We seem to have arrived at our new lives.
Just today...


Those mountains peak out, over town, if I walk out my front door and look left.

Most of town lies between here and there.
A tiny city, full of people in earth toned jeans and puffy jackets.

People that are nice.
Just randomly.
It seems weird, but that may just be too many days back east, swaying my my opinion...


We have found the grocery stores.
Some beer and some brunch.
A pizza place that delivers.
The nearest Mexican food.

Seen rain, snow, hail and sunny skies all in the same afternoon.


Here we are.

I think I like it...