10 March 2016

colds and showers

I've been unwell quite a bit lately.  A week-long cold, a day of gluten poisoning, and now another small but effective illness has left me weak & stupid. The blood test today could prove valuable, though it was one of those rare miserable blood draws; too many uses of the right arm, I guess.

Weather-wise, the showers keep coming. A few stronger events have come in and a few more are in the forecast. March is not the strong-storm season - more commonly it's a showery, breezy month.  Even so a few atmospheric rivers have set up, bashing California (for which they are grateful!) and sideswiping the NW coast. We're already over four inches on the 10th! If we define the wet season as Oct-Mar* we were done with precip in February to meet average, so we're 4.3" to the wet side with three weeks to go.

Robins have replaced the varied thrushes, more crows are calling, and daffodills are in bloom - so spring has reached us in any case.  The skunk cabbage is stinking up the creek-bed, and we've seen a few bunnies and heard the sparse but effective frog chorus. It's nice to have more daylight even if it's often fighting the cloud cover!

Next weekend we'll lose our sunrises but have late light - I dislike the forward/back artificial shifts but we all manage - and most of us survive. Energy savings are in dispute from Daylight Time but I've heard that more accidents occur when we shift.  The world voluntarily jet-lags twice a year for some reason that most of us find elusive. Bizarre..




*April and October are very similar here based on 30yr averages, but October is most commonly considered the wet month around here.
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
0.92 1.21 2.31 5.52 10.84 9.44 9.08 6.66 6.54 5.20 3.45 2.55