News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Every year as the calendar flips over into September, I feel a little thrill of anticipation. As an adult, I attribute this to the approaching autumn, my favorite season. But deep down I know that this feeling is a relic of my childhood, a remembrance of what September always brought: the first day of school. Like many children, I adored the first day of school. I remember looking forward to the coming school year with such eagerness. An entire year stretched out before me with a trove of exciti...
Two years ago, we hosted an exchange student from China. His name was Charles and we loved him dearly as did many of you that got to know him. How we got him into our home was a very quick and life changing moment. It was in the middle of my sickness in January, and Karrie called me from the high school. She filled me in that this student was about to head home because he no longer had a place to live here in the Coulee. In fact, he was checking out from school and was saying his goodbyes....
The closing ceremonies of the London Olympics were Sunday night, and I can hardly imagine that we have to wait four more years to watch again. I love the Olympics, both winter and summer. First off, I like just about all sports. Second, there is just something so patriotic about watching an athlete with a gold medal around his or her neck, mouthing the words to our national anthem as it plays, watching Old Glory climb the flag pole above two other flags — and we watched that a lot this year. T...
We were visited by quite a nice line of thunderstorms on July 20. I watched these storms approach from the south that afternoon on the Spokane National Weather Service radar on their website. The storms were impressive as were the speeds they travelled. Here at the home weather station we ended up with a half inch of rain and a 40 mph wind gust in just over an hour. Extensive damage occurred here in our communities and many of you heard that North Central Washington was hit hard by those...
When the Olympics came to Atlanta, I was an impressionable 15-year-old involved in two different high school sports. The day after Muhammad Ali famously lit the torch, my family and I were sweltering in the Atlanta heat, working a concession booth at the aquatic center. It was thrilling for me as a young teenager to be at the very center of such an electric venue. The atmosphere of any athletic event has some electricity to it, but the energy in an Olympic stadium sent sparks through the entire...
The family and I headed out for camping last week near Republic. It was an awesome example of nature’s power as we drove through the Keller and Republic areas. I can just not do justice in words to what the area looks like following the big storm July 20. I have heard from people that live in hurricane and tornado areas that it is hit—and-miss, referring to what neighborhoods and whose houses are destroyed. It is very similar in how the wind storm took areas of trees out of the ground and lai...
I was watching cartoons the other morning with my nephew, Terrill, and man have things changed. It seemed that all the cartoons he was watching had killing, fighting and weapons of some sort. Violence seemed to be the plot in all of them. I quickly did some channel surfing until I found the good old Looney Toons. After some disagreement between myself and a 9-and-a-half-year-old, the TV was turned off and outside he went. Whatever happened to the Jetsons, Strawberry Shortcake and He Man. Charact...
June came and went, squeezing out a high temperature of only 84.9°F that was the lowest high temperature for June in the past four years (1938 saw a record 105°F). The mean temperature for June is 65.6°F and we recorded only 61.8°F. Precipitation provides us with another story. We had 3.4 inches of rain here at the home weather station, highest amount in past four years. A gully washer occurred on the 26th. Mean precipitation for June is 0.99 inches, so we were well over that but we did...
One of the things I’ve always loved about American homes is the prominence of the kitchen. Far more than other cultures, where kitchens are small and tucked away out of sight, American architects embraced the idea that the heart of the home is in the kitchen. I love homes that bring the living space into the cooking space. The action is there, it’s where people tend to congregate, and it allows us to be together at a time of the day when, with a different layout, families might disperse. In ear...
Well, summer might just be making an appearance in the Coulee, and it got me thinking. When I was a kid we spent just about all day outside. We just had to be home before dark. All day outside. I know, kids, it’s an absurd concept. When I was old enough to ride my bike without supervision (that may never have really happened) we were on the road. We rode all over, pretending we were star-fighters or Top Gun jets or big mean bikers. We set up race courses and jumps and pretended we were Evel o...
Next week marks one of my favorite holidays of the calendar year -- Independence Day. I love this holiday because it is typically a day filled with simple good cheer. I find it an easy holiday to celebrate. The weather is usually warm and pleasant. Friends and family gather around barbecues, lakes, and pools to laugh and simply be together. It is an uncomplicated day filled with little family drama or outsized expectations, like many holidays can be. On the surface, the 4th of July is purely a day to have fun, watch some fireworks, eat, drink,...
There is a man in Seaton's Grove that has wisdom beyond a lot of us. I can first remember meeting this Wizard of Wisdom when I was a small child. I would go to his shop and look at all the fish. Tank after tank of colors and swimmers, crabs and fish. His greenhouse was a warm, misty walk of blooms that matched the color of his fish. The outside was just as glorious as the inside, a garden walk that was capped off with a frog pond. As I grew up in the area, I wandered into Seaton's Grove Green...
Next week is the summer solstice, denoting the longest day of the year and the official start of summer. For some cultures this is a day of marked celebration. In our own country it seems that many years this day can be passed by with a casual nod from the local weatherman mentioning the peak of daylight hours for the year. When I was in my 20s, I spent a summer working as an environmental researcher in Sweden. Before that time, celebrating the summer solstice was not something on my mental...
I attended my nephew Jesse Billups’ (state wrestling champ) graduation at ACH two weeks ago and Lake Roosevelt's last week end. What awesome ceremonies they were. It got me thinking about 20 years ago when the class of 1992 at LRHS put on our gowns and caps and set sail on our adventure. The unknown that lay ahead: I want to do THIS, but what about THAT. College, military, parenthood and careers, all the dreams and ambitions that only a young woman or man can have. Back 20 years ago, I personally did not listen to much advice. Save your m...
If I had a penny for how many times I’ve used the phrase “Use your words,” over the last two years, I’d be, as they say, rich. My house at this time is like an intensive English-language boot camp. My three-year-old daughter is at that stage all children pass through where her emotions far outpace her command of the English language. Although perhaps this is a stage not restricted to childhood. As adults, putting emotions, wishes, fears, and angers into the right words is sometimes equally...
I learned a valuable lesson a couple weeks ago. It all started when one of our cats, Nala, was killed by coyotes in the middle of the night. It was hard for all of us who had ever petted her soft fur. Now, some of you guys out there are thinking about taking some man points away from me, but just wait. I racked my brains for ways to “pay back” these no good, sneaky, K9s. But, after many hours of scheming, I concluded there was nothing I could legally do to these vicious wild dogs that lived in...
As the days have lengthened, the sun has once again become our constant companion. And although I am still shocked every day at just how early that sun makes its appearance, I am warmed, literally and figuratively, by its presence. With the sun have come warmer days, bright, fragrant blossoms and the promise of those long-remembered days at the lake. Colorama has rung in the unofficial start of the Grand Coulee summer, and Memorial Day is almost upon us, signaling that the rest of the country...
April brought us a wide spread of temperatures here at the home weather station. I recorded a low of 27.3°F (April 1) and a high of 84.6°F (April 23) for a spread of 57.3°F. Precipitation for April was 1.08 inches, with the heaviest rainfall on the 26th. Mean precipitation for April is 0.82 inches, putting us about 0.2 inches above. We’re seeing a grand entrance of spring weather in May. Fanciful flowers blooming and busy birds nesting. May does bring some warm temperatures. Back in 1986 we h...
After the last column I had many people come up to me, saying, “Hey you forgot about …” this business and that business, and they were kinda right. So I will continue my tour of local businesses, 20 years ago …( and my mom says hi from Wildrose, N.D.). Where LePresa now is was Rapid Roberts.Video games, pool tables, curly fries and all the cool kids hung out there. After Rapid Roberts, That Italian Place offered gourmet pizza there (the seafood pizza was my favorite). Where Flo’s now is was Be...
A while ago, I wrote a column about how heartwarming it is to see children using their imagination in a world where most of their toys involve some sort of technology. When I think of the changes technology brings, I tend to focus on children because their world will undoubtedly be very different from the one that I grew up with. But lately I have been thinking about adults and my own feelings towards technology. What will the future bring for those of us who have come to expect the world in...
On a playground recently I watched a little boy pick up an acorn and impressively chuck it clear across the swing set. He was a little kid, but his throw had major-league heft. A couple of the dads chuckled. “Hey,” said one, “nice arm. He’ll probably be a baseball player.” In my observation, this kind of statement was not an isolated comment. I’ve heard parents everywhere attribute some current action or personality trait to some fantastic arc for their child’s future. My niece is tall, so she...
April should usher in a respectable climb of warming temperatures. There is a nine-degree difference in mean temperatures from March (41.1°F) into April (50.1°F). Mean precipitation is the same at 0.82 inches. The record differences are separated by nearly a half inch (March’s 2.64 inches vs. April’s 2.19 inches ). We could see some white stuff in April. In 1955 we had an inch of snowfall. Have you switched your winter tires yet? Well, how about that, March 2012 tied our all-time wettest March...
Over the last few weeks, trees and shrubs have been disappearing between Pole Park and The Star newspaper. The culprit? USBR. This made me think of the joggers and walkers that use that path every morning, afternoon and evening. Shade will be gone, protection from the rain and wind gone. It made me think of the bicyclists in the triathlon and the new view that awaits them as they exit Grand Coulee and head for the dam. I also thought of the birds (birding is a new hobby of mine, even though my...
The month of March marked two important American anniversaries that are seemingly disconnected, but that I find to be united in their achievements. You don’t have to be a cookie lover to pay tribute to the Oreo’s 100th anniversary, nor do you have to be former troop member to mark the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, but we can all be thankful for March 1912 when both organizations debuted. On March 6, 1912 the first Oreo was sold in New Jersey, and that happy little cookie has been findi...
First off, I really appreciate the emails, phone calls and chit-chat from those of you in the street and on the river bank about the old Musings columns during the past decades. Believe you me, it makes me realize how some of these past columns have hit close to your home. First, let’s discuss the cat. 4-Socks continues to remain with us. But as in all family animals, she is different and will remain an inside cat. Let her out the back door last week. She made a few turns after leaving the p...