It’s all about the weather

In the last couple of days, we’ve had just about every kind of weather there is: beautiful warm temperatures, cold temperatures, sunny skies, high winds, rain, hail, rainbows, and a stunning sunset.  Thankfully, we haven’t had snow, but the temps at the campground in the Steen Mountains dropped to 12* the night before last!  Uf-dah!  It’s hard to figure out what to wear when I get up in the morning.  I’ve worn shorts, jeans, short sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, raincoat, and heavy jacket.  My coat rack that hangs over the bathroom door is packed with an assortment of outer wear.
Last night, I had both ends of the rainbow out my front window, but I just couldn’t seem to find any pots of gold.  :(  The storms have been barreling through on a stiff Northwest wind.
Every couple of hours, a storm would blast through while I was working the VC today, and this one left a coating of hail on the deck this afternoon.  I got a little chuckle out of watching all the California quail scurrying about trying to find a harbor from the hail.  They were trying to hide under the bushes, and in the lee side of the deck to avoid those icy pellets.  I even had a barn swallow trying to come inside through the picture windows.  When I was walking Emma at lunch time, one of those micro blasts of hail came through, and we made a bee line for the rig.  Those little hail pellets hurt!

Despite the adverse conditions, about 25 brave souls stopped in the Visitor’s Center today.  They tended to stay longer than usual just to warm up and get out of the elements.  :)  Most were from Oregon and Washington, but some came from as far away as Germany, New York, and Ohio.  Apparently we got a little too rowdy, as one of the staff came and closed the door between the VC and the offices.  :)  Sorry about that, but I think my job is to interact with the visitors and make them feel comfortable.

As usual, I brought my laptop with me to keep me entertained in between visitors, but was shocked at an email I received from Sprint when I got it set up and running.  It said I was nearing my limit of roaming minutes for the month (and it’s only the 9th), and they could shut off my air card service very soon.  Egad!  I’ve never had that happen before.  I’ll be calling them on one of my days off to see what’s up with that.  In the meantime, I found out that there is wifi at the volunteer pads, and it turns out it is much faster than the air card is.  So, I guess for now, I won’t be taking the laptop with me on work days any more.  :(  At least the computer I use in the VC as a cash register has spider solitaire.
I leave you with last night’s sunset.  As I looked past the RV pads towards headquarters, the rainbow was at my back.  Nice views both directions!

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy