Couldn’t it at least *pretend* to be summer? It’s warmer in North Pole, Alaska (hi Tania!) and Siberia than it is in Seattle so far this summer.

This picture, courtesy of the Seattle Times, was taken in relatively low elevation Snoqualmie pass yesterday. That would be June 10th. Note the text on the road sign (summer projects have begun) - sometimes irony can be pretty ironic.

It’s not snowing here, thank goodness, but a quick check of our handy digital thermometer shows 52.2 degrees. And it’s raining. Again.

At this rate, my tomatoes might be red by Thanksgiving.

We had a spectacularly beautiful weekend in the Puget Sound area. The mercury hovered around 85, the sun was out and everything was green. I love spring days like this – or Indian summer days – because I get to enjoy the outdoors without my usual summer allergies.

Saturday was break-my-back-in-the-yard day. We finished our new rhododendron (and camellia) bed, planted tomatoes and perennials, weeded and cleaned up the pond a little. Then, as a reward for our hard work… Ironman. Great movie, in spite of my (yes, again) migraine.

Ben’s computer (a Mac Powerbook G4 titanium) died an ugly death on Saturday, distracting Zach from his yard-slave duties. The impact of the computer malfunction is bad – he uses it for school and has his papers saved without backup on the hard drive. The OS is flashing all sorts of odd error messages like “There is not enough memory to launch the operating system.” Powerbooks are little workhorses, it should have a few years left in once we get it fixed; I have to get it into a repair shop later in the week. We all use laptop computers, and have no spare or desktop machine, so we’ll be juggling all week to get him computer time for homework.

Sunday we took the SS Hummingbird out for her first voyage of the year. She ran really well, considering she hasn’t had her spring tune-up yet. (I made sure to renew our Boat US towing membership before going out.) The water was like glass, the breeze took the edge off the warm day, and it was a great cruise. The destination? Dockside Boatworks, where she’ll be hauled out, prop, outdrive and bottom cleaned, and bottom paint re-applied.

I also got to drive Maggie the MINI several times this weekend – perfect convertible weather! I’ve resigned myself to having bad hair. Unlike Eric, I’m obsessive-compulsive about my SPF-70 sunscreen, so my fish-belly white skin, gift of some Irish ancestor, remained unburned.

Monday has come all too soon – and I’m about to board a flight to Anchorage. Again. My only consolation is that it’s predicted to cloud over and rain in the Seattle area this week.

Update: I just got off the above-referenced flight. Apparently the Seattle airport uses a paid wi-fi provider, and I’m too cheap to pay $7.99 for 45 minutes of Internet access. I should have stopped in the board room instead, where the wi-fi AND the coffee latte (decaf) are both free.

Some parts of the Seattle area got up to 5″ of snow last night - we’re fortunate that we only accumulated a half inch.

Pictures taken by Zach.

The smug husband has traveled to the other side of the mountains on business, driving the indefatigable Maggie the MINI. (And I’m back home again.)

The weather prognosticators are now telling us this:

Forecasters expect 1 to 2 feet of show through Saturday in the Cascade passes, where the snow level is expected at 1,000 feet.

So, if you happen to be talking to the weather gods this weekend, please remember him!

He is a cautious driver, and if it does get bad in the passes he’ll probably drive south and around through the Columbia Gorge. A 7-hour drive is better than a night spent sitting in his car waiting on avalanche control.

Update: the new picture, above, is from a Stevens Pass webcam at 11:30am Friday.

Update 2: he got home just fine at 8:30pm. The worst holdup was actually the 90-min wait for the Kingston ferry.

One of the things I miss about Alaska is the winters. Before you commit me to a psychiatric hospital, let me clarify.

In Anchorage, the winters are cold, the snow accumulates (most years, although not right now), and the midwinter days are brilliantly sunny, with the snow reflecting the light. The kids get to go sledding, build snow forts, and have the occasional snow day. Ours even walked to their elementary school across a frozen lake, with a ski trail and hockey arenas swept out of the snowpack. We even had a decent little ski area right in town.

Of course, the winters were also five months long, and the mid-winter days so short (10:30am-3:00pm daylight) that it makes getting out of bed a trial. And occasionally, when the cold snaps and the winter winds hit together, it is too cold, bitter, dangerous cold.

I live in the emerald green Pacific Northwest now. We don’t really have winter, we just have a really long rainstorm. It only freezes a handful of times, and outside of unique weather patterns, almost never snows. We do, however, have storm days here, even a flood-related school cancellation last week. I never even considered buying a backup household generator in Alaska, but I have one now.

I’m not entirely sure that I traded up, climate-wise. In Alaska, we had the long winter and short days. Here in the Puget Sound, we have the eternally grey and gloomy rainy season and seriously nasty storms.

Last time we went to Hawaii, I played golf with a pair of ladies who had retired there, with their spouse. They were little, active women, leather-brown from the sun and obviously thrilled with their lifestyle. I’m not sure I’d like the perpetual spring/summer of Hawaii, nor the tropical storms, but I wouldn’t turn down a Hawaiian condo if it were offered to me.

I think I just need some sunshine, of the non-liquid variety.