Ha ha Gardyloo, we were in Israel in April 1998, it was foggy and rainy in Jerusalem, no difference from San Francisco which is on the same ocean.

I'm going again in a month, doesn't matter what the weather forecast is.

Oh Ken, I am SO sorry about the river in the garage and the wet walls and the fern on your toe
Here is Portland, the sun was shining, and it continued to rain. But I thought this was what the PNW was all about so we were sorta prepared for unrelenting rain.
I hear Seattle is worse, so maybe you want to just scoot on down South a little bit?
To avoid moving to Az, (been there, that dry heat is just about as bad as wet wet wet after a while) maybe a holiday is in order-Mexico!!
Wishing you well, Scarlett ( whose Yankee is grumbling a bit too about "all this bloody rain!")

Here in Rochester NY we are having the most AMAZING January ever.

It's downright creepy. No snow, in the 40's - it reached 50 today!

Unheard of.

I love it!

Lordy, lordy, did this site bring back bad memories. In 1957, I was a 18 years old New Yorker and newly married - my husband was stationed at Paine AFB in Everett (north of Seattle). We went across the country in a 1957 Plymouth convertible to settle in this rainy, misty, foggy place where it rained 10 months a year..Everything was always WET. The Cascades were always in a fog and all this rain caused huge amount of flowers to grow, causing terrible allergies for me the 2 months of the year that it didn't rain. We were there for 4 years - and left with the same 1957 Plymouth, a baby, and dragging a luggage trailer we had named the "Exodus"..Needless to say I had had enough rain and am now living in Ft. Lauderdale. Hurricanes are bad -Scary Wilma did a number on us, but at least we have the sun to look forward to most of the time.

I usually lurk on the Europian forum, but today to celebrate buying a condo on Bainbridge Island, I thought I'd come over here. Poor LordBalfor, here in sunny southeast Georgia we too have flooding and lot's of rain all at one time. My daughter and her family have been on Bainbridge since the first of this month. She was talking to me when she was on the ferry with the children and she said to my five year old grandson," that's the sun". They moved from Atlanta. She said it's hard to walk the dogs and try to keep mud out of the house. You know, they are all very happy there, even with the rain. I'm having to slow down on plane travel so I hope to have fun adventures via trains. . I started out life in Berkeley and feel like I'm coming home. Kind Regards, Joan

Commiserating with you from Portland, Ken. Hang in there. It's great that you have an upcoming trip to the Cooks to help maintain your sanity.

Gardyloo, Israel and LA: desert and desert. Yes, but one is a desert of a different sort.

No worries,Ken! Help is at hand - we are coming for a six day holiday in March and bringing good weather with us!

Forgot to say - from Australia - which rather missed the point of the last email! Sorry!

LOL Carabella, it sounded sweet, that you were bringing good weather with you, wherever it was coming from
Will you leave a tiny bit here in Portland on your way by?

Mother Nature is, indeed, having some hot flashes.

It's January in Minnesota and the ice on the lakes is so thin that trucks are going in. There's no snow to ski on. And it was almost 40 last week - an 80-degree swing from "the worst" that we brace for in January. (Not that I'm complaining.)

NYC was 63 yesterday, I heard. Strange.

Bad news about the water, Balfor. My sympathies. Rent some beach movies and try to forget...

Irishgirl, it's no wonder that Detroit can never get a break when the very people who should be supporting it are bashing it all the time. Of course most of the new growth downtown resulted directly from the Superbowl. Detroit had lost somewhere around 95% of its tax base when the majority of industry/companies left, it's kind of hard to generate an urban renewal with no money or incentive. I'm glad the Superbowl has boosted growth downtown. And while I wholly expect the media to paint an ever so grim picture of Detroit, I love living here.

I love the hot summer and the cold winter, although I will gripe that it's definitely too rainy of late and not snowy/cold enough.

I don't dislike Detroit. And there's lots of crime in any big city- it will find you if you're there long enough. I will visit this year again and I love Comerica.

And it is not that snowy in MI this year either, more rainy too, as you are enduring. Just want to say that you don't need to go way North to the UP and environs either to enjoy MI. South/Lake Michigan borders/inland SW and Central, SE are all beautiful. I love Michigan. Great fun and friendly people in lovely, lovely hilly lake regions. Green is 100 different colors. Actually grass looks green at the pole barn and it's the last day of Jan.

Me thinks MI is going to have more and more weather like the NW. People do seem to get more colds and sore throats than they do in the snows. I miss winter, but this is easier to drive in.

FYI - Seattle gets less rain than any major city in the East -- less than Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto, Montreal....

It's the relentlessness, not the number of inches, that gets to you. And this month has been very unusual.

Is is snow in the higher elevations or are the temps too warm? I never minded the winter rain (of course we didn't have any flooding problems, how awful!) in the PNW as long as it was snow in the Cascades.
And FWIW, while I was telecommuting from Oregon to Pennsylvania, I still smile over the days I would phone into the office and hear that beloved recording, "we're sorry, XXX is closed today due to snow and ice." Those days were usually mild and at least partly sunny in OR so I would hop into the T-bird and race off to NW 23rd for lunch and a stroll.

I am still trying to figure out why the rain simply hasn't bothered me at all this winter (yes i am in seattle).

and i haven't even taken my usual tropical vacation (yet).

I think we're having Seattle weather down here in the CA bay area. The poor north bay especially.

Suze - Didn't actually bother me too much either (even if it was sloppy getting out to my hot tub) - until the water started coming in. Three weeks ago my car (the older car - my wife drives the newer one) leaked, soaking the drivers side seat and carpet and just wouldn't dry out (way too much dampness in the air), then last week the water started coming into my garage. You know the old saying: "Only in America does a $30,000 car sit outside in the rain while a garage is filled with worthless junk" - That's our garage. Actually it's not junk, it's ... well OK, I guess it's junk (sort of). Anyway my garage started leaking from the side with a small stream running through it and out the garage door, wetting boxes of books, various art projects (finished and unfinished) etc, etc, etc). This week-end (during the heavy rain Sunday night) flooded the family room.

So all in all, I'm ready for some dry weather. I'd still rather have wet and mild than dry and cold, so I can't complain about the temps for the last month or so as it's stayed above freezing even at night. I would however be willing to trade a bit sun for a bit cooler temps (at least for a little while so the ground can dry out). What did we have - 30 days or so of rain followed by a one day break (on my birthday - thank you very much) and then another 2 weeks or so of rain again.

Ken

"Have grown rather used to having webbed feet and even a little bit of fungus on my toes, but this year I've got a crop of toadstools and even a small fern sprouting from beneath the nail of the little toe on my right foot."

That is too funny - had to share my story. Was vacumming earlier last year and discovered a fungus growing in the crease between the carpet and wall in our family room. Turns out our water heater on the other side of the wall had slowly sprung a leak and I didn't notice it until I was vacuuming mushrooms. Yuk. Ken - Hope your situation doesn't go that far. [-o<

66 and sunny--just cut my lawn. Come see us in Fairhope Al

JJ5 said pole barn! A sign of a true Michigander. I haven't found anyone outside of Michigan who knows what I'm talking about when I say that.

Good luck to Detroit and its residents with the Super Bowl this weekend. And good luck to the Seahawks fans building arks!