First Snow of the Season

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Weather

It came but it didn’t stick around! The news and The Weather Channel said we could expect 2-4″ of wet snow today. We very well might have received that much, but with yesterday’s temperature hovering around 80* the ground was still too warm. Plus we haven’t had a good freeze yet (nope — that’s going to be tonight…more on that later)

Yesterday evening the front moved over our house and almost instantly brought strong winds with it. This morning pre-dawn we heard rain outside along with several loud crashes of thunder. By the time we got up, the rain had changed over to snow and was sticking to a few places in the yards. It snowed pretty much all morning with showers into the afternoon but like I said earlier nothing stuck around. I need practice driving in the snow, so I took the wheel to church this morning. Gotta start slow ya know…like when the snow melts as soon as it touches the ground. No ice today!

But back to the freeze. We are officially under a freeze warning tonight until 10am tomorrow morning. Since the storm has cleared on by the temps are expected to drop to the mid 20s tonight. There goes the rest of my tomatoes I’m sure. We planned ahead though and Noah turned off and prepped the sprinklers for winter yesterday (along with trimming the branches from the trees in the backyard).

However, as far as I’m concerned, I’m ready for more snow. Not necessarily driving in it, but I would like it to stick around longer the next time it falls. Unfortunately, there isn’t any snow in the forecast for the next 10 days…yet.

**Update** The official snow measurement for our area was .5″.

Back in the Rockies

Published on by Casey Category: Family, Travel

Our trip to California went off without a hitch — that always makes for a nicer vacation. We got in early on Friday morning, giving us plenty of time to rest up for a night of Shanghai Rummy with family and friends (I won).

Saturday was Jen’s wedding. Hands down the wedding with the best music that I have ever been to (and I’ve been to my fair share of weddings). She could not have looked lovelier on her special day! Thanks for remembering we were coming Frank!

Saturday night Gretna, Nicole and I raided Mervyn’s…my stopping point every time we come to California since the nearest one to us is in Grand Junction, 4 hours away!

Sunday after church Noah and I headed to Ojai for lunch with more friends and his family. Than Sunday night Nicole came over for a bit while Noah headed to check out the house a couple sets of his friends purchased together.

Monday we went to breakfast with another friend who was back in town getting their apartment ready as his wife returned from Iraq this morning. After breakfast it was off to the airport.

Good trip, and much more restful than driving (which we will be doing in 6-weeks).  We didn’t take a lot of pictures this trip, but they’ll be posted soon.

Into the Mountains We Go

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Photos

Today after church Noah and I took a drive up Boulder Canyon to get away from the city and check out the scenery…with changing leaves and all. We went through Nederland (Ned), then up to Eldora, back to Ned. On the way back into Boulder we hiked back to Boulder Falls. We took lots of pictures, check them out here.

Some of the pictures I took were “too large” for the album, so I’ll upload them to the domain and give y’all links to them separately. They’re mainly pictures of the creek and waterfall, here’s a link to access them.

But wait…there’s more! A bonus video clip of the Boulder Falls!

Joining on Up

Published on by Casey Category: Salvation Army

After much discussion and research Noah and I went down to Centennial to enlist in the army…the Salvation Army, that is. We spent all day in training to be Emergency Services Volunteers. We got down there at 8am this morning, the first part of the day we went through the disaster services aspect of training. The 2nd half of the day we went through the food training. By 5:30 this afternoon we had two certificates and picture identification! We’re now on the list to be called to help out at emergency disasters. Depending on the location and notice will determine how much time we can serve with our work schedules. Many of the people in the class today were retired, so time will not be a big obstacle for them.

Examples of the disasters the Salvation Army has participated in is Ground Zero, Katrina, the mine collapse in Utah, local tornadoes, fires, car accidents, search & rescues in the mountains, etc. The days we work will be long and exhausting but I’m looking forward to the experience since I want to work in trauma response, and I need to hours for my grad school applications.

More fiction

Published on by Casey Category: Fiction

I’ve just posted a few paragraphs of something I wrote that was inspired by yesterday morning’s storm clouds. I have not yet decided what to affiliate this section with or if it should stand alone. You can read it here. Remember to ask me for the page password if you do not have it yet and leave comments.

I also have text to add to the Lt. page, but have not yet placed it there.

Time to break out those sweaters

Published on by Casey Category: Weather

A change in the season has brought an immediate change to our weather, and I mean immediate. The last week of summer we had 90* or near 90* weather. But on Sunday, when the seasons officially changed from summer to autumn in the pre-dawn hours, we said goodbye to our sun and heat. Really amusing since Saturday was beautiful and about 87*! Sunday, however, was cloudy and we didn’t get out of the low 60s. It was as if summer was saying, “Haha! I’m not done yet!”

Yesterday continued this saga with rain. Lots and lots of rain. By the time all was said at done, we received 1.40″ (exactly) of rain at our house. Noah had to wait in his truck at a job site in Louisville for it to stop hailing so he could go inside without getting pelted. The high I saw in Boulder was 56* and lows were in the low 40s/upper 30s. While we got rain, the mountains got their second dusting of snow. They had their first snow of the season the last week of summer. If tradition holds (according to my sister & The Weather Channel) we should have our first snow in a couple of weeks…perhaps while we are enjoying sunny Southern California.

Today, is another sweater day, as was yesterday. However, we have be able to reach 60* and the sky has cleared to be mostly free of clouds. Maybe next weekend we can make it up to the mountains to take in the Aspens.

**Updated at 3:45pm** We now have a frost warning for tonight until 8:00am tomorrow morning, temperatures are expected to be in the mid-to upper-30s. I guess I should check on my tomatoes when I get home from work!

Remi’s Journey

Published on by Casey Category: Family

Remi left this morning before the sun had risen to head out to CA with my dad and sister.  Poor puppy has traveled a lot in such a short period of time (Nebraska to NE Colorado, NE Colorado to Denver area, and now to CA).  She also gets carsick and has already done so twice this morning.  The Jones caravan is almost out of Colorado into Utah, having completed about 5 hours of their 18 hour trek.  I’ve posted a couple more pictures of Little Fluff in her album.