Cold days and inversion fog

The past week has been mostly dry - unusual for November here - but while the coast and the mountains have been seeing relatively warm, clear days, here in the Willamette valley we are lucky to top out at 45 degrees and to see the sun for two hours around 2 pm after the fog breaks and before the next fog forms. With no wind to speak of, cold moist air sinks into the valley and stays put, keeping us foggy for 18 hours of every day. Even so, I still prefer cool, foggy, and green to Minnesota's cold, clear, and white/brown.

Longer post tomorrow...

Beautiful days, old-growth explorations

Stories and photos here.

Application in!

I just submitted my NSF fellowship application, which feels good after a month of working on it. Time for a beer! (And to do my other homework...)

Rain gauge reads 0.98" - should make it to an inch by midnight. South winds are bringing in moisture and warm air. The temperature has been slowly rising all day and now stands at 55 degrees.

Lily came back last night for the contra dance with Wild Asparagus (a well-known band in contra dance circles). The gym was packed with about triple the usual attendance, and though I don't mind dancing with random happy hippie ladies, contra dances are more fun when you bring friends!

Two more days of rain before we get a break. I am beginning to get used to the peaceful rains here, and for now at least I much prefer clouds to the frigid winds of November in Minnesota.

Full moon approaching

It is clear tonight for the first time in about 10 days, confirming that the moon does in fact still exist and that it is waxing to full on schedule. We are briefly in between weather systems, with a weak front bring clouds and a few showers tomorrow, and a warm front and associated low forecast to bring 1-2 inches Tuesday through Thursday. The clouds and rain have brought moderate temperatures, and we have yet to drop below 40 degrees this month. The weekend looks dry, and if so I will have to make good use of it since the general wetness will continue through February.

I reworked my NSF proposal today to make it into a more feasible, circumscribed project. As a result it is now more in my words than my advisor's, and I am quite satisfied with it. Now I just have to polish my other two essays and get it submitted by Wednesday.

I registered for winter classes today as well - physics 213 (required - electricity and magnetism), biochemistry 2, microbial genetics and biotechnology (key to what I will be working on), and biosystems modeling techniques (the one core graduate class required by my department). Could be a challenge, but ought to be more fun than this term (differential equations = not fun).

Lily came to visit on Friday, and we had a great time singing old Pellicans songs and other folk songs, chatting with my hippie-greenie housemates, cooking my old standard maple syrup tofu, and carrying on deep conversations about the nature of life and human interactions. On Saturday we explored the farmers' market in the rain before Lily headed back to Eugene.

Obama!

You don't need me to tell you, but just let me say I am glad to see an end to the era that began eight years ago!

When the results were announced, we cracked open a series of long-stored high-quality beers in a toast to the man who has gone from an unlikely underdog to the next US President. Congratulations Mr. Obama, and I hope you follow through on that promise to spend $180 billion on alternative energy (and I hope that some small fraction of that will fund direct solar biohydrogen)!

Rain!

This is the land of rain - or so they say - but it has been rather dry until now. Today the clouds finally decided to dump, and it looks like the rain will continue on and off at least through the weekend. The total for today stands at 0.81", but it is still raining so we could have an inch by midnight. The low pressure center just passed over an hour ago, and the pressure is beginning to rise. The Cascades will be seeing the first major snowfall tonight, with up to a foot above 5,000 feet. The rain feels good, even at 47 degrees, and I enjoy seeing the grass turning green in November rather than brown as it is in Minnesota.

My last weekend was somewhat less eventful - mostly working on my scholarship application - but I did go to a contra dance on Saturday evening and to a potluck on Sunday. After taking exams in all of my classes, I am now done with exams until Nov. 14. The previous weekend, when it was still clear, I drove to the coast and studied biochemistry sitting on the beach, ate some freshly cooked crab, and had a few more beer samples at the Rogue brewery in Newport.