Endless Rain

We have had an exceptionally wet and dreary winter thus far.  Rain seems never ending.

Sometimes I want to yell at the sky to stop with the rain.

It's oppressing.  The long gray.  Winter in Oregon.

Besides the damp wet hanging in the air, even when its not raining, we contend with short days and a lot of darkness.  It's hard to get much done if you count on any light for doing it.  Seems to be always dark now. 

I took this video of the rising South Santiam River, at the county park, four days ago.  Yesterday, when I stopped by there on the way to return all the Sweet Home cats fixed yesterday, it was much higher.   Above this point in the river, are two water control dams, however, so the high water is artificial I call it and completely dependent on how much is released from the dams by the Corp of Engineers.

 Last time I went by Foster and Green Peter dams, when I was headed up Quartzville road to catch the cat dumped way above Green Peter, both dams were extremely low.  That was in December.  So there was plenty of room to hold water.  For some reason, the Corp doesn't keep much water in either dam this time of year.  Don't ask me why.  I just watch the river is all.  Maybe they worry about catastrophic sudden snow melt or something.  I haven't a clue.  Sometimes its frustrating however when the dams don't have enough water late spring and there are articles about drought, when we know there's been plenty of rain and snow and somebody probably messed up, releasing too much water when some should have been held.  That seems to happen in other watersheds more than ours here, so I think the Corp here is very very capable.

Last year when I went with a friend to camp on the McKenzie we drove down to Blue Lake Reservoir and it was so low you would need climbing gear to get down to the puddle of water remaining and that was June.   And we drove over to Cougar reservoir too, although the road along the west side is still closed, from the fire two or more years ago, and the campgrounds that were on the other side--gone now.   There was so little water behind Cougar dam I wondered what is going on.

So today I go to the doctor for my swollen elbow.  I made the appointment last week.  My elbow looks awful, swollen in fluid, but the lump feels like a squishy balloon.   It doesn't really hurt, but the pressure of that bubble on it, when I bend it is really strange.    My brother said I should be on the show Pimple Popper Doctor.  It's called something like that.  He watches it on Youtube.  A doctor drains pimples, removes huge lipomas and cysts, just everything gross you could imagine, on a youtube channel that is extremely popular.

I hope I didn't chip a bone or something on my elbow in the face plant I did Christmas down in the woods on my brother's sons property when my feet became contained under a hidden strand of barbed wire.  I did hit my elbow on the edge of something a couple weeks back, too, but it was not a hard hit, just hit on the nerve, like one can do, which sent zinging down my arm for awhile but abated quickly.

Here are the seven cats fixed yesterday.  I returned all of them last night to Sweet Home, as they had places there they could overnight before release.

Mowgli, a sweet gorgeous brown tabby tux boy from Sweet Home

Kimba, a little boy, and the only one I caught in hours I spent in Sweet Home last Friday night, with the drop trap, trying to catch him, his sister and their mom.

Snowball, a little Sweet Home sweetheart, short tailed and gray tabby tux, just a teenager.

Another Sweet Home girl named 99, for probably some specific reason but I don't know it.

BC is a sweet boy and now fixed.

This is Mama, they call her, who has had many litters.  There is a least one more cat needing caught where all these came from.  Most of these are tame or half tame but there were a lot of them around the house and the people were scared what would happen when they began creating more again.  Anyhow, we hope to get that last one too.

Sister, another Snowshoe Siamese mix female.  Five from the same place got fixed last week.  One left to get done there.

I get my very first crown placed tomorrow.   My brother's Christmas gift to me.   Excited!