SWIMMING

After a very dry February, we have had a wet and much needed start to March in California. A miracle March? The comeback El Nino kid? Well … let’s see … In two weekends, we had 18 inches of rain in the northern Sierra foothills, 8 on the first weekend and 10 on the second weekend. Some areas of course had less, and some may have had more. The overall average amount of rain for March normally is 7 inches, so we are well over that 2 weeks into the month, and have made up for the dry February already. We are above average on rainfall for the year, however the snowpack is still below average, mostly because a lot melted in the warm February that we had. I would really like to see the snow pack go up to well above average before April 1, but I’m not sure it will because the pesky ridge is trying to make another appearance. I only see one more storm in the forecast this month, but we’ll have to see what happens.

Of course I tried to get out in the rain this past weekend, but I really had a tough time of it and was shutdown at every possible turn. Everything and everyone was against me this past weekend, so it seemed. Do you want a recap? 1: a huge landslide blocked a road preventing me from driving past. 2: At a second spot, a tree had fallen in the road preventing me from driving past. 3: A road was gated, so I could not drive down it – I could have and should have walked but decided it was not worth the effort. 4: I was stopped by a cliff that was too dangerous to get past. 5 and 6: The two waterfalls I did find were just very small 10 footers, and I did not even bother with any pictures, and 7: On Sunday afternoon when I went out hiking in the rain after church, I came to a stream crossing that was more like a river. A small stream that normally could be easily jumped across, but instead I found a raging beast that was not crossable. Even wading across it was too dangerous as the flow was too strong, one slip and I would have been down at the bottom of the canyon, and probably into the river and eventually coming out somewhere in Folsom Lake.

Not only all this, but I was almost killed driving home on Saturday. I was stopped on the highway at a red light, waiting for it to turn green. Why are there stop lights on the highway, I never understand that, and there should not be, but nonetheless, there is, and it is very easy to see this one from a mile away at least. The weather conditions were perfectly fine and there is no excuse to not seeing it. I am just setting the stage for you. I was sitting there waiting for the green light, and waiting and waiting for well over 1 minute, and wondering why it was not changing for so long. I happened to look in my rear view mirror, and all of a sudden I see a car coming up behind me doing about 70 miles per hour. He swerves to avoid me, missing me by just mere inches (not exaggerating), goes through the red light (thankfully no other cars were coming), spins out, and ends up in the ditch. There was no damage to him or his car. I was more concerned about damage to me or someone else. If he had hit me at 70 mph what would have happened to me? And how on earth could he not see the red light from a mile away? What was he doing? Texting? Talking on the phone? Drinking? All of the above?

So anyway, as you can see it was definitely not my weekend. Oh yeah, did I mention that it took me almost a full hour to drive through the town of Marysville because of some stupid parade?? Even so, despite all this, clearly God was protecting me in all my situations, especially on the drive home. Next weekend I am entirely sure will be much better. It has to be!

On the plus side, the only plus side, I did see a coyote and a bear on Saturday, the first ones of the year. Considering it was a cold, rainy day in the middle of winter, I sure have to wonder why Mr. Bear was not sleeping!

Here’s a photo from Lower White River Falls, Oregon, from January. Enjoy.

1 Comment

One Response to “SWIMMING”

  1. guadalupe beltran Says:

    HI I want to know if we can camping in this area or can u let me know where we can camping for 2 nite,s please and can swim thank yuo

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