OK, just a quick shout out to everyone and hopes that all of you have been spared any damage in some of the wild weather over the past few days. Up to the north (White Rock, BC) we did not get hit too badly and in fact most the Greater Vancouver area came out relatively unscathed compared to some of the flooding and damage I have seen when watching Seattle-area newscasts. The Kitsap area seems quite hard hit, as evidenced by the pictures in the "Bremerton" thread.

And there are still 15 days until "winter".

It's been crazy for sure....well the last couple of days at least.

I live about 20 miles from the town of Vernonia that was completely submerged under about 10 feet of water. Actually, it seemed like there were problems everywhere around where I live, except where I actually live....And I am thankfull for that.

The winds were blowing so hard Sunday night I thought our windows were going to blow out.

But this weekend is looking nice, a little cold, but nice all the same. So that means.....Group Ride and a nice ride on Sunday, which means I don't have to ride my trainer this weekend....WooHoo!

That was probably the quickest storm I've seen that went from "this is pretty annoying" to "HOLY #$%#$%, there's flooding!!" Here in the south Willamette Valley we're seeing a little high water but nothing too bad. The news stated Vernonia got something like 11 inches of rain in one day, I can't even imagine that.

Hopefully there isn't too much more rain for a while to give the rivers a chance to drop and I5 can open again.

Pierce County wasn't too bad. It was weird the way some parts got slammed, others, missed.

Mother Nature's gettin' pissed. This isn't as bad as the storms we have had the last two winters. The "mild" PNW winters, where have they gone?

Here in Kitsap county there are still roads closed due to mudslides and washed out bridges. The roads out near my house in northern Kitsap are still covered in tree debris with patches of mud. It may be a while before I venture out. I will start commuting three days a week in January if possible.

News story

That's today, a tornado ripped up Vancouver crew club's facilities and parts of Hazel Dell. My wife, who never calls me when I'm riding, called today to see where I was. I hadn't heard anything about it, and didn't see it. I did see lightning in the direction of the twister though.

Those of you who are not familiar with the PNW - we get a [U]small funnel cloud every 20 years or so.

I'm managing to average 75 miles per week through this cold and rainy winter. It got warm enough today that I went out with just a tee and sweatshirt under the Performance commuter jacket - left the under armor for the next 34 degree day. Here are a couple of shots of my daily clean-up task. I've been going through so much chain oil, I started buying cheap 3n1.

http://www.katu.com/news/13683197.html

I heard about the tornado just before I left work to ride around 3:00pm. I only had my morning clothes and was way too warm. I climbed Prune Hill and could see little breaks along with squalls all around the area. Rode 1 1/2 hours and never saw any rain, infact the sun was out at the end.

I ride to work every day plus train 4 days a week year round. Been getting in 150+ a week or so.

My bike looks like yours every day when I get home. This last summer, I made a wash off area next to the garage with 6" of 1 1/2" river rock and a path next to it with 1/2-3/4" crush. If you spray off the bike when it's still wet, you can get 80% of all that sandy grit off easily. I bounce the bike on the driveway a couple times and let it air dry in the garage. Relube with Homebrew a couple hours later. Good to go.

All that grit does spray off pretty easily.
I keep handy one of those blue scrubber sponges (the kind that isn't supposed to scratch) saturated wih dish soap. When I get back from a ride and my bike looks like that, I squirt it off, use the sponge side on the shiny parts, the scrubber side on the rims and tires, rinse, and air-dry in the garage.
A really wet ride takes the oil off the chain, so after you squirt it off, you need to re-oil.

Same - I hose it off and hit some parts with a medium soft brush followed by a bounce and quick towel off. I use about 3/4 ounce of wd40 flushing the chain and der, then pull the chain through a terry towel. Then hit the chain with a liberal dose of oil.

I rode up to crown point/Vista house a couple of weeks ago. It was and spooky how heavy and tight the clouds were.