Good Afternoon, folks.

While the much of the rest of the country is experiencing extreme cold, we here in Sequim, WA are having a heat wave. It got up to 40 this morning on our front porch. It has shot up to 45 now at half after noon and we may hit 47 by supper time. The sun is out and it is a beautiful day. I have said many times since we moved here that when the sun comes out, it comes out with a vengeance. So do the people who live here - maybe not with a vengeance but, boy! are they out! The city population here is a bit over 4,000 but I think they are all out in our little, increasingly busy downtown. When Almie and I first came up here about ten years ago and discovered Sequim (entirely by accident), there was only one stop sign in the whole town - at the intersection of Washington Street (the main drag) and Sequim Avenue. When we moved here in 2001, they had added a bypass for US-101 which used to use Washington Street to get through town and two traffic signals - one at Sequim Avenue and another one at Fifth Avenue. The only two really large stores in town were Safeway, close to the center of town and QFC (market) at the east end. There was a "plaza" with a J.C. Penny store as an anchor and a couple of banks. The tallest building in town was a grain elevator at Fifth and Washington. That elevator is still there but is no longer used for anything but a landmark. There is now a Mexican restaurant in the lower part of that building. There was a Costco about a mile east of town and that was basically it.

But, baby, look at us now. In the seven years that we have lived here, we have added a Wal*Mart, Home Depot, Petco, Office Depot, Applebee's, a UPS store and several more businesses including new banks, restaurants, medical clinics & an extension of Olympic Medical Center of Port Angeles. Much to the consternation of many of the old folks in town, our city fathers saw fit to install (the bane of Boston) three roundabouts. Many seasoned citizens still seem to take root at the approaches to them instead of merely pausing or slowing down to check for other cars already in the loops. Come to think of it, some of those people actually seem to take root in the aisles at Wal*Mart or Safeway, etc.. I only wish they would do it a bit less suddenly when they are in front of me. Sheesh!

Well, that's enough drivel for now. It's time for my nap. I'll be back.

The picture is of Lake Crescent - about 35 miles west of us. Pretty, huh

Bill