Wrappin' it up

Work continues as we "wrap it up."  We made great strides again yesterday, including yet another session with the leaves.  The big truck is mostly packed and we're simply going through the motions to get all the little nit-picky stuff done.  Even though we've moved our tentative departure to Wednesday, we're going to be prepared to leave Tuesday "just in case."

The graphic above explains the terminology we use in preparing for a major trip.  Everything leading up to our departure is put in terms of a landing.  The departure itself is a take off.  When an aircraft has turned out of the base leg and is on its final approach, it's also on what is known as "the glide path."  I'm sure you've all felt that phenomena when you've traveled on a commercial jetliner.  There's a final banking turn and then you can feel the turbines lessen their power as the pilots skillfully execute the equivalent of a powered glide onto the runway.  To continue the analogy, we're basically turning out of our base leg and preparing for the our "glide path" here in the next couple of days. Then the lingo reverses as we prepare for take off on Wednesday morning.  Corny?  You betcha.  But it works for us and helps us keep things in perspective.  It's fun.

Our other Leafy Neighbors--Kenyon & Kids--put on a real show yesterday. Even though none of the snow in their yard melted, the family trudged out with snow shovels in hand and plowed their entire lawn.  All of their huge deposit of leaves was pushed into the street as a combination snowbank/leaf pile.  It took them most of the day.  Why do people put leaves in the streets?  Good question.  The city comes around and sucks up the leaves with a giant industrial vacuum truck.  Why does the city suck leaves?  Good question.  The city sucks leaves so they won't clog the storm drains which would in turn create enormous ice sheets at intersections.  It's basically a public safety issue.  The city's scheduled to do our street this week.  We've bagged our leaves simply because we want to make CERTAIN they are gone--not wait and hope that the weather will permit the city's crews to arrive as planned.  We suspect there's one more chapter in our leafy saga but we're finally nearing the end of this story.

It was actually quite cold all day yesterday.  In the middle of winter here, temps in the 30's would be a "heat wave."  However, yesterday's temps in the low 30's just seemed downright cold to both of us.  We see it's supposed  to be 75 at Montezuma Well on Thursday.  Maybe that's why 30-35 degrees seemed so cold.

In case any of you are wondering what happened to our "Saturday Night Specials" posted here late yesterday evening, they all picked themselves up and boogied over to the Y2Ten companion website.  Remember the little used acronym GEEE? Well, all three posts last night clearly qualified for the "GEEE Factor."  Now, gee, they're gone!

More of the same today--pack and then pack some more.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp

PS Added a short time later--Well, It's Wednesday for sure.  Here is the relevant portion of this morning's Pocatello NWS Discussion:

MONDAY NIGHT INTO
 TUESDAY EXPECT A BIG CHANGE FOR THE AREA WITH A COLD FRONT PASSING
 THROUGH. LOOK FOR 2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW ACROSS THE CENTRAL
 MOUNTAINS. ADDITIONALLY...EXPECT ADVISORY AMOUNTS OF 6 TO 10
 INCHES OF SNOW ACROSS THE UPPER SNAKE HIGHLANDS...CARIBOU
 HIGHLANDS AND WASATCH MOUNTAINS MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY. WITH
 A 130 KNOT JET PASSING OVER SOUTHEAST IDAHO ON TUESDAY EXPECT
 GUSTY WINDS ACROSS THE AREA WITH ADVISORY WINDS OF 35 TO 40 MPH
 OVER THE SNAKE RIVER PLAIN AND SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS. WINDS WILL BE
 EVALUATED TO SEE IF A WIND WARNING WILL BE NEEDED. WEDNESDAY UPPER
 LEVEL RIDGING TAKES BACK OVER WITH DRY CONDITIONS RETURNING.