Up To TWELVE Feet Of Snow... !!!

I'm writing this on Christmas Eve.

The weather forecast shows storm after storm, lined up out in the Pacific, waiting to get into California like the backlog of cargo ships waiting to get into Long Beach. 

The storms will push across the coast and the Central Valley and then climb up the West Slope of the Sierra. Most scenarios show 5 or 6 feet coming to Tahoe by this coming Tuesday. And they added this killer line from the National Weather Service: 

"Travel will be difficult to impossible this weekend with snow levels lowering into the foothils Sunday morning. Tree branches could fall as well. Additional snow accumulations of 3 to 6 feet, with localized amounts of up to 12 feet."

Either way, the result will be a substantial addition to our snowpack, another dent in the drought, and multiple feet of water added to Lake Tahoe and Northern California reservoirs. 

In 2017 (was that the correct year?), they said the drought that year would take years of above-average precipitation to recover from. But after a series of major storms. we bounced back to normal in just one season.

This year they've been saying the same thing. Will these storms do the same thing and refill the lake? Check back in April.

P.S. A reminder that TAHOE JADE will be free on Kindle through December 29th. Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Tahoe-Jade-McKenna-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B092NKYLF7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1640228789&sr=1-1

Check it out, and tell your friends. I think you'll like it.

 

Tahoe Jade Free On Kindle

Next Saturday is Christmas.

In celebration, Tahoe Jade will be free to download from December 25th through December 29th. If it's not in your Kindle, you can add it for free. Feel free to pass this on to your friends as well.

Enjoy!

If You're Tired Enough, You Can Snooze Anywhere

 Big snow coming, so I stopped at the station to get gas for the snowblower. I was distracted by a sleeping dog. 

There was a pickup with the passenger window open. A dog was draped over the window sill the way a cat drapes herself along the back of a couch. When I walked over a little closer to take a picture, the dog opened its eyes. But it still didn't lift its head up off the sideview mirror. 

Humans And The Big Primates... We Are So Similar

 

With the holidays approaching and people getting together, it is time to reflect on what it means to have companionship. There are some animals that are solitary, like some of the big cats. But they seem to be rare. Many animals crave companionship with each other. 

If we look at our closest animal relatives, bonabos, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, it's almost like watching humans. They share meals, they hug, they bring gifts, they have many complex social rituals.

Scott Simon at NPR did a story on animals hugging. It's worth a read or a listen. Here's the link:

Scott Simon NPR.org

The Writers That Writers Admire

 

When I was young, I spent many years writing songs. The attraction of a story that's set to music, starts with a hook, gets complicated, rises to a climax, then wraps up with some kind of resolution, and does it all in two or three minutes was very compelling. The songwriting masters (all the names you know) were my inspiration. I was a typical young, rock 'n roller wannabe. I loved the medium of songs.

I spent some time playing with other musicians. We made recordings. We even went into a recording studio and made a record (this was the days of vinyl).

After a trip to Hollywood, where I played my material for music publishers, I realized I didn't have what it takes. Writing is a kind of art where the difficulty gets greater as the form gets shorter. Crafting a 2 minute 30 second song that works and that people might like to listen to over and over is, simply, the hardest writing there is.

So I quit and decided to try my hand at novel writing, another kind of writing that I'd always been in love with, one, which, at 350 pages, gives you a bit more room to ramble.

Despite my switch to novel writing, I've remained aware of songwriting. And the masters of songwriting are the among the tallest mountains in my creative mental landscape. When Stephen Sondheim died a couple of days ago, it was a time to reflect on the power of a song.

Many of us have seen the Sondheim musicals that transformed Broadway. From West Side Story to Company, to Into The Woods, to A Little Night Music, to Sunday In The Park With George.

Most of us - maybe all of us - have some Sondheim songs stuck in our heads. Send In The Clowns, Being Alive, Move On, Jet. Even if we don't think of ourselves as knowing Sondheim lyrics, many of us can sing them:

Isn't it rich?

Are we a pair

Me here at last on the ground

You in mid-air

Send in the clowns

or,

When you're a Jet

you're a Jet all the way 

from your first cigarette 

to your last dyin' day

The world is a much richer place for Stephen Sondheim's writing.

The Problem With Push-In Doors

Even if people in Tahoe feel no need to lock their doors regarding people, they still need to lock them for bears. Bears are good at working door knobs. If fact, in some places there are building codes that prohibit swing handle doorknobs because they are too easy for bears to open up.

The extreme version of easy doorknobs is the door you just push to open. The 7-Eleven store in Olympic Valley found out the down side of such doors. 

Finishing San Mateo Harvest Festival Today, Sacramento Festival Starts Friday

 People seem to love being able to get out and go somewhere.

Here's a possibility. Come to the Harvest Festival. 

I'm exhibiting my books along with hundreds of other artists and craftspeople exhibiting their amazing work. The last day of the San Mateo Harvest Festival is today, Sunday, November 14th. It is held at the San Mateo Event Center on Saratoga.

The Sacramento Harvest Festival begins this coming Friday, November 19th. It will be held at Cal Expo (at the California State Fairgrounds.)

Come on by. You will think it's worth the trip for both the exploration and the unique Christmas gifts that you can't get anywhere else.

Martin Hollay - Still Skiing At 101!

 The Tahoe Tribune did a story on South Tahoe local Martin Hollay who received yet more honors at Palisades Tahoe Resort. See the story at the Tahoe Daily Tribune, link below.

Photo from the Tahoe Tribune

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/south-tahoe-ski-legend-hollay-honored-at-ceremony/

At 101, Martin is still skiing, still smiling, still charming everyone he meets.

My wife and I first met Martin in 1990 at Heavenly Resort. He invited us to spend a day skiing with him. It was a blast. He gave us an "insider's" tour of the mountain, skirting around the boundary fences, heading down wonderful tree skiing where the public is not allowed to go. Several times, ski patrolers saw us. They just waved us through because we were with the #1 VIP on the mountain!

When we stopped for lunch, we met some of his friends from Hungary, where Martin was from. What a charming group! Martin pulled out his metal lunch box that he'd had from the time he was a boy, and he served us Hungarian food, crackers, cheese, sausage, and other treats.

We learned that Martin and his friends had left Hungary around the time of the Soviet invasion in 1956. The Hungarians had begun to resist Soviet rule, and the Soviets wanted to crush the uprising. Martin came to the United States and ended up in Tahoe, where he ran the Heavenly Ski Patrol for 25 years.

Martin also told us stories about competing in the Olympics. He knew everybody significant, including, of course, his younger friend Stein Eriksen.

Not long ago, I had the honor of doing a book signing with Martin at the Lake Tahoe Museum in South Lake Tahoe. I had my most recent book and Martin had his: I Was So Lucky: The Life Of Martin Hollay.

We had a great afternoon together, and he told me amazing stories. One I'll never forget was when I asked him about his current skiing.

He said, "Oh, yes. You know the Top of the Tram at Heavenly and the Roundabout Run that goes down from there?"

"Of course," I said.

"I still ski Roundabout every morning."

"Wow, that's great," I said, impressed that a man in his mid-nineties was still skiing down 1,700 vertical feet every day. I added, "I've always loved the views of the lake as you ski down."

He looked a little taken aback. "Oh, no, I don't ski down. I ski UP. On my cross-country skis. Then I ride the tram down." 

That was a revealing look into Martin's life. And it suggests one of the main reasons he is still so vital at 101 years of age.

My wife and I have done a fair amount of skiing in our lives. And some of that was on our back-country skis, climbing up a good distance and then skiing down. But I don't think we've ever climbed up more than a thousand vertical feet on our skis.

Martin does 1,700 feet every morning.

An amazing man.

Tahoe Ski Resorts Opening!

Palisades (the new name for Squaw Valley) and Boreal are both open as of yesterday!

South of Tahoe, Mammoth is open!

It is rumored that Mt. Rose will open in a week. Heavenly, Northstar and Sugar Bowl will be a couple of weeks after that.

All of the other resorts will likely be soon after, earlier than normal, thanks to the "atmospheric river" a week ago that dumped up to 3 feet on the mountains.

Have fun!

P.S. NOTE!!! BE CERTAIN TO CHECK THE WEBSITES OF ANY AREA YOU WANT TO VISIT TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE OPEN AND TO GET YOUR RESERVATIONS!!

Atmospheric River? !!

 Weather forecasts are by nature tenuous propositions. But they are usually accurate in alerting us to weather Potential if not exactly what will happen.

So when the forecast says we may get 6 - 7 inches of rain from Sunday through Tuesday, it is best to pay attention.

 The snow level is supposed to be high and only briefly lower to 5500 or 6000 feet. However, for anyone up at 9000 feet (let's say, the Mt Rose Summit highway pass between Reno and Tahoe), the snow totals could be several feet.

Rain and snow so intense that it washes away roads and floods the fragile mountain slopes that recently burned is not the preferred way to break the drought, and it remains to be seen just how much precipitation we'll actually get. But if the atmospheric river comes as they predict, we'll try to see the benefits of moisture regardless of the damage that comes with it!

You'll Never Guess What My Covid Shot Felt Like

I went to CVS for my 3rd (booster) shot on Friday. I'm eligible because I'm over 65. I'd read up on it. Turns out it is exactly the same material in exactly the same dosage as the 1st and 2nd shot. Apparently, it also does the same thing to your body, which is goosing your immune system. If any covid-type virus gets into your body, your immune response sends out an army of different warriors to kill it dead.

So what did it feel like?

Nothing. The nurse swabbed my arm with disinfectant. I was distracted by something in the other direction. Then the nurse pulled away. 

I said, "Everything okay?"

She said, "Everything's fine. You're good to go."

"You already gave me the shot? I didn't feel anything."

A different woman behind the counter heard me and said, "That's what everybody says. They don't feel a thing."

You Won't Believe The Wildfire Red Sun Until You See It

 The joy of clear blue Tahoe skies is never so pronounced as compared to life during a forest fire when the smoke is so thick it often blocks out the sun or turns it very red.

That red sun is beautiful in its own way. But you can imagine how pleased we were to get back to Tahoe Blue!