Michael and Jaspenelle

Spokane Valley is on fire

Michael and I have been fixated on channel 2, I hope everyone got out of the homes safely and that the firefighters stay safe too.

Hello fire season (and the arson psychopaths that come with it…)

SPOKANE VALLEY — Fire crews are battling a fire that is spreading east on the outskirts of the Dishman Hills area. (read more…)

We had our handfasting in the Dishman Hills Conservation Area if that puts it into perspective for anyone. Guesstimating using google maps it is about 3 miles from our place but it is burning in the opposite direction. They have evacuated 15 blocks west of Dishman-Mica so far and that area keeps growing. The fire is spreading really fast, it is 500+acres at the moment (edit: now its 1000 acres.)

There is also a three alarm fire at the Ugly Duck too, which is in Spokane. It is a furniture liquidator, that one was arson (…again, this would be the seventh arson there in the past 4 years.)

We have a red flag warning today so this is really the worst time possible for these fires (and the others burning in the Inland Northwest.) The winds are starting to die down enough that they can get a tanker plane up to help get the Dishman fire under control though. It is amazing seeing the pine trees go up like match sticks, and homes too (we just watched one burn down in under 10 minutes.) It is so important for people to make defensible space around there homes, if you don’t the firefighters will have a tough time protecting your home if they can at all.

[video] Spokane River

This is some of the video Michael and I recently took along the Spokane River. The first clip is from Bowl and Pitcher in Riverside State Park and the remaining ones are from various parts of Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. The river has crested though it is expected to stay at or near flood stage for awhile, especially with the hot weather and rain still in the forecast.

Ultrasound and Flooding

(My super sexy husband! I took this photo of him yesterday when we went up to make sure the trail we are probably cleaning up next weekend wasn’t under water.)

I had an appointment with my midwife yesterday ans she asked me to get an ultrasound as soon as possible so that we can figure out the baby’s position. Normally Linda can tell how he is positioned by feeling around my belly but the baby is being very mobile and uncooperative lately (wow, didn’t expect him to manifest some of my more “endearing” personality traits so early… hehe!) She thinks he is breach again.

I’m a little concerned, I know Linda would not ask me to get an ultrasound unless she found it absolutely necessary. I am glad she is erring on the side of caution though. If he is breach there are still things we can do to get him back into the head down position, it will just get more difficult to do it as time passes (he is almost out of room in there!) She will deliver breach babies, but naturally there are more risks associated with that kind of delivery which we will have to be carefully considered. She has been very upfront about all that. So anyhow, I am shooting for being able to get an ultrasound early next week, before my next appointment.

I have the most horrendous heartburn today but otherwise I feel okay, still a little moody, but okay. I received a nursing bra via my Amazon Baby Registry today. It didn’t say from who but it is comfortable and really cute too, I love it. Thank you!

After my midwife appointment yesterday, Michael and I drove around to look at the local flooding, the Spokane River is above flood stage right now.

This is the Spokane River downtown near the falls. The river bed normally completely dries up in some places come summer time. No one has seen it this high since 1997 though (which is the last time we had widespread flooding.) The are saying the river will crest sometime this weekend.

I took some footage of the river yesterday as well since photos don’t even begin to capture how fast the river is moving (here are some of the still photos though.) Michael needs to teach me how to get the video from the video camera, to the computer, to the blog, so no video today, hopefully I have one up tomorrow.

Flooding

Spokane’s normal high for us this time of year between 65F and 70F but for the past few days we have been in the high 80s. Most of our water comes from snow melt and this winter we had the second highest snowfall on record, which to a certain extent is a good thing since we have had a few years of low snowfalls. However the 80F weather is making the snow melt very fast and we have seen some pretty wide spread flooding.

On Saturday Michael and I went to a few parks along the Spokane River, which is quite near flood stage. I am use to the water level on most of the dams being higher on one side then the other but most are pretty much just letting all the water through at this point.

This picture is taken across the river from Boulder Beach, a summer swimming hole. Not that you can see the swimming hole at the moment as it is currently covered in quite a bit of water. (This is what the same area looked like in March a couple years ago, that is Michael up on one of the boulders.) I believe the trail to the beach is also covered, though we didn’t cross to that side of the river. People forget how dangerous the water is when it is this high, it flows very fast and is very cold, a few people had to be rescued from the river this weekend.

Since Michael and I live up on Spokane’s South Hill, we are in no danger of being affected by the flooding but I hope all my friends over in North Idaho (where the worst flooding has been so far) will be okay. It is suppose to cool way down tomorrow but they are forecasting a lot of rain so I am not sure how much of a difference it will make as far as the flooding goes.

Riverfront Park

Google Maps Street View

Street view is now available for Spokane, WA. I love this Google Maps feature, you can basically “drive” around the city and see it as you would looking at the window of a car. This of course does raise some privacy issues but it doesn’t really bother me, though I did see a topless guy in my friend’s yard…

Next time I talk about places in Spokane, I’ll be able to show you where they are.

Here is some stuff in Spokane (and a couple other places):

• Part of our townhouse complex
• Michael’s Work
• Spokane Midwives Birthing Center - this is where I plan on giving birth
• Beechwood Dr, Raleigh, NC - I think I lived here was I was very young
• 57 S 100 E, Bountiful, UT - Michael lived here a few years ago

As far as I know it is only available for the USA right now, though they want to do it for the whole world. I think it is so cool!

Happy Lupercalia

(Sunrise in dowtown Spokane.)

The Lupercalia is an ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed from February 13 to February 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, and increase good health and fertility. Perhaps this is where some aspects of Valentines came from, though the history of big holidays is certainly a muddled one. Either way I hope everyone has a wonderful day, I think my Aunt Ruth described Valentines Day best:

Valentine’s Day is not about chocolates and jewelry and special dinners and cards, but a day to think about true love and commitment no matter what our circumstances are.

Other then blogging, Michael and I have been pretty busy lately. Every Wednesday we have our Bradley classes and we are also working on reorganizing our apartment. Mostly I am focusing on tidying up and this weekend we are going to work on moving some furniture around (before anyone says it, yes I will be careful.) I am really grateful for how well Michael and I work together as a team, I know a lot of relationships do not have that good of communication.

Cleaning and rearranging aside, I have spent quite a bit of time in meditation and prayer recently. I know a lot of Pagans who do not pray, or rather, do not use the word “pray”. Perhaps it is too strong of a word implying that we are merely pawns, rather then players in our own fate. for me prayer is a way of connecting with an external divine source (rather then the internal one I access though meditation) to become empowered.

But yes, I have been praying for two people, and my cat too (who is starting to do better, thank you for all the advice!) I am praying for my friend’s daughters has developed PTSD and she is having an incredibly hard time cooping with the events that caused it. She is now back home but it will be a long road to balance for her. I am also praying for my Uncle Stephen who has been diagnosed with something called Horton’s Disease, which sounds infinitely more painful then my simple migraines. Part of me sees events in life such as these as a test of faith, however that does not make it any easier to see those you love in pain.

I should probably get back to cleaning now. I need to reorganized the storage space under the stairs. Who knows that lurks under there…

Weekend Recap and Valentines

Someone held a door open for me today and reminded me it was Random Acts of Kindness Week today. Which was very funny and cute.

This past weekend was fun, lots of kindness! We went to a discussion group at Shannon’s on Friday night and had a vegetarian potluck. I have never had miso soup before, or tofu that I considered edible for that matter… I love this group because we just talk with no set topic, which is really nice sometimes.

On Saturday night we went over to Andrea’s for a “Medieval” movie night. We watched “Robin Hood - Men in Tights” and “The Reduced Shakespeare Company” (which was a really great comedy theater piece of three men reducing all 37 of Shakespeare’s works into one hour.)

Sunday… we didn’t do much. It was very windy, parts of Spokane declared a state of emergency because of blowing snow drifts. I feel for anyone who lives in the West Plains… We are on the South Hill though and other then the wind, the roads are (finally) clear. We went grocery shopping. The overabundance of bad weather lately was evident at Safeway though. You know the weather has been bad for way to long when the grocery store starts running out of food…. It makes you appreciate local food so much more too. Safeway’s produce department (and quite a bit of the rest of the store) is filled with signs that says “Out of Stock Due to Weather”. I think all the mountain passes are open again today though, so we are no longer cut off from the world.

They did have strawberries though, ya! They were reasonably cheap too for Winter, because of Valentines day.

I know a lot of people don’t do Valentines day because of “rampant consumerism” or whatnot, but I am looking forward to it. I got Michael a little something and I am really looking forward to his reaction to it. I ordered it today though so it might not be here by Thursday though…

I think it is important to be in touch with your relationship and the needs of your spouse all year around, but I still like Valentines because it is a little reminder of that in the middle of the most depressing month ever, of the importance of love. (Okay, before someone says it, I know, technically January has more suicides then February worldwide but the people who found that out have obviously never been delayed in the subway in Paris in February because another person jumped in the tracks…) February 14th is also Singles Awareness Day isn’t it? So even a holiday for the party poopers pessimists…

Bradley Classes

Aos got in the litter pail somehow today and got it all over the floor… Erg.

Michael and I braved the snow last night and went to our first Bradley class at the Spokane Midwives Center. In case I have not talked about it before, the Bradley Method is a partner-coached type of natural childbirth, my mother-in-law recommended it to me. I really enjoyed the class. Our instructor, Jennifer, is really warm and friendly and I like the seven other couples there.

Weirdness in class though, we were watching a video about natural birth, mainly focused on home birth, and my breasts started hurting… Not exactly hurt as in pain, but a very strong tingle. Later when we were doing relaxation exercises later and my breasts began to leak, it really surprised me! I am only at 21 weeks right now! I was a little self-conscious but somehow relieved that I could lactate. It happened again today too, but just very briefly. I can’t wait to be a mother, just the yearning of that alone is enough to make my breasts ache! Hehe.

Pregnancy is bringing lots of changes to my body, not all comfortable but I am still really loving it. It feels so natural and wonderful. I feel like this is where I am suppose to be at this stage in my life.