Monday, February 12, 2018

Well, look here, it’s the Daily Drip, back for another week! Today is Monday, February 12, 2018. Portland’s weather is sunny but chilly, highs of 47, and lows down to 20 in some areas. These last two weeks of February look colder than it’s been, and there’s chatter among weather geeks that winter is not necessarily done with us yet. In the words of an NWS post: “after some rain and mountain snow Fri night/Sat, temps and snow levels could plummet as our first modified arctic air mass in a while settles into the region. Will trend temps and snow levels downward accordingly, though there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to how this pattern will play out.” And this from KPTV’s Mark Nelsen: “The chance for snow at the lowest elevations is the highest we’ve seen since Christmas.” We’ll be monitoring. Sunrise 7:16 AM sunset 5:33 PM.

Big week! Mardi Gras on Tuesday…Ash Wednesday falls on Valentines Day on Wednesday,…our days will be twelve minutes longer by Friday…and Spring training begins this week. In fact, the pitchers and catchers for the Mets and the Pirates will get it going today.

I think we’re all watching the Olympics..so much fun…an American boarder wins gold…an American man medaled in the luge for the first time ever…the winds at the Alpine courses in Pyeongchang are so powerful that cloth panels are being ripped off the gates. They’ve postponed major skiing events until Thursday, and it’ll be downhill from there.

NBC has apologized after a commentator remarked that South Korea regards Japan as a cultural and economic example, glossing over the unresolved bad blood from Japan’s takeover of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century.

A Troutdale woman lost her wedding ring in the sand at Seaside on New Year’s Eve. Searched, couldn’t find, put an ad on Craigslist… then a woman who was walking in the pouring rain spotted a glint in the sand….and today the ring is back on its owner’s finger, in time for the couple’s 20th anniversary.

Oregon Live reports that two-thirds of Oregon’s charter schools have really low measles vaccination rates, and they’re at high risk for an outbreak of a disease that had been pretty well tamed.

This week the teenager who set the Columbia Gorge on fire will go before a juvenile court judge, and there’s word of a plea deal. Looks like he’ll get probation, but he and his family will be on the impossible hook for restitution.

Oregon Democrats in the US Senate may hold up the Trump nomination of an Oregon prosecutor to the 9th Circuit court of Appeals. Ryan Bounds is having to account for his snarky writings as a conservative undergraduate at Stanford, where he called minority student organizations “feel-good ethnic hoedowns,” and expressed similar sentiments he now calls the “ill-considered, tone-deaf, and mortifyingly insensitive pronouncements of one’s youth.”

Girls are joining Cub Scouts. Good. Maybe this generation of little boys will grow up to know how to behave around women.

The picture of Barack Obama with a jaunty salt-and-pepper beard? It’s photoshopped. No beard.

Abraham Lincoln, who turned down the job of Governor of the Oregon Territory in 1849, was born on this day in 1809.

Happy birthday to the singer Michael McDonald. Saw him last summer along with Boz Scaggs at the Maryhill Winery, and it was a wonderful night. I introduced him on stage once at the Clark County Fair and almost said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Ronald McDonald!”

Now the part that many folks skip right to..and good morning you, by the way!

–“‘A human connection’: When a U.S. Olympic luger was struggling, a Russian rival offered his sled”

–“At the PyeongChang Olympics Opening Ceremonies, Korea unifies for a historic selfie”

–“The Queen has declared war on plastic, banning straws and bottles from the Royal estates”

–“Former Klansman finds forgiveness and a friend in a black church”

–“Portland’s Medical Teams donates almost $1 million worth of supplies to hospitals in Ukraine”

–“Rescue dog on its first mission saves a life in the aftermath of the Taiwan earthquake”

It’s my son Jesse’s birthday. I don’t have the words to adequately express my love and respect for him, and for his sister. And their families. We had some quality hang time this weekend. Now it’s time to roll into our working world, or not, but either way…bundle up. It’s cold!