typo - should have said lived there. I loved there as well - that's where my daughter was born. It was a beautiful city, one of the most beautiful in the U.S.. But, that first winter was unreal. 100 vertical inches of snow, had to shovel the roof of the house off three times to prevent it from caving in from the weight of the snow. I have some photos from that time of my life, but my scanner is shot and I have no way of scanning them into the PC and posting them.

I drove a 57-Ford Econoline van back then, and had a 10-foot bicycle antenna mounted on the front bumper with a red ribbon on top. Every car in town had the same rig. This was for when we got to an intersection and it let other cars know there was someone coming out. When the snow melted that year, the Spokane River rose 20 feet. A Chinook wind hit sometime in mid March and you could watch the snow melt. It was pretty incredible to see that happen.

The following winter was relatively mild, temperatures rarely went below zero, and the snow was less than three feet. Unfortunately, the economy went to Hell that year, and the following year we returned to Maryland. The only industry there was logging, mining, agriculture, and education. There was, at the time, 7 colleges in that small town of 180,000 people.

I just went out and sprayed the snow blower with furniture wax to prevent the snow from sticking to the chute, which is problem with wet snows. Tomorrow morning ain't gonna be a picnic, but with just 3 inches of snow, I'm not gonna pay $100 for the snow plow guy to come.

Cheers,

Gary