Enough winter yet?

ENOUGH ALREADY! Well, I don't know about you but Ole Man Winter can move along and take all his bitter cold with him. I'm sure we've all had enough of the snow, ice, sleet, bitter winds and nastiness by now, at least I have. Once we get to the point where the outdoor temps and blustery winds can cause frostbite within half an hour, I'm done with all the pretty white stuff! By the time you read this, we should be back to more acceptable weather conditions and that can't come soon enough for me and the critters that have had to be outside dealing with this as well. Here's to a break in this polar express sooner than later!

SPECIAL DAYS. Those celebrating birthdays this week are Sharon Buennagel, Bruce McClain, Ashley Turner, Shanna Havens, Christopher Danker, Bailey Danker, Teagan Miller, Brandon Burdick, Kasey Tomlinson, Annie Watters, Michael Stone, Wayne Cochran, Kyli Prestegard, Shayna Hendrickson, Koda Clark, Eric Erickson, Jody Baccellieri, Kaylin Bingham, Samantha Dietz, Korben Barth and Shane Pedersen. Michael and Nikki Danker, Jai and Martina Snow and Chris and Holly Norton will celebrate anniversaires. May all your special days be memorable!

LOTS OF CANCELLATIONS. As you know, many events had to be cancelled this past week due to the inclement weather, which was too bad—many were looking forward to the monthly flea market and vendors market at the fairgrounds and, of course, there was no bingo at the Norse Hall, no church services or other events, so, we hope that this next month will not bring a repeat. Here's hoping this week's events take place with no weather issues.

CRAB FEED One of those events at the fairgrounds is their crab and oyster feed Jan. 20, at 6 p.m. Doors are open at 5 p.m. They hope you've gotten your tickets ($35), and are all set for you to chow down on some delicious Dungeness crabs and tasty oysters. Contact Diane Dyer for more info at 360-465-2825.

COMMUNITY BREAKFAST Unless something unforeseen comes up, the Skamokawa Grange Hall will be the place to be this Thursday from 10 a.m. until noon as they serve up some coffee and free breakfast. Come on down and share all your cold and snow stories. I hope we don't have any more of those kinds of stories to share for awhile.

COMING UP On Jan. 21, at 3 p.m., Wahkiakum VIBES will host a “January Acoustic Song Circle” at the Skamokawa Grange Hall. All are invited. Folks love coming to this; they play their instruments and sing along with others. And if you don't play, just come on down, sit in, and listen. The coffee is always on.

NICE CHAT I had a phone call from Joan Marson this past week. It was good to hear from her. She used to live here and went to school with my brother, Ralph Pedersen. She is also an avid reader of this paper for many years, and enjoys reading it from front to back every week. Of course, now that she lives in Seattle, she gets her paper much later than the rest of us. (This is why I try to tell folks to advertise early as many folks are like Joan and get their papers later than us locals.) I was sorry to hear she took a tumble and was recuperating in a care center. We hope she'll get well soon and be out of there in no time.

SERVICES COMING UP The family of Susie Cooper would like me to remind you that her Celebration of Life services will be held Jan. 27 (next Saturday) at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds at 1 p.m. This would have been her 56th birthday, and so the family opted to host this celebration to remember her loving nature, the way she loved to help other people, her love of animals, and her love of family. Again, our sympathies to her children, Taylor and Danielle, her mother, Carol, and her three brothers: Gary, Donald and Pete, as well as her many other family members.

BE PREPARED Now that we have had this blast of winter, I guess you could say we've been tested. Whatever you found yourself lacking or needing improvement, now's your time to make a list and see to it that you are more prepared than you were before. We always learn a few new things each time we have these weather events, so it's good to make improvements now while you don't need to, rather than scrambling around at the last second. I just hope we don't have more of this this frigid cold, but who knows? Better safe than sorry, so here's to all of us being prepared for whatever Mr. Winter tosses our way in the next couple of months. As a reminder, it was February of 1990 when we got two feet of snow out here in West Valley and KM mountain slid out and we had to detour for a couple of years, so don't think the nastiness is over, but let's hope we never get a repeat of that horrific month!