Mount St Helens

[thesidekickcat]

Well I am going to postpone learning the picture/image post thing as I am to tired today. But will try it soon.

Somehow I got the bright idea to clean at least one little corner of the basement. OH my!!! Been here 30 plus years so that basement is full of junk. Anyhow I was cleaning and sorting stuff, and then got the bright idea to refill my emergency water jugs. (I find Langers cranberry juice gallon jugs work very well for this). Dumped all the old water in the washer so taking empty ones upstairs no big deal, but now I have half of them filled (after a clorox clean), I need to trudge down the stairs with them again. Oh did I mention vacuuming under those stairs was a pain in more places than one? Anyhow the wasted space under the stairs is where I store the jugs. (My hubby has the motorhome water tank filled so we will use that first, if necessary but will have to drain it before any freezing weather. If any ash comes this way and contaminates our reservoirs, we will be prepared, plus have filters under the sink and a portable setup and extra filters.)

Some projects make sense, until you set in doing them. Ha! I bit off a big one this time though with this basement project, and water jug refill thing.

So here it is coffee break time, and I am spending it here with my board friends.

Oh yes, I guess I had better let you all know that the mountain blew the biggest burst so far of ash and steam, today at about 9am. My cat senses something just before every one of these events and just has to be right beside me, instead of her usual perches around the house. Today she practically landed in the shower with me as she was so nervous. The ash cloud had a good wind blowing it to the NE. So some areas were getting ashed lightly in central Washington. We have a storm system heading in from the coast, so I don't think anyone will see much over the next few days if there is another blow. By the way, wet ash is worse than dry I think. Ugh!!!

Break time is long over so off I go to the dreaded basement. I hope I don't disturb any mice. The cat never sees them as her problem, just something to tell me to deal with!!!

God bless everyone.

[thesidekickcat]

This works in Firefox.

Right click the image / Copy Image Location

When you reply to the post, or start a new topic, click on the "IMG" button at the top, and paste it between the image tags (IMG)(/IMG).

I use ")(" instead of "][", so it will post correctly.

The only way I could to do it in IE, is to right click the image / Properties

Copy the http address of the image, and use that, between the image tags.

Thanks so much for telling me how to do images in IE.

I just did a successful test of it. I am so happy.

This is one view of the mountain before it blew it's top in 1980.

Here is the photo.

It is from this neat website that I found a few minutes ago.

Scroll down for the legend of the "Bridge of the Gods". I had been thinking about that legend ever since Mount St Helens started erupting.

Pre 1980 Mount St Helens?

P.S. The mountain is napping after it's burst of ash and steam yesterday. Perhaps it will stay quiet, now that I have all the emergency water jugs cleaned and refilled and back under the stairs in the basement. Nothing like being prepared to stop any problems from occurring I always say. And the converse is also true. At least it does seem that way at times.

God bless everyone.

[tg1911]

Glad I could help.

Interesting website. I just checked it out.

I liked the legend of the "Bridge of the Gods". Cool story.

[jcl]

FWIW, the Bridge of the Gods was real. It was a landslide that blocked the Columbia in the 18th century.

[thesidekickcat]

Yes I knew that, but the Indian legend that goes with it is more romantic.

God bless everyone.

[jcl]

Yes I knew that, but the Indian legend that goes with it is more romantic.

Oh no doubt, but I think it's fascinating how much real knowledge is stored in legends. People would probably have been less surprised by the '80 eruption if the mountain was named Mount One-From-Whom-Smoke-Comes

(Yes, you can tell I come from a family of engineers. "Wow, that's a beautiful story. I wonder if it accurately reflects the geophysical history of the region?" True romantics, my kin.)

[thesidekickcat]

Well the experts can't decide if the mountain, which is continuing today to do steam bursts from a half dozen vents in the crater, will continue "small" events and dome building or if we will have an extreme explosion aka 1980 style. It all seems up to whatever is driving the magma to the surface, and with how much intensity. After a days rest, the mountain got busy again this morning. But today is the last view probably as there is a good storm system heading towards us. So unless the next event will be Sunday or into next week, then we wont see it as it happens. The snow level will drop to around 4500 feet tomorrow, so could be covered in white, until the next ashfall.

snowy look

then ash fall would look similar to this ugly view of the crater walls and dome, providing they were still there. By the way one section of the dome has grown by about 250 feet since the eruptions started on the 1st.

A nice series of pictures to show the recent eruptive history is on this link.

USGS pictures of Mount St Helens recent activity

I think I would find it more interesting if this thing wasn't sitting in the NW. HA!!

God bless everyone.

[tg1911]

You could always come down south, and share our hurricanes with us. LOL

[thesidekickcat]

LOL

Let's see, rare earthquakes and volcanos versus seasonal hurricaines and tornados, and lest I forget, humidity too? Nope I will stay in the NW, thankyou very much.

We are enjoying a liquid sunshine day here. Keeps out webbed feet from drying out to badly. Last I heard at noon, all is quiet with the lady volcano too. So it's a good day to be in the NW (indoors)!

God bless everyone.

[tg1911]

You forgot Mosquitoes and Fire Ants!

[thesidekickcat]

Yes I knew that, but the Indian legend that goes with it is more romantic.

Oh no doubt, but I think it's fascinating how much real knowledge is stored in legends. People would probably have been less surprised by the '80 eruption if the mountain was named Mount One-From-Whom-Smoke-Comes

(Yes, you can tell I come from a family of engineers. "Wow, that's a beautiful story. I wonder if it accurately reflects the geophysical history of the region?" True romantics, my kin.)

I have always found the legends, or tall tales if you will, a colorful and interesting part of our country's people.

Oral history was often depicted in storyform to teach the new generations, in often colorful ways to hold the attention, about past happenings according to the understanding of the world around them at the time. Also it was used to instill the values deemed important to the people telling the story.

And often to romanticise the past, either making it appear worse or better than it was. (Such as how deep the snow was and how far the walk to school, or how the depression was hard, but everyone was poor so really didn't feel poor. Just a couple of examples I remember hearing as a child)

We still do it today, in family stories of "Uncle Joe", Grandma, and Great Grandad, etc. Sometimes we can back it up with "official paperwork", but often it is just handed down oral history. In fact we actively as a nation go to certain old timers for their life stories and memories of stories told them in their family and culture.

And some of it comes out slightly embellished, or as straight out tall tales.

I remember as a child, listening to the stories of the vets just back from WWII, either their memory or mine changed over the years, as their stories took on ever more grandiose escapades as time passed than when I first heard them.

We, as a people, tell our stories in diaries, letters, books, videos, tv, movies, and now the internet, also in song (folk songs for instance) and verse. Some of it nonfiction, some fictionalized.

I think it must have always been so, this need to pass on to others our experiences. And to color them in a way to make them (and us) more appealing to the next generation.

Some of our best classic literature is based on the story of the "human condition".

We had fairy tales to read as children, and nursery rhymes and lullaby songs, along with all sorts of children's books, many of which were done with ulterior motives to teach certain values even teaching good professions to aspire to (ie fireman, doctors, nurses, teachers) etc.

We still have legends today, called urban legends. And don't forget the "ghost stories" told over campfires. Or another example I am personally aware of, the retired (and the rest of us) rv'ers with our motorhomes, travel trailers etc telling of adventures of traveling the country, and solving the mechanical and other problems that come with the rv lifestyle. Lots of those stories are ... well to put it nicely, embellished with color and some exaggeration, and with a strong kernel of truth. I imagine that truck drivers have their stories too, and lots of other groups have ones specific to them. Look at the message boards for computer users, and the story telling there for instance.

Back to the oral stories of the Native Americans, they used many ways to teach the younger people. By example, by stories, by legends, or by pictures carved in rock or wood. And the story telling and other links to the past for them, continues to this day at pow wows all over the country.

This story telling was also done in various regions and times in our country. For example the Paul Bunyan stories of the loggers, or the various railroad stories etc.

And so that is the fabric of our people, communicating in whatever form we can find to tell "our" story.

God bless everyone.

[thesidekickcat]

Mount St Helens is getting hotter, now that magma has risen to the surface. New rocks are forming and the red hot magma shows through it all, and the heat (1100 plus degrees) boils off what's left of the glacier in steam clouds. Still a mystery of when it will explode again.

The mountain appears to nead a large dose of Visine to "get the red out".

Good weather here for the next few days, but wind is in our direction, untill the next storm system comes in over the weekend. Our ever changing weather could make volcano watching an iffy thing this fall and winter.

God bless everyone.