As if you need proof that earth was indeed tilting further on its axis, I walked the Wonderdog this morning while the snow fell.

The snow’s gone already, but instead of the grey day I’d dreamed of, it turned windy and clear. Damn.

Snow on the Ground
Snow on the tracks in Mt. Shasta. It didn’t stay long, but neither did the clouds.

Rather than fight the wind and sunshine on my BWO water, I stayed home and raked approximately 11 tons of leaves. My arms are tired and limp as flylines, so there’s some question as to whether I’ll be able to fish tomorrow, but if the weather’s right, you can bet I’ll be out there trying.

Pity my suffering, you bastards…

More on the Train Derailment

I’m not seeing a lot of reports on the train derailment alongside the American River (east of Sacramento), and apparently normal service has resumed on that line.

According to this story, the eight people on the train were part of a work crew smoothing out worn tracks, and that the two crewmembers died trying to apply the emergency brakes.

EPA and railroad workers are rushing to corral as much of the thousands of gallons of spilled diesel fuel as possible before a series of storms hit the area, potentially washing the diesel fuel into the American River.

If you’ve never played with diesel fuel, it’s icky, persistent stuff. As damaging as the metam sodium was when it sterilized the Upper Sacramento in 1991, at least it passed through the river relatively quickly.

A couple thousand gallons of diesel fuel would not only do some damage, but it’d be around for a while.

See you tomorrow, Tom Chandler.

[tags]derailment, sacramento, upper sacramento river[/tags]