Gearing up for the holidays here on the Oregon coast. We're going into semi-hibernation: the rains have begun so we are very thankful for our cozy log cabin, warm wood stove and shed full of firewood.

12/17/99 Seems like a lot has already happened since I wrote the newsletter. Last week a 70 foot fishing vessel ran aground and sunk near the mouth of the Yaquina River in Newport (very close to my office). Two crewmen are dead and a sheen of diesel oil covered the estuary, which is now full of wintering waterfowl and marine mammals. I was somehow elected to be the ODFW representative/coordinator in charge of this mess… groan!! Just a few days later the rains got serious again, hampering the efforts to deal with the wreck (which still has about 6,000 gallons of fuel on board) and causing a major landslide on Hwy 101. This is the main coastal highway and the slide is between Lincoln City and Newport, with no good alternate routes at the moment (due to flooding/landslide problems on other routes). Sooo… it's now a 3 hour drive for me to get from home to work - talk about a pain in the neck! Today we had some of those 70 mph winds and it really feels like mother nature is trying to teach us a lesson here.