In defense of weather after storms

“From the diary of a woman who traveled the Barlow Road while crossing the Cascades in the fall during the late 1840s, she could still find some humor:

‘Now we are in the land of plenty - plenty of rain, plenty of snow, and plenty of ice.’”

Phil Jonsrud’s book 80 years in the Same Neighborhood intentionally includes, in his own words “some humor that hopefully will lighten-up the history.” Many samples of humor are marked by light shading throughout the book, but the funny bits are not restricted to boxes. Much of the writing seems to spring from a naturally positive and lighthearted source.

He prefaces his book by writing, “I’m not going to say that Sandy is the best place to live, but I know it’s a good place to live.

“Some say that it rains too much here as we have our heads in the clouds. Have they forgotten that we are often in bright sunshine when lower areas are socked-in by fog?

“When east winds whistle down the Columbia Gorge, and garbage cans take off for China, we do get some wind but we don’t blow away.

“With our view of Mt. Hood and the great people in the area, Sandy has to be one of the nicest places to live, and it still has that “small-town” quality. My family and I have never returned from traveling anywhere that we didn’t remark “where have we seen any better view than what we have here in Sandy.”