I carry a limited number of my books that I must purchase from the publisher (yes, believe it or not) for local bazaars or promo talks. When someone contacted me and was not able to find The Columbia River book locally (sold out), I realized that I only had three copies myself. Amazing. The Christmas holidays in this extreme Northwest part of Washington featured mostly warm, dry weather, temps about 50 in the daytime, 40 at night. We have had lots of fog, though, and I hate to drive in limited visibility. Today the sun is shining, because it rained hard all yesterday. More typical for Washington winter. The mountain areas got some snow to make skiers happy. Where the Columbia River narrows down between Portland and The Dalles, it often blows hard through that "canyon." Boarders love that, especially favoring an area toward the east end of the Gorge. They dart around like water-borne birds. Before dams near The Dalles (which is a town) a big waterfall stretched across the river, a popular place for local Indians to fish for salmon. They stood on precarious perches similar to swimming pool diving boards to fish and occasionally fell to their death in the swift currents. However, using safety ropes or other means was considered by some to lack courage.