Well, this is exciting.

I'm from snow country. I've lived in 11 different states and nearly always in places where the winters are brutal (except Eureka, CA, which was usually quite mild)... but still, this is exciting to see snow in Portland. It's not the 4 inches predicted last night, and my girlie won't be able to sled on this grainy thin stuff, but it's very Christmassy and we are all a bit giddy this morning nonetheless.

Mom and her husband decided to leave today instead of Monday. They're from Moyie Springs, Idaho. Their forecast high at home today is zero, -11 tonight, high -1 Monday, and -17 Monday night. There is no excuse for cold like that. It's completely unreasonable. Anyway, they've got animals outside and they're worried about keeping them alive, as well as worried about traffic which would likely be heavier tomorrow than today. It's probably a good idea that they've gone now, but that certainly made their visit brief.

Mom and I had a splendid time at Jimmy Mak's on Friday night. I had to go to see one of my favourite artists: Marcus Eaton. Eaton was opening for Intervision, which I had not heard of. Intervision turned out to be a fabulous band that sounds like they could easily have been visiting from a major music city like Athens or Nashville or LA, but instead they pumped out this awesome jazzy funk brewed right here in the City of Roses. My mom has fallen in love with Paul, the lead singer, and all his quirky fun energy. Jimmy Mak's has an excellent menu - even the hamburgers looked amazing. I had spanakopita and my mother had salmon. We split a bottle of MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir, which was splendid.

They brought a load of firewood from their property up north, as well as a lovely Christmas tree they cut right before they left. We have been snuggling up beside the fireplace every moment since then - when we're home at least.

Saturday we spent hours in town. Portland is so lovely. We went through lots of shops, and even found the skywalk from Saks 5th Ave. across the street to the mall. We looked like a ragamuffin bunch in our country folk garb walking through those places, but the skywalk was bright and fun. We ate lunch at the Macaroni Grill which was a perfect stop the last time we went there as a family, but this time was rather awful. They crammed way way too many tables together, so we were all squashed and the waitresses had to continually ask diners to please move so they could get through. Maybe the restaurant makes more money that way, but I won't be in a hurry to go back now, even though the food is good.

Furthermore, a couple of tables away was a little boy about 3 years old who was banging his fork and knife together for a full 10 minutes. When he finally got bored, and I was sighing with relief, his horrible mother who hadn't prevented it in the first place, encouraged him to do it again! She apparently thought it was adorable, and every time the kid would stop and give other diners some peace, his horrible mother would get him to start it up again. SOME people's parents, I swear.

We then walked to Pioneer Courthouse Square to catch Tuba Christmas with 200 tubas in concert! Our favourite tuba was one in the very back row, which had dragon spikes down the length of it, and it was all black and green and scaly. Very awesome, and actually looked dangerous. We met up with a co-worker of mine, and got to visit with her little twin girls.

Grandpa bought my little girlie a bike!  It's blue and beautiful and fits her growing body. Now let's hope she remembers to use her lock this time, and doesn't get it stolen like the last one.

Can't think of any kind of weather which seems more Christmassy! Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Let it snow, and blow, and rage out there. I'll be sitting by the fire.

Aw, hey, I just can't help myself. It was a fun day and we've got the photos to prove it. I know all you winter weather dwellers will recognize a distinct lack of snow... but we Portlanders view this as as sled-worthy as it gets!

The girlie and I took our chances and drove as far up Mt. Tabor as my little purple Saturn dragon wagon could make it. I had planned to take the #15, which goes right up the hill, but the busses were having a devil of a day, and no #15s would be in our are for about a half an hour, so we drove. We found a relatively flat spot where I was able to turn her around and face her back downhill, then we parked and walked the rest of the way.

We weren't the only kids who thought of sleds. We joined other squealing families flying down the hill. Mt. Tabor has a giant park, and we didn't even get to the top of the extinct volcano...so I imagine there must have been sledding people all over the place.

We were happy at the spot we found, so we played till we froze our buns off, then headed back to the car. It was so cold that my remote unlock button didn't work, so I used the key to unlock the car. That set off the alarm, which I couldn't turn off, of course, because everything was frozen and not working properly. And the alarm system wouldn't let me start the car after the apparent break in either! Well, the horn worked well. It honked louder and louder and faster, drawing rather fine attention. Finally, inexplicably, it went off.

We went the few blocks home, sort of puckered as I crawled downhill and thanked the gods my breaks were catching something. All the way until the stop sign at 76th. Whoops! Slipped right through. Luckily no one was around. When we hit 82nd, there was a green light, but the folks coming through were not able to stop for us, and slid right through the intersection. Wow, just like real winter.


We got off our snow-caked boots and drank hot cocoa by the fire.

And then, girlie found out that school is canceled for tomorrow. Does winter GET any better?

This is crazy. You wouldn't have believed the blizzard today. But no, my point is that it doesn't snow here. Well, I mean not really. I think I saw flakes twice last winter. It stuck on the ground for an hour or two and it was delightful. That was when we lived on top of a ridge rising up from St. Helens Road.

Now we just live on the flat, along with everyone else. And this is day five. We've had snow in the yard every day, AND it keeps snowing more every day.

Silliness.  Lookit me grinning!  ;-)

Mmmmmm.... Day 7 of the snow. I took photos with new angles to give you guys something else to look at.

Our temperature has been wavering from 27 to 37, so every time we get some good coverage, it melts into mush, then freezes. Downtown has been a little warmer - nearly clears the streets each time the temp goes up. But out here in the Montevilla neighborhood, the snow has stayed on the ground the whole time... just sometimes it's wet and sloppy. Or like now, it's frozen solid slush with two inches on top of that.

The fire has been keeping us warm.

The kiddo only had two days of school this week. Funny! 

Our Cookie kitty does NOT like this stuff. She was born in Scappoose and keeps poking her nose through the doorway to check and see if things have improved yet. Our Pumpkin kitty was born in New England, and he is like a kitten again. "Yay! Yay!" he says, and bounces around in the flakes and pounces the drifts and then curls up on the porch in his orange-and-white fluff that's long and thick because he's related to a Maine Coon. He gets a smug look on his fuzzy face and says, "No thanks, I'm good." each time we open the door and ask if he'd like to come in.

I've sent out 60 of my Christmas letters and I am SO TIRED of sending out Christmas letters. Sorry if anyone's still waiting for theirs. You WILL get one, I'm just not finding the time. They are all addressed, but I need to write a little personal "hello" on each one. Oh, I guess I could just show you. Here, have a look.

The letter is my most loved Christmas tradition. I have so many friends and family. My family spreads so far, I laughingly refer to them as the family "vine" rather than the family tree (also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the multiple couplings and nearly complete absense of stereotypical nuclear family groups). For many of them, this is the one time each year when I reach out and say, "Hello! I still think of you!" so it's an important tradition to hang onto.

It got up to four pages the year I went to Greece and Turkey. I simply couldn't cram everything into the one- or two-pagers I had been doing. Ever since then, it's been four full pages and is basically a journal of our lives for the preceding year. I tend to lose sight of what the letters do to keep me in touch with others, until someone inadvertantly gets off the list... or when I'm behind schedule and someone thinks they've been forgotten. They let me know right away: "WHERE is my letter?! Don't I get a letter this year?" ha ha. I've had girlfriends tell me they set aside an afternoon with a glass of wine each year, just to savor it. Ha ha.

How simple it is to share the love I hold for all of you. If this small gesture keeps our relationships alive, I am glad to do it.

Hey! No more apologies from this girl for not having a snow worthy of note. This is a snow that would get even New Englanders excited. Day NINE campers, and this baby hasn't given us a break yet.

Only, might I please say once again, that Portland is just not set up for this kind of winter. If the city even owns plows at all... they are either at the airport, or in emergency centers, or at the very least downtown. We saw a news clip of guys with shovels sitting in the back of a city truck heaped with sand. The truck drove slowly, and the guys shoveled grit onto the snowy street. There are not even enough sand spreaders here!

The airport is totally shut down. Well, basically. 90% of their flights appear to be cancelled. I can't believe parts of the city are still functioning. But it is! Good on ya, mates!

My supervisor called me last night to say that work would be opening at 10:00am. I checked the federal website this morning (http://oregonfeb.us/) and it told me what I expected to see: Department of Veterans Affairs Benefits Office - closed. Yipes. So glad I didn't have to get out there and try to hustle myself to work. Moseying around in the snow for fun is one thing, but it would bite to be trying to get to work on time this morning.

Yahoo TriMet! You guys are the champs! Still, busses getting stuck in snow, even on their snow routes. It's certainly a noteworthy storm.

Our kitty Pumkin, whom we affectionately call "Big O" has finally decided that it's yucky out. He's got a case of cabin fever which actually is worse than ours. He tries going out every hour or so....but can't find a good route. The snow is now much deeper than him. I tried to shovel him a path to get underneath some hedges, but that's not exactly what he's looking for.

No one owns snow shovels, so we've been shoveling with heavy old metal dirt shovels. and BROOMS! We've been clearing snow with brooms. And when it's freakin' 15 inches deep, that's simply ridiculous.

We've decided we've been trapped in the house too long. We are going to head out this evening. We'll bundle up and take whatever busses might arive, and go downtown and take photos of the Made In Oregon sign in the snow. We'll find a coffee shop open and check out the lights downtown and just soak up the feeling of EVENT, you know? When storms happen, people get a little giddy.

People have been bringing food and helping out travelers stranded in Union Station, and stranded at the airport. That is really lovely. My daughter and I baked piles of cookies because that's what you do at Christmas. But we don't need them all. She suggested we take them downtown and give them to homeless people. It's an excellent idea - which will help us get them out of here. Maybe we'll pack our backpacks with cookies tonight, and hand them out in town. Where I work, there are so many people who sleep on the streets. I can't imagine how they've survived this week. It must be horrible.

OK, well that's the current news from Lake Woebegone-- um, I mean from snowy East Portland. Love and smiles!

The photos are from our day yesterday… the story is from today.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is told after one person asks the Teacher “Who is my neighbor?” meaning, who should we look out for? Who should we care for? The answer of course, is everyone.

 

Yesterday I was the neighbor in need. To my exquisite delight, today I found out that my neighbors were going out of their way to take great care of me.

 

Near the end of the day yesterday, after taking photos of some awesome sights, I realized my little wallet was missing from my pocket. It holds such important items! My federal ID – eep! My veterans ID so I can make my appointments at the VA hospital. The key card to get into work before business hours so I can change for my morning workout. My December bus pass. AND a 2009 bus pass to get to work next year. Those had been handed out Friday, and the Support Services Guy said, “This cost just under a thousand dollars. Do NOT lose it – it will not be replaced.”

Four days later I lose it. And the federal ID? I don’t even want to know what derision I might be subjected to for losing that.

But someone found it! In my email this morning, a stranger says, “Hey, I’m A, I found your stuff, give me a call and I’ll get it back to you.”

What relief. You guys have no idea.

Thank you, thank you, and big gigantic THANK YOUs go to A and J and H and all their friends and multiple laptops. Thanks for going sledding at Laurelhurst! Thanks for spotting my ID and bus pass in the snow. And thank you for Googling my name, and for finding my email. Thanks for all the CSI spy tactics and the cleverness!

Thanks A for passing off the ID to your friends before boarding a plane out of town on your way to Guinea (good luck over there). Thanks J and H for strapping on the skis tonight and meeting my #15 bus at Zupan’s to hand it over. (Sorry for eating all your “thank-you” cookies) (they were good)

I am so deeply grateful.

What a thrill to cross paths with these good people. I met them at the intersection of 32nd and Belmont, and they told me the whole hilarious saga of trying to track me down with my name alone. (Luckily, no one else has my name.)

H is a photographer and passed me her card. J invited whole fam for a holiday get-together since their family and friends won't be here like in other years. H even suggested that after the hours of Internet investigation, we could come over and interview them for a few hours...to even things out a bit. Ha ha!

Miss T is in Boise now. I've been checking Alaska Airlines' tracker, and I see that her plane is on the ground. Hopefully Grandpa Trulove found her, or is finding her. I'm hoping for a phone call soon. ( <--worried Mom)


Roads are somewhat better, but the side streets which have been a disaster for a long time, are probably at their worst ever. For the first time since the big snow, we couldn't get the car out this morning. I was thinking, "After all our little ridiculous trips to play in the snow because we were bored... this time we need to get our girl to the airport and we're stuck."

But my man is tenacious, as well as a skilled winter driver, and we finally got the little Jetta through the piles of 8-inch-deep slush and ice (skidding all over the place, fishtailing, please-don't-smack-one-of-these-parked-cars-please-don't...), and onto Stark/Washington, which is clear. Then, our ONE chain slowed us down (one because the other one snapped off when we got stuck on Hawthorne that day I lost my ID), and we went 27 miles an hour all the way to the airport. Lucky for us, we live pretty close to the airport.


ANYHOW, roads are better and our mail is finally getting through again. We got a big stack of Christmas cards yesterday. Included was my annual letter from my math teacher from high school. Yep, I am from one of those tiny country schools where everyone knew and mostly liked each other. I still have addresses for several of my high school teachers. So in their Christmas letter this year, I found a URL for their blog, and logged in and they have videos like so many people have. I finally got inspired to try and include videos.

Look guys, my camera was cutting edge when I bought it. It's no longer cutting edge. My only video options are 32-seconds (no more, no less), and there is no sound. But back in 1989 when I bought it... no, it's not that old.

Hopefully Girlie has a splendid week with her Grandpa and Grandma Trulove. Now, why hasn't she called me yet....

How much fun it was today when I browsed through archived versions of my blog and found this, posted January 10, 2008:

My fantasies for 2008?
1) I'll finally get my very own cube and desk to sit at to do my work (can you BELIEVE they still don't have a place to put any of us new hires?)
2) I'll gain some confidence and become productive at work
3) We'll get settled in to our new home
4) Tara will reconcile herself to the idea that she must change school districts in two years
5) Mark will gain some confidence and productivity in his job
6) I'll plan out the perfect kitchen and maybe even begin creating it
7) I'll make some headway in eliminating my debt
8) I'll sell the house in Massachusetts and pay back my mother and grandmother the money I borrowed from them to buy the house in the first place.

I read the list out loud to my man, so we could together find out if my fantasies came true. And what a practical girl I am! I almost got everything I wanted.

1)      I DID get my own desk to sit at, then the whole office was rearranged, and I got a new desk to sit at. But the point is, I have a place that is always available to me to sit at and do my work.

2)      I DID gain confidence and became much more productive at work. According to our productivity tracking software, I went from zero weighted actions per day, to 2.25 weighted actions per day – awesome!

3)      We ARE settled into our new home

4)      Whoah! What a gigantic difference a year makes. Rather than working my girl into the future realization that soon she will live with my honey and I on the other side of town… she lives with us already, and her dad moved to California. Wow.

5)      This one I’ll give a half point to, rather than a full point. He DID gain confidence and productivity. He single-handedly got a remediation system running out in Scio, Oregon, which had been broken for three years! He became a one-man get-things-done team for his boss, and began mentoring new staff. …and in June lost his job. He remains unemployed.

6)      This is a “no.” The economy tanked on us, and I am thinking a kitchen remodel should be part of our 5-year plan.

7)      I’m going to call this one neutral. Neither improved nor worsened the situation. Little did I know when I wrote my list above, I owed thousands of dollars in taxes. It’s now paid off. I have also dropped the balance one of my credit cards from $7544 to $1670. However, I increased the balance on a different credit card from zero to $10,000. My student loan balances are nearly the same this year as last year. I DID unload over $200 thousand in debt on the Massachusetts house when I sold it. But I owe the same on the new Portland house.

8)      Um. Unfortunately I combined two biggies into one. I DID sell the house. I have NOT repaid my family the money I owe them. Another one half point.

So that’s pretty good, really. I score myself 5 points out of 8. Maybe 5.5 if I give myself an extra half for number 4).

January 10, 2008 was a good day. The day after my birthday, and the day “my boy” was born to Elisia and Kevin, out in Massachusetts. Now, I’m staring my first real 39^th birthday in the face, and Tobin is a growing healthy, happy, boy.

I will try to remind myself on January 10, 2009 to make another list. If I am as equally blessed as last year, I will be able to say I did accomplish at least 5 out of 8 goals.