It's a whole lotta snow. Well, for us anyway...

Pretty sure it's not going to melt for tomorrow either...

Hubby measured the pile on top of the car. Just a little short of eleven inches.

He ventured out to the grocery store this morning and grabbed a couple gallons of milk and some assorted items. He brought me a cheesecake, too. Of course I'll share with him and the other humans in the house.

I have been working on a couple craft projects for work, I haven't had time to sit down and make fun little things with the kids much yet, but I will be getting there.

I bought a big box of origami paper and they were really excited about it, but I don't know how to do much of that.
It's not a thing I really enjoy, either.

However, one can do some basic origami folds and make some really cute crafts.

I thought this one was fun.

I'm going to make a few more in different styles. And some monster corner bookmarks, too.

Maybe a unicorn or two. There are a couple different unicorn bookmark designs to choose from.

I'll have time for that since they have already called off school for tomorrow  across the region, my district included.

It's interesting that I get paid now to work on things like this. It falls under flex hours aka planning time. I surf the internet if there's something I don't know how to do and then I make things. Most of my programming supplies are here anyway, I have a ton of paper and punches and rhinestones and glue and markers and, well, you probably get the idea.

I'll make you a unicorn to look at for tomorrow. Meanwhile, back to the movie. I'm watching Willow for the hundredth time. It never fails to make me smile.

The little ones in that movie were so adorable. My goodness.

Spring has sprung and Covid is among us.

 Took me 35 minutes for the first 5 miles of my commute yesterday morning. I should have decided to stay home, there was about 3/4 inch of snow out here in my area. I counted 17 wrecks off the side of the freeway in that distance.

The roads were slick enough that the local district decided on a two hour delay, then canceled classes for the whole day. Of course I no longer work in our local district. I added those dickheads to my list of shitbags I hate a long time ago. Unprofessional. But I think they got the snow day call right. 

I figured the further South I went, the less snow there'd be.

That was true, but between here and my school, there was one hell of a lot of slippery road and there were hundreds of crazy people who should have stayed home.

I was one of those crazy people. I won't do that again, though. I have contact information for the two families who use morning care, so I will be able to contact them if it happens again.

So I have a bunch of flower punches. A few for leaves. Generous friends who give me their unused scrapbook papers (card stock) and a bunch of kids who love to do crafty things.

I bought the pink, blue and yellow cotton balls in 2020 to do an art project with my kids and they closed the schools on me. Dammit. So the cotton balls have been sitting in the shed for two years.

Here's this week's fun little crafty thing.

I love projects like this one, the kids take all the supplies and just go nuts with them. I don't tell them how to do it or even make an example project, but sometimes I have to make something while they're working on their own.
Yes, I get paid to play.
It was enjoyable.

More enjoyable than cleaning up the glue spills and sweeping up Easter grass when they were finished, too. Ha.

So one of the smalls in my current afternoon program tested positive for the virus this week. The child is not showing any symptoms, but the state child care division tells us what to do.

The covid-positive child has to be excluded from the program for five days. Also excluded from the program? Any unvaccinated children in the group.

Now how the hell does that make sense? Those same kids are in the classroom and/or in school together ALL DAY LONG. Why shouldn't they be able to attend program?

The kids who are being excluded from my program are being picked up from school instead of being allowed to come play and hang out with us.

It's a change from back in January when the whole program had to be closed for a week. But it doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm counting down the weeks until I no longer have to work at that school. I haven't been unhappy there (except for the stress of having to go to a new school AGAIN and start over AGAIN) but I really want to get back to MY place.

Speaking of things that don't make sense.

I got an email from Portland Public Schools this afternoon telling me that they're considering options for masking etc and will email me NEXT week to let me know what they've figured out.

Why did they do that? Why didn't they just wait until next week and email everyone to let them know what they've decided?

Here's my official guess.
Masking will continue on school grounds until the end of this school year. Indoors, outdoors... it's a thing that will go on... it was agreed between the teacher's union and the school district.

I've been wrong before, though. So who knows? Doesn't have to make any sense, now does it?

Snew

Haha, "what's snew?"

Nothing. What's new with you?

The Snow Fairy has arrived in Portland. A smartass of my (intimate) acquaintance told me to expect a little over six inches. "And," he added, "it might snow, too."

What could be worse than a man who thinks he's funny?

So things have been interesting at work, as they always are. I've told myself at least a dozen times that I will need to write about something, and then I get home and I'm cold and I'm tired and hungry and get busy watching something on the Momcave television and before I know it, it's 9 and time for bed. Getting up at 5 is just too damn early for me. I will always hate it. Most days I nap between shifts, but if I could have stayed in bed another hour or hour and a half, I wouldn't need to. The idea of going to bed at 7:30 or 8 is usually just too crazy even for me. But sometimes I wonder if that would work. Sleep by 7:45, get up and 5 and NOT feel like a zombie.

Sad, but the idea has its attraction.

So one of my kids (not mentioning names, even though I never use the real name of child here) has an absent father. My understanding is that it's a pattern with this guy, who has an ex wife and two kids in another state, an ex wife and two kids in THIS state and a girlfriend and her two kids that he's living with in still another state.

This young person was picked up from my program after school a little over a week ago to go take a vacation with his dad and the latest woman. You'd think a dad who only sees his kid every six months or so would just accept the kid as he is, however he looks. Whatever choice he makes about his hair. But nope. As they left the room,the first words out of Dad's mouth were, "That hair. I don't know."

Because the kid is growing his hair out so he can have what he calls 'a man bun'. I think it looks funny but it's not my hair.

It's more of a whatever for me.

::shrug:::

I'm always curious about what makes people dye their hair blue or pierce their nose or get 20 tattoos, but I don't care about it, I just wonder. I'd never offend anyone by asking, because of course it would sound like I'm judging.

I do judge people now and then, I think we all do.
But not based on something like appearance.

This guy growing his hair out is just self expression.

While I was writing that, I remembered the time Lyssa asked me to help her dye her hair. My mom was scandalized, a leftover from the dark ages way of thinking, but I wasn't offended.

I understand why she thought that way, even though I didn't agree with her and we did the dye thing. That 'mild' foamy hair coloring preparation wasn't mild at all. Lyssa's hair was chemically shredded for awhile, but it grew out. She still looked awfully cute, though. :)

I applaud this guy's mom for just letting him do whatever he wants with his hair. But I'm sure he heard more than once over the vacation that he should get it cut.
When he returned from his trip, he had a horrible, horrible cough. One of the worst ones I've ever heard. Dry and constant. When I came back to school on Thursday afternoon, he was in the office getting some medical attention. They notified me that he'd had to use his inhaler more than once that day.

He ended up on his knees on the floor during snack time, coughing so hard he retched. I called his mom and let her know that he was having difficulties. She came to get him as early as she could, and they were heading to the urgent care for some real cough syrup as soon as they left.

I wasn't surprised on Friday morning when she called and let me know that he wouldn't be in school at all on Friday.

And now it looks like none of us will be in school for most of the week. We have about four inches of snow now, and more is expected. Although it seems crazy to the rest of the world, this area shuts down when we have this kind of weather.

The problem is that much of our snow turns to ice.
We get freezing rain over the top of it and it's simply ludicrous to have school buses and kids out in it. It's nothing like the snow we had when we lived in Colorado. I hate not being at work for the week, but I'm glad we're mostly safe here at home. And that my kids are, too.

So the next post I'm working on contains (cue scary music here)
GIRL DRAMA!!

::sigh::

Never a dull moment, as they say.

It's snow fun...

This happens every year.
We're on the 35th parallel and it's, well you know, fuckin' winter!
When it gets cold because the earth is tilted far, far away from the sun.
Even though we're physically closer to the sun in winter.
It's science!
Look it up!
Or, in the spirit of the season, a gift from me... you can click on this handy link and learn more.

The weather-guy-forecasted-not-to-mention-normal-and-expected (you know, 'cause it's winter!!!) weather system that dumped about two inches of snow on the greater Portland area yesterday has derailed everyone.

It's the most amazing thing to me... every damn year we get some sort of either ice or snow storm, every year the city of Portland as well as the cities surrounding us are completely unprepared for it.

First, the dipshits in charge run around wringing their hands and bawking like chickens. Now mind you, these goddamn bawkers usually make between 80 and 200 grand every year, plus free health benefits, a generous retirement plan and usually a city-owned car... and not a one of them can figure out whether to shit or go blind.

They're afraid they might kill the environment if they put salt on the roads two or three times every winter.

Yeah, morons...that's why in places like Michigan and Wisconsin there is no wildlife, the lakes are all empty of fish and the plants and trees are all dead! Salt's like Agent Orange! We just can't put fuckin' salt on the roads... it might get into the Willamette or Columbia Rivers!!

Our city 'planners' have failed to take care of another issue, by the way. Every time it rains (which happens here in manic, pass-the-granola Portland at least 150 days out of every year) raw sewage flows into the rivers from our antiquated sewer system. That gets added to the heavy metals, chemicals, and other pollutants dumped in by manufacturers over the past 100 years. There are still people dumping manufacturing stuff, most of them don't get caught, leading the others to just keep trying. Also dumped into our rivers? Cars, shopping carts, garbage. In copious quantities.

I know someone who does water quality testing for the US Government. When he has to test Willamette water, he actually disposes of his clothing from that day. No joke. Contaminated clothes into the dumpster at work, shower and change and come home clean.

So goodness gracious, we wouldn't want to add a little salt to the toxins, turds and dangerous debris, now would we?

Yesterday morning, the school districts decided 'business as usual'. Some (mine included) decided to cancel evening activities, which included after school programs. So when I was finished with my shift yesterday morning, I was finished for the day. Stopped at the store on the way home, picked up what I needed to make a nice dinner and came home and relaxed where it's warm and safe.

About 1:30 it started to snow. At first it was just a few dry flakes, but by 2:30 it was coming down quite a bit.

By 3:30 all the roads were slippery and packed full of traffic.
Shit started happening. Cars were unable to navigate the freeways due to two things. Or three.

The poor planning has our freeways constantly congested even on good days. We're about ten years behind on building enough lanes. People were trying to get home, the too-small freeways were packed, people were slipping and sliding. Then when the kids got out of school, the buses were also unable to properly navigate. When they began having big trouble, many of them turned back to the school. Some even made it back. Some had to be towed. At least two were involved in accidents. Last I heard, there were kids left at the schools until midnight last night.

It was the ONLY story on the news all evening. In fact, they pre-empted regularly scheduled shows to talk about the weather. There were hundreds of cars stuck on the local freeways because, as usual, Portland did not prepare adequately.

They got some doorknob on the LIVE!! BROADCAST!!
PBOT or Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Wait... Pusillanimous Bullshitter/Outstanding Fibber

This yahoo (Dylan Rivera) got on the news and proceeded to throw around the biggest bunch of feces I've ever heard.

The anchor, Tracy Barry, asked him why, after years and years and years of this, is Portland not better prepared for a little snow. Since most of the places in the world where snow falls manage to go on with life as usual. You know, school, work, the evening commute.

As with most petty bureaucrats, he doesn't have the brains to blow his nose.  But he can speak with many words! And say nothing much!!
He talked about how people "should have gone home early." Blaming the commuters for the problem rather than the fact that Portland's "managers", collectively dumber than a box of hair, cannot plow the roads, spread sand or salt on the freeway... in fact, can do little more than wring their hands and run around in circles like a dumb chicken when it snows.

When Tracey asked him what he'd say to the commuters, some who'd been stranded for three hours by then, he said, and I am not shitting you... "Now that you've gotten yourself in this situation, you should call 911."

Yep, he told everyone who was stuck on the freeways to call 911.
So you know, the emergency number, for people suffering things like heart attacks or maybe having their home on fire would be clogged up with phone calls from people stuck on their commute home. After he suggested that people call 911, he added that perhaps they should contact their insurance agents. I'm not sure why.

What a fucking moron.

The Portland 911 Bureau had to get on social media and tell people NOT to call 911 unless they have a medical emergency.

Oh. And the moron also suggested that "If you're stuck, you could leave your car and just get out and walk."

With the wind chill last night, it was about 14 degrees out there. Picture the commuters in their office garb, maybe high heels or suits and ties... walking.

I guess when one after the other would fall victim to hypothermia or have blood sugar issues and pass out, someone could call 911 for help. Not that emergency vehicles would be able to get to the injured/stricken person, of course.

So KGW put up a survey on their website this evening, asking people what Portland could have done differently during the storm. Shockingly, 80% of the respondents suggested SALT!!!

Yes, I responded, too. Copied and pasted some of this post into the comment section, actually. But I left out the profanity.

So I didn't work on Wednesday afternoon. I did not work today, Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. School has been canceled for Friday, too. Then, there are two weeks of school closure for the holiday break. I haven't heard yet whether I will be working. I would actually welcome the time off, although it's hard to pay off hospital bills and other stuff when there is no money coming in.

Eric isn't working, either.

But neither one of us are stuck on the freeway. At least not right now.
I'd hate to have to call 911.

Terrible Photo, but I'm having fun...

This is what I've been working on.
Once again, inspired by Johanna Basford's books.
The hippo is her idea, as is the little pool. The rest is my own doodling.
Nothing if not fun and something to keep me busy. Because I don't have enough to do. Ha.

They (the weather jerks) tell us that we're going to get another ice storm. In a weird coincidence, it's going to happen again on Thursday morning.

I'm scrambling with the kids to get all their projects done. And yes, I've been taking pictures. Hope I can get them uploaded soon. Meanwhile, in case you wanted a Hippopotamus for Christmas....

Ice Ice Baby

On Wednesday evening at 7:40, I got the flash alert email from the school district.

"Closed. All Schools Closed. Before and After School Activities Canceled. (For tomorrow - Thu Dec 8th)"

And in an uncharacteristic display of doing some part of her job, my manager actually called me on the phone to let me know school had been closed. I was so shocked I almost didn't answer the phone, but when I did I told her that I guessed she was calling to tell me school was canceled. She said yes and that was the end.
At the time, there was no precipitation and it wasn't particularly cold out. But they were watching a big scary weather system approaching and as a result, felt that closing school would be a good idea.

Thursday morning wasn't cold or particularly wet, but they'd predicted that it was going to hit about 10. At six minutes after, it started to snow.

Didn't take long to turn to ice. And that continued all day. We had a nice coat of ice on everything.

Saturday afternoon

Brrr!

The trees out front don't like the cold.

The weather guys, giddy with success, predicted confidently that it was going to warm up during the night and the ice would be melted and ALL GONE by Friday morning.

I am not a meteorologist or a weather expert. But I've never lived anywhere where it was winter-cold-iced-over-windy-icy and did I mention FROZEN and then had it be miraculously free of ice after the night was over. It gets colder and whatever's frozen doesn't melt. And with all the years of experience I don't have as a meteorologist, I predicted that school would be closed on Friday, too.

At 4:38 on Friday morning, the next flash alert went out. "Sch. Dist.: Closed. Essential Staff Report when safe."

Some other manager emailed me to let me know. But I knew. That's why I subscribe to flash alerts.

So I went back to sleep.

It's been a messy couple of days. The ice didn't melt overnight on Thursday. And surprise, it didn't melt overnight on Friday, either.

Transformers blew on Friday afternoon, one right after another. BOOM BOOM BOOM... lights flickered, went out, came back on. BOOM BOOM BOOM. And that was it. No more lights.

I called Eric, he was out delivering paychecks to guys. Told him we had no power, so he agreed to pick up dinner.

Leaving it to me to defrost the car. Well that was quite a clusterfuck. About an inch of ice on every surface including the driveway. I was super careful, I can't afford to fall down.

I started way early, didn't want to rush. It took 40 minutes to get it all cleaned off. Ran the engine and poured lukewarm water on the windows and got the scraper and worked and worked. It was raining. Got my feet and coat and hands all wet.

When I got home from dropping Lyssa at work, he was just getting home, too. And then he apologized all over himself, he hadn't even thought about me cleaning off the car. He felt really bad. No reason to, I managed.

We were eating our candlelit Panda Express dinner when the lights came back on. They were on long enough for me to bake a couple cookies, watch something on Netflix and start to become complacent. Then the lights went out again.

We didn't get the power back until a little after midnight. Just in time for my electric blanket to warm up so I could sleep.

I can't complain too much, on the other side of the neighborhood a huge tree fell and took down the powerlines. When we drove past there today, the tree was still down (haha) and there were about 15 guys from the power company there. Most of them were standing around, although a couple appeared busy.

Tonight it's still iced over in our area. Up the hill a couple miles, it's not so bad.
But we still have at least an inch of ice on the trees and the road and the side of the house. We lost several big branches from our trees. The stuff sliding off the roof this afternoon was loud!

I had planned to go out with Tami today, but when I woke up this morning and looked at the ice and the conditions of the streets, decided that I didn't want to die today.

We postponed our lunch date. Hopefully next week.
And hopefully no more ice! I hope it melts before Monday, we have projects to complete at work!!

We're gonna get hit with the shit....

I had the day off today because our programs were closed all across the area.

The whole state had what they call 'inservice day' but I don't know why they call it that. Have always wondered.

The accent is on the first syllable, too.
INservice.

Teachers were not working, schools were closed, custodial staff was off for the day... no one working. That's all. I know that there are some classes the teachers attend, but sometimes they don't? It's confusing but it's not my problem. :)

So because we're supposed to be getting hit with the storm of the century, I ran out to get groceries and make sure we can survive through the storm. And no, I didn't HAVE to, we have a ton of supplies stockpiled, batteries for the flashlights, wood to burn in the wood stove, clean clothing. Of course if we lose power I won't have my electric blanket.

I guess I can snuggle up with my man... gosh, what a chore, huh?

Lyssa went with me, we hit Goodwill first, then the meat market, the dollar store, Sprawlmart. Came home and packed up a couple things and went to the post office to mail them.

Trying to make sure all the flashlights have batteries, phones are charged, blah blah...

Cooked a big chicken pot pie, did some laundry, ran the dishwasher.
Right now we're watching TV together while the wind is slamming the trees against the house, rain is hitting us in sheets and the lights keep flickering.

So if you don't hear from me for a couple days, that means our power is out. Or the cable... so no internet. We're on high ground. We have everything we need to stay home and just hang out.

Soaked!

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day...

Bonus points if you know where that came from without looking it up. :)

It rained and rained today. Flooded our school. They evacuated the school and sent all the children home at about 11:30 this morning. I did not have to work this afternoon. I worried about my stuff and my expensive camera that I left at school to do the last few elf photos. My manager stopped by there this evening to find out how things were going. So far the cafeteria and my program stuff is dry, but we are supposed to get another five to seven inches of rain before Thursday.
Great.

I spent the afternoon rinsing out some things I've dyed for gifts and listening to the rain pour down and looking at pictures on the news.

I drove past here on my way to work this morning. I didn't drive past here on my way home, however.

Apparently the most rain we've had here since 1996 and the wettest day on record.
My school is closed tomorrow. Probably Wednesday, too. They're pumping out water and doing flood cleanup.

I will be working at other schools. Here and there.
I won't have to be up at five, though. I'll bring a project and hang out with the kids.

And try to stay dry. What a mess.

How's the weather where you are?

ICY you...

It really is amusing... the breathless plastic people and their on-air orgasms over the bit of ice and snow we have. My favorite bit from this morning was a reporter in Hood River having the camera zoom in on the black bumper of a Suburban. It was lightly sprinkled with snowflakes.

"You can see right here the size of the flakes!!"

My brother Dick, who lives in Central Oregon, texted me this morning. Laughing over the people on the news who were having a cow about the weather.

He asked in his text, "Are you okay? There was a snowflake on the news and they said it was headed right for you!! Do you need me to come help you evacuate? Pull you out of a snowbank?"

I told him the only evacuation going on was occuring on-air, the reporters evacuating their bowels in excitement. "It's Armageddon. And armageddon sick of it!!"

My prediction from last night came true. One by one the local school districts closed. Some of them made the decision last night.

And I got out of bed. Looked outside. Wasn't bad. The ice was just beginning to fall, I could hear it ticking off the side of the house and see it bouncing on the black pavement. The weather guys *said* it wasn't going to really get started until 7 AM.

Checked the school district website and the news websites.
Nope. Although 99% of the metro area had closed their schools for the day, OUR district schools were still open.

Reluctantly, I showered.
Dried my hair.
Got dressed.
There was more ice freezing on my car. Eric looked out the window and said, "You're not driving in this. If they don't like it, you just now quit your job."

And finally. FINALLY. Our own Mr. Dithers decided to follow the example of every other fucking school district in the area and close the schools in our district for the day, too. I sat here all dressed up and nowhere to go. Swearing. Goddamn it.

I would definitely have stayed in bed. Where it was, you know, WARM. So I waited awhile because I was awake and all, but finally went back to bed. Then I kept waking up. And couldn't get comfortable. Had to pee. And couldn't get comfortable. Gahhhh.

Finally caught a decent nap. Then I got up, put on pajama pants to go with the shirt I was already wearing and haven't done much of anything all day.

Now I've been sitting in front of the computer for a couple hours chatting with Lyssa and trying to help her find items needed for her home. Seems moving in with clueless people means she will need to get a few things for her own needs. Sent her a link to the closest Craigslist, hoping she can find a few things there, too.

I ordered her a set of dishes and cooking stuff that's designed either for a couple or for a dorm setting. Had it sent directly to their local Sprawlmart, all they have to do is go pick it up. Evidently they're not very well stocked yet.

She asked her boyfriend where the salt was the other night and he showed her a container full of Burger King salt packets. ::snort::

So that's the news. It's cold. There is ice. Snow has been falling most of the day on top of it, although it's blowing away as quickly as it falls. There is still an inch or so of ice on the plants and the trees and the driveway.

I seriously doubt that it will melt overnight. And I won't be the least bit surprised if I get up tomorrow morning and go through the exact same procedure. And have the same outcome.

Silly Mr. Dithers.

Holding my breath

They're promising us snow, ice and more cold.
If their predictions are correct, we will have snow and ice on Thursday morning and the school will be closed.

Right now, it's just really windy and very, very cold. Eric built the first fire of the season in our wood stove, and I came home to a warm home this evening. It was lovely.

Every time we have a snow/ice watch, and we get that snow and ice, I sit here in front of my computer at 5 AM, agonizing and refreshing the news website over and over. The superintendent of our district is always the last one to pull the trigger... districts all around us are going nooooooooooooooo and he's dithering.

I know someone who works for him and she says that he seriously paces around the office, wringing his hands. Funny picture in my head. :)

So I wouldn't complain about a snow day, but I won't complain about having to work, either. What will really piss me off is getting up, waiting to find out and then ending up getting ready for work and THEN having Mr Dithers decide that we're not having school. I hate when that happens.

According to the latest, there are now three neighboring districts calling a two hour delay. When school is delayed two hours, we are delayed two hours. If school is closed, we are closed.

What should really be closed are my eyes. I am sooooo sleepy this evening!

If it snows, I'd like it to happen early, like midnight so there won't be room for the super to angst over it.

The kids are wired, the weather is weird.

When this posts, it's going to be Wednesday. And there is no school on Thursday. Or Friday. And then the weekend falls into place... and then no school on Monday, either.

A five day weekend for me. Listen very carefully. See if you can hear me complaining about five days in a row that I don't have to get up at five AM.

:::waiting quietly:::

Did you hear complaints?
No, you did not. Because I didn't make any.

The kids are nutty as they can be. Acting silly. Being loud. Unreasonably so, actually. I don't have the heart to give them any consequences for acting like children... it's the end of the school year, the excitement in the air is definitely there, and they can no more control their youthful exuberance than I can.

So I only give it a half hearted effort... keep them semi-quiet long enough for us to get snacks and some playtime out of the way and then head for the gym. So they can run around and yell and burn off some of that tremendous energy.

I had a craft planned for Tuesday, but because of the high energy levels, we had to get to the gym before we had time to work on it.

One of the younger boys, Ben*, was sooo disappointed to find his mom waiting for him when we came back from the gym. He really loves making things. Fortunately, Ben attends my program in the mornings, too, so he cheered right up when I promised him that the supplies would be available in the morning so he could make his.

Speaking of crafts... Tuesday afternoon the last two kids were able to dye their shirts. ::whew:: SO glad to have that task out of the way!

And yes, I will probably do it again next year, although I think I will try to get it done in September while the weather is still pretty reliable. It really is an outdoor project, that way I don't worry so much about the mess. The last few kids did have to do theirs indoors, but the dye wipes up. The only thing it stains is clothing, and I issue a plastic smock to the kids as they're preparing to dye. It's just nicer not to have to wipe up the mess by doing it outside where one good rainstorm washes away the evidence.

And speaking of rain... it's raining.
Of course.
Since I have a friend visiting from out of state and want to take her to see some tourist stuff.

Thursday's forecast included hail on Monday's weather prediction page, but in looking at the weather report this evening, the hail has been removed from the page. But 'heavy showers' is still on the forecast. Dammit.

I have not heard from Tami so far today, but I am trying not to bother her a lot... only sent one email. NOT calling her. Would you want to talk with so much pain in your mouth? Me neither.

Frosty!

I have the company camera at work. It did not come with a memory card, so I took the one out of my own camera and put it in so I could take some photos.

So MY camera, the one the card belongs to, is empty.

So today's photo was taken with my cell phone. I took Lyssa to physical therapy, and we suddenly, about a block away, hit a completely frosted world. It was really beautiful, and only in that small pocket of Portland.

I really wish I'd had my good camera.

I DO have it here at home. And the tie dye stuff is DONE. So tomorrow's post will be all about photos of the latest stuff. Eric watched me making preparations to dye last week and raised a sardonic eyebrow... "Running low on tie dye?"

He doesn't love it. I do.

Brrr!

My guess is that at the very least schools will be open two hours later than usual on Tuesday morning. When I left work this evening, it was icy cold outside (temperature inversion) and had been spitting a little rain all day long. Just enough to make sure the roads are wet so they'll freeze up.

I won't mind a two hour delay. In fact, if I have to be honest, I'd be pretty happy to just take a day off. Not sure if that's going to happen, though.

What always pisses me off is that the school district *I* work in fucks around and can't decide whether to shit or go blind... do we call school off? Do we just delay it? And they wait until 5:30 or 5:45 to make the call... just as I'm preparing to head out the door. It would be nice if they made the call at 3 AM or so, so that when I get up and check my weather report, I will know and NOT get up at five and wash my hair and do all the shit I need to do to get ready for work. I'll be wide awake and end up not sleeping for shit when I go back to bed. Dammit!

Now mind you, all the surrounding districts have it figured out and have called school off for the day much earlier. And it's not like the weather in our district is different than the others, we're all in the same damn city!!

So if I stay home all day, I will have time to do some serious tie dye rinsing. If not... not.

Stay tuned. :)

Having a blast... wish you were here?

It started early in the week.

By Thursday, we were having a major tree-breaking, sand-blasting, electricity-killing windstorm. Gusts to 70 mph, sustained winds in the 50's.

Now I don't know about the rest of the world, but personally, I HATE the wind. I don't like my hair blowing all over the place because half of it ends up in my mouth and the other half stands up, making me look like I combed it with a pork chop. I don't like eating dust and sand and having the air I breathe be all gritty and dusty.

It howled all night long. I heard a transformer blowing out about 7:30 this morning. A large explosion and a boom. Matt said he saw the flash and heard the boom of three or four on his way to work last night. He works about a mile away. For some reason, although people all around us have no power, ours is still on. For how long, I do not know. So I am going to hit publish now.

Can you believe that I laid there in bed last night worrying? (well yeah, all of you know I worry...) but I was worrying about making sure something posted to my blog today. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to post this morning.

So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know my power went out.

3 Week Review

I go back to work this afternoon. It will be very strange after being away for the last three weeks. I've missed the kids a bit, but had a good time with my own family.

December 12th was the last day I worked. All that week there was a little snow and ice on the road, and as usual, it paralyzed the entire metro area. We did not get the big, record-breaking snowstorm until the 20th. Before that, it would not have been difficult for me to get to work, but since the schools were closed, it would have been sort of pointless to show up.

Every time we get a snow storm, (and it happens almost every single winter... go figure, we're on the 35th parallel in the Northern Hemisphere and it's winter) all the politicians and government types wring their hands and say, "Oh this is sooo unusual! We just don't have the resources to deal with it!" Then they flap their wings and run in a circle, squawking loudly, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

This is usually followed by some moron (this time it was Sam Adams, the new mayor of manic, pass-the-granola-and-let's-all-sing-Kum-ba-ya Portland) saying something like, "Gosh golly! For us to cope with this kind of trouble, I think we may need to raise taxes!" He then added the obligatory comments about 'climate change' and speculated that 'this may happen every year'.

No shit, Sherlock. It really has nothing to do with the imaginary specter of climate change (which, if you did not know, are the words that have replaced global warming... an equally meaningless phrase.) See above, Sam. We're on the 35th parallel and it's WINTER. My gawd, what a dumbass.

Now people who can actually think (meaning those who do not hold public office) come up with ideas like this one... we have fleets of vehicles already bought and paid for with our money. How about ordering a set of tire chains, a snowplow attachment and a friggin' bag of salt for some of them? This latest storm once again showed how totally unprepared Gresham and Portland and surrounding areas really are.

In an utterly amazing show, ODOT decided to plow the I-5 freeway DURING EVENING RUSH HOUR... TWO DAYS IN A ROW!! Now you'd think that all the screaming from the public after the first day would have clued them in, but again, we're talking about elected officials, most of whom are dumber than a box of hair.

Traffic was backed up for 20 miles. Dave Thompson, a former reporter turned ODOT spokesman actually said that it would "help people get home faster in the long run." Had he stood next to the I-5 freeway to say it, I bet he would have found out in a big hurry that the general populace isn't all that far removed from savagery and have not forgotten how to tar and feather someone.

During this "unusual storm" emergency vehicles could not get to people who needed help. The major roads were plowed, but side streets were not. To compound the stupidity, each time the main road was scraped, the three foot berm blocking each side street got taller. The mayor of Gresham declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard. They brought their Humvees to Gresham to act as ambulances since ours could not get in or out of neighborhoods.

EVERY time this happens, people are stuck wherever they were when it hit. The majority of vehicles that were stuck were those trying to get out of their neighborhoods for groceries. And of course since it was the week before Christmas, many of them hadn't finished their shopping.

They all expected the government to help them. Moral of the story? If you think the people in charge are there to help you in this or any situation, you're deluded.

Quick... name a time that the government actually helped you or anyone else! I'll wait.

:::crickets:::

Couldn't think of anything? Well DUH! They're completely clueless. When (not if) this happens again, none of them will have learned anything from the experience, and once again, all of us will be on our own. That's why you should stock up on food. That's why you need an alternative source of heat. Candles. Batteries. Flashlights. Your cell phone should be charged up. You should be prepared to spend as much as two weeks cut off from grocery stores and work.

Am I complaining? No, not really. I don't expect elected officials to be anything other than what they are. Useless.
They can't help it. It's their nature.

I just plan to be self-sufficient and get a big kick out of watching the news reports. Our local reporters are something else. What, I am not sure.

It was nice to have those days off.

Not helpful on the paycheck, but you know, things always work out. I just refuse to spend much time worrying about it.

Eric was not working either. Now he had to use a large portion of his vacation time so that we can keep eating and keep the roof over our heads, but I'm just really glad he *had* the time to use.

We had our Christmas shopping done. I didn't buy a whole lot this year. I had ordered some stuff for Matt's stocking that did not arrive in time due to the storm, (there was no mail delivery, no UPS, no FedEx for several days) but I cut the pictures of the items out of the Think Geek catalog and put those in his stocking instead.

I had some vague plans about getting some things done, but since Eric was home, I did not follow up.

Instead, we played Scrabble and Cribbage. We hung out together. We re-watched the entire Firefly series and watched Serenity and once again marveled over the fact that such a good series was canceled.

I went Goodwill hunting a few times. Took Tami with me one day and had so much fun. It's always an experience to hang out with her, she's very irreverent ( I know... can you imagine me hanging out with someone like that?) and I can tell her anything. We laugh a lot.

I sat by the fire in the living room a lot. I cooked. Eric cooked. I did some scrapbooking. I sat here at the computer and sorted some photographs. Uploaded them to Snapfish. I got my first digital camera in December 2005. There are thousands of photos in the external hard drive that's hooked up to this computer. Many of them are of my Girl Scout troop. I'm trying to save the ones I want and dump the rest. No reason to keep them all, or at least no reason I can think of.

When I was chatting online with my friend Raisy, and mentioned that I really didn't get anything done over the last three weeks, she pointed out that housework will always be here. That in 20 years I won't care whether or not I got the house clean, but that I'll be really glad that I spent that time hanging out with my family.

She's partially right. I'm really glad I had that time with my family. But I won't have to wait 20 years not to care whether or not I got everything done.

I already don't care. :)

Meltdown

No, I'm not having a meltdown.

But I like that term for what's going on with the weather better than the traditional "thawing", which looks awkward on the page and sounds funny coming out of your mouth. So, I'm meltinggggg!! Or rather, we are. The snow is nearly gone, and it was 45 degrees today. Balmy.




















It's been an interesting two weeks. We haven't been out much, only when we had to. I don't go back to work for a week, so I'm thinking it's time to accomplish some stuff that I wanted to do. I always have good intentions, but I never really want to do the things that need doing. Part of the problem is having Eric home. I'd rather just sit around with him when he's here. We don't have to be doing anything in particular, although we've had fun playing many games of Scrabble and Cribbage.

All the decorations are still out, but tomorrow they're going back into their little boxes and back to wherever I manage to find space for them. I could have done it today, but I decided to TAKE A NAP instead. I went to sleep for two hours, and got all warm and relaxed and comfy. It was lovely. I haven't taken a nap in ages, and I'm glad I did.

When I open my closet to stuff the Christmas boxes in, I'm going to get the guitar strap off the guitar that's stored in my closet and give it to Alyssa for her new guitar. It's a lot prettier than the one that came with it. My guitar was ancient when it was given to me, and it's no longer playable. The neck is warped and it's impossible to hold down the strings. I just can't figure out what to do with it.


I'm going to call my good friend Tami and tell her that she has to go Goodwill hunting with me this week sometime. I won't make her get up super early to do it, but the best stuff is there earlier in the day. (Want to go on Wednesday morning, Tami?)

I'm so glad the snow is melting and it's warmer. If I wanted to freeze my ass off all winter, I'd be back in Colorado.

According to the weather jerk...

It's supposed to be a lot warmer today.

Things are supposed to thaw out a bit.

We may be able to drive around without sliding or watching everyone else slide. Some people who have 4WD are just a teeny bit overconfident.

Maybe I'll be taking Lyssa out to spend some of her Christmas money or to get that haircut she's been asking for.

It's been fun to have Eric home and be able to hang out and enjoy each other's company without a whole lot of running around. Got caught up on the laundry for about eleven minutes.

Baked some stuff, cooked for a change, and tried to stay warm. (We don't have central heat.) We have a wood stove in the living room, and some electric baseboard heaters we don't use because they're too expensive. So nights are a bit chilly, but we seem to have made it through just fine.

I'm saving all the money I got for Christmas this year (and my birthday) and I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Definitely saving it through the month of January and possibly into February.

It's entirely possible that I'll end up spending it on bills since I will be off work for three weeks total. But not having to worry about paying the electric bill is a great gift, you know?

However, the time between Christmas and New Year's Day is a great time to go Goodwill hunting. People give away massive amounts of stuff both to make room for gifts AND because tax time is coming up and that 25 cents they can deduct from their income taxes is quite important. So I may try to hit Goodwill this week.

Anyway, that's what we're up to. Let's hope the temperature is up, too.

:)

Snow, Man.

We are still buried under the largest snowfall in 40 years. (Well, the largest in 40 years for this area.)
I realize that much of the Northern Hemisphere is buried under snow and ice this time of year and everyone is probably used to it, but it's really unusual for us. We took a couple pictures today to remember it all by.... the drifts are sort of deep here. (again, for this area it's very unusual to have this much snow.) The first pic is my hubby standing against the front of the house. That's our front porch to the left (His right). Porch is about 2 feet above the ground, and the snow is about 10 inches deep on top of that.
We didn't get 30 inches of snow, but with the wind, it has piled up in certain areas.
Next picture is hubby in the backyard.



















He may be approaching 46 years old, but no matter how cold it is...

No matter how deep the snow....

No matter how far he has to go...


Wait for it....



Wait.....




He can still
GET WOOD!!!

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

(After staring at the picture for a minute, I figured out the circle on top of the wood is actually part of a wind chime that's hanging from the top of the back porch and just happened to get in the way when I snapped the picture.)

Know what makes me pissy?

Not sleeping well. I hate that.

I was afraid I'd oversleep and not be able to cover the morning shift yesterday.

IF they were going to have school.

I didn't allow myself to get into a deep sleep all night long, really. When I have to work for someone at 6:30, I am scared to death I'll oversleep.

We went to bed about 10:30 after watching the news for the latest school closures. EVERY OTHER DAMN SCHOOL in the entire metro area had called it by 10:00 pm. But the district I work in? HELL no.

I got up at 11:30 after I heard Matt leave for work. Checked the local news websites for updated school information. Nothing. It was snowing.

Went back to bed. Dreamed about oversleeping.

Woke up at 2 to pee and look out the window. It was snowing. Back to bed, where I dreamed some more about oversleeping.

Woke up again at 4 to check weather report/school closures. Nothing new. It was snowing.

There was no way to get back to sleep after that, although I tried.
I got up at five and took a shower, figuring that I'd have to be ready to leave in one hour.

Checked for updated school info.

Dried my hair and started searching for something to wear.

The telephone rang at 5:37. You know, after I was just about ready.

School was canceled.

Shit.
But yay.
But SHIT.
EVERY OTHER DAMN DISTRICT in the UNIVERSE got to sleep in Friday morning, secure in the knowledge that school had been canceled for the day.

Will we? Won't we?

They canceled school on Wednesday and TOTALLY could have had a full day.

Then, on Thursday, they started as a regular day, but it snowed and snowed, so they let the elementary school out early... by HALF AN HOUR!!

Sheesh.

So I still haven't had to be at work this week. Yesterday, I finished painting the Christmas cards, addressed them and mailed them, did a load of laundry, shopped for some groceries, paid the bills online, and took pictures of kids and hubby and the giant snowball, which now sits in the field across the street at the school.

If they do not close the schools today (Friday) I will have to be at work at 6:30. AM. Dammit.

Sunshine's dad is having heart surgery and she cannot be there to open.
I could use the hours, but I really don't wanna.

By the time this posts I will either be back in bed, trying to drift back into sleep... or driving slowly and carefully all the way across town. Shivering. Swearing. But hopefully not swerving. Which is unnerving.

Hmph.