Rain in Portland

Its been raining a lot in Portland, supposed to snow. Up at elevation around here it has been snowing a lot... down at my house its just wet and the grass is freezing at night. Tim and I want to head up Mt. Hood to go to Bagby Hotsprings while we still can (its too remote and they don't plow the roads so its not accessible during the winter if there is a lot of heavy snowfall) but I fear it may be too late... and I have so much work to do... we'll see. I would like to see Bagby one last time before the Forest service sells that chunk of old growth forest.

My Dad took the picture above. It arrived in my email box today. I love how you can see one little flower in the rain drop. Delicious. Great photo Dad!

Snow Shoeing on Mt Hood

1. fallen, 2. follow the blue diamonds, 3. summit trail sign, 4. Snow covered bridge, 5. deep snow, 6. view of Meadows Ski Lodge, 7. trees, 8. snowshoes on the burm, 9. moss on trees

Yesterday was due time to take a day off.

heres the breakdown of my Tuesday weekend day off
-Pine State Biscuits for brunch
-drove up the mountain (new car's first trip up Mt. Hood - we took chains just in case, but we didn't need em)
-snow shoeing(there was so much fresh snow, and more fell as we wandered)
-the sun set and we drove home to have lasagna for dinner (re-heated home-made lasagna is always better than fresh)
-lastly my friend Corrie came over and gave me a massage

It was a blissful day... now I must work. My body feels relaxed and exercised and humming with happiness. Next Tuesday we are tempted to go snow shoeing again, this was the first time we've gone all winter (too much snow in town in December, the novelty factor had worn off) and now we want more before it all melts!

the Snow has Melted!

This is a picture of what is left of my snowman. We used beer caps for the buttons. All that snow melted in what seems like 24 hours. First there was slush, threats of floods and whatnot, and then there was nothing. Amazing. That was a lot of snow.
The general all purpose store by my house, my useful grocery FredMeyers (the one 0n NE 102nd) is a flat top building - well all that snow and ice collapsed the roof! Saturday morning they found that during the night the roof and ceiling had collapsed and flooded the entire store. So dramatic! Everything was all roped off and I could see employees pushing water out and machines pumping stuff thru the roof. Oh my. Heres a picture!Other than that though - life is way less dramatic now. No snow to deal with. Everything is open again. Hopefully tomorrow I will get mail again. Yeah.

Snow Day #10

my snow fort is so big now that both Tim and I can fit in it!

What I find really amazing about this snow mayhem is the common suffering. Portlander's unite, this is crazy-town. The snow is beautiful and fun, but this is just day after day of the same predicament. The weather has f***ed us. Its bitter sweet.

Tim and I took the train today to get from my house to his. It took 3 hours and it was completely exhausting. Although if he could hear me say this he would quickly chime in that we stopped at Trader Joes for some food and beer, so I suppose the commute alone did not take a whole 3 hours. But basically, it did.
The train was ridiculous. There were crowds of people waiting, and the train finally showed up full. Thankfully there was another train right behind it, but the dumb fools at the 82nd street station couldn't help themselves from bumrushing the doors so that the train couldn't close them and roll along. We got on the following train and it was still packed in pretty tight. When we tried to get off at the next stop the doors wouldn't open, so we were stuck on the train till the next stop. Then after going to Trader Joes we tried waiting for a bus, but Tim convinced me to walk. Sheesh. We walked for miles. Snow pants, moon boots, multiple hats, mittens, and 2 pairs of long johns. I was alright, but I whined a bit just the same. Tim walks so fast! And the roads are crazy.

There are so many pedestrians out on the snow covered roads. Neighbors shoveling their walks and people trying to dig their cars out of their drive-ways. We are all doing the same thing: killing time. Its fun to bond with my neighbors! Day after day of this incapacitation. The urge to do SOMETHING is powerful. And tomorrow we are supposed to get more snow! wow.

At this point I have trouble appreciating the glory of having all this forced relaxation time. I keep going out in the snow exhausting myself playing and simply trying to get anywhere takes the bulk of a day.

More Photos of Snow!

I cannot stay inside in this weather. I wake up and look out the window and after a few hours of drinking tea and lounging around the house I feel the urge to go play in the snow.
So today that is what I did! I also took the last of my postal packages to the mailbox in the process. I am not sure though if the mail people are still out and about. I know the saying "rain sleet or snow" but I am just not sure. We received no mail at my house, I shoveled the walk just in case! The above picture is my shoveled walk with a 15inch ruler for scale. You wouldn't believe me that it NEVER snows in Portland. Maybe once a year it might get sprinkly, but nothing like this. Never.
The city is covered in over 15 inches of snow and nothing is really happening. ODOT only plows the major roadways and one of the airport runways (although the airport is only servicing 1/4 of the scheduled flights and over 300 people spent the night there last night!!! Happy Holidays eh.)
Okay - so I walked around with my camera and took lots of pictures... the playground by my house looks amazing all covered in ice and snow. So that is what I am sharing on my blog here. If you want to see other pictures I took today, check out my flickr. I even dug a snow cave in this huge snowdrift on the side of my house. Oh yeah baby. I may have no kids to play in it, and it was a work-out for sure just making it - but I had fun. Its sorta painful to sit in, but its quite cozy to lay down in, I'll have to make it bigger inside tomorrow.

Cold Walks with a Camera

I cannot resist this winter blizzard outside. Lots of layers and long cold walks make my cheeks turn pink. Tim walks like a snow fox, he wants to go fast fast fast (to stay warm supposedly, I think he just finds it fun to torture me!) and I like to walk slowly and take loads of pictures. Its so beautiful outside. P-Town was covered in ice today. You can see more of the pictures I took on Flickr. Eventually I got cold (I have this winter bug, my energy only lasts so long) and Tim was ever so patient and waited for the bus with me. I did a happy dance when the bus finally arrived to take me home. It was sleeting and freezing and super cold.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leahpellegrini/

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