The Weather Outside....

Sorry. Now you're going to have that song stuck in your head EVEN MORE than you did before. I truly apologize! I'm getting a little punchy after being largely snow-bound this week. I still am incredulous that it is *still snowing* here in Portland! We were forecasted to get a good snow last Sunday....and I drove to church in it, thinking when I got there that gee, I might just have to take the bus home. I did drive home but not without thinking at some points that I would surely not make it up that hill, or that I was about to hit another car by sliding. But I got home safely. And surely, if I just holed myself up until Wednesday then we'd be fine? But no. The warming-up that was supposed to occur on Thursday did not happen. Well, okay, it was warmer. The snow that fell that day didn't stick.....very much. And yesterday it snowed a little in the morning and more in the evening, though it was over 32 degrees and didn't stick at all, even late into the evening. I went out with friends last night and we had no worries about getting anywhere because it just wasn't cold enough.

But this morning it started snowing before I woke up, and hasn't stopped. Literally. It's now 1 pm and it hasn't let up. We might even have some 3 inches of accumulation out there, which is quite amazing for Portland! Snow is to continue through tomorrow...meaning another lean day at church. I think I am going to take the bus this time, though, since we'll have the accumulated snow and ice to contend with. It's 25 degrees out there now, making me think that it's not really going to get up to 34, which is what my weather widget says.

Zac has had the unique opportunity to be disappointed for snow! Usually he's jonesing for it. But this week it made him miss *a whole week of school!* He only went to school for one week and then missed every day this week. Poor kid. One day he'll appreciate snow days....

Back in my day, we didn't have snow days, as I lived in central California where the only snow we ever got was just a few flakes and everyone talked about it, but it never stuck. But we had our equivalent: foggy day schedule. The fog in central California is deadly. Seems like just about every year there's a huge accident where there's 50, 60, 70, even 100 cars all piled up because you just can't fricken' see 5 feet ahead of you. Why people drive at speed in those conditions is beyond me! I can remember a Christmas Banquet that I attended (banquets are what my Mennonite high school had in place of dances....because God forbid we actually dance, an activity that was good enough for Biblical characters but not good enough for us) and my date was actually driving *with the door open* so that he could see the stripes on the road to know where on the road he was. It was way out in a rural location, so there wasn't a whole lot of danger, as long as we drove slowly....still, there were ditches to drive into and....well, I just can't even imagine letting my teen out in those driving conditions!

So, that's it, my little ramble about snow and fog and bad driving conditions and....oh, I didn't say anything about hot chocolate and a good book. But there you've got it: if you're in a place where it's cold and the weather is treacherous do as I'm doing. :-)