Well, after seeing snow in one form or another for eleven days straight, I finally saw the sun break out and stream through my living room glass door at about three in the afternoon. I haven't seen it in nearly two weeks!
It got warm enough yesterday to melt off all the icicles and create slush in the parking lot, but it then foze over last night and stayed pretty stiff all day today. Every car I heard that went through the lot (and there weren't that many people oout and aboot) made crunching sounds. That's got to be terribly hard on the car's tires, given the height of the ruts and the fact it's all ice, for the most part.
My dad says there are so many branches that came down from his fir trees that it's going to take him about three months to get his yard cleaned up; luckily nothing came down here, though the trees around here were pretty laden with snow. In the nearly 30 years I've lived in Oregon (aside from the few years I lived in Texas while in the Air Force and then in California after college) I've never seen it last this long, and this has been the only solidly white Christmas I can remember. Oh, we've had some where there were large-ish patches of snow, but that doesn't really make it a "White Christmas" worth singing about.
I am going to be working from home again tomorrow; there's no way I can get out of the parking lot, and, while the main streets are now okay, getting to the cleared main streets is rather dicey. Better to just wait it out. I do have to go out and get the food for Saturday (I had to move Xmas Eve dinner to Saturday), but the store I'm going to is just down the road and things should be much clearer by tomorrow afternoon when I'm planning on going.
I have developed so much shoulder and neck tension from being house bound it's slipped into a habit of clenching my jaw; I have been doing my daily yoga practice every morning, but that can't outweigh not moving as much as I usually do during the day. Coupled with the posture I've had to have for working on email from home (sitting on my couch, back supported with pillows, laptop on a TV tray -- not the most ergonomic way to work) I'm not surprised.
I did go to the apartment gym today to get moving on a treadmill, only to find none of them were working for some odd reason. They were plugged in, but they wouldn't come on when I hit the buttons -- and so I had to use the crosstrainer. Which was fine, but I really wanted to do some hill walking. After 30 minutes of that, I came upstairs and did another hour of yoga, putting my focus on working my uppper back and neck. Towards the end as the spasms started to release my jaw started shaking as if I were shivering; between that and massaging my shoulders and neck and jaw throughout the day has helped make my jaw feels a lot better. Downing a bunch of Advils every 4 hours has helped, too. Teeth still ache, as does my back jaw, but not as much.
Jane is supposed to come and visit Monday and Tuesday, so hopefully the weather will have cleared out all the mess up here by then, as I have to drive to Woodburn to meet her parents and her Monday around lunchtime, and then get her to the airport on Tuesday. I guess if all else fails I can stick her on the train out to the airport, but I'd rather not do that. It's a long ride from here (about an hour).
I began my Christmas morning by watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas (I watched A Christmas Carol yesterday afternoon) and then working through the Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon my DVR's been working on all day. It's been decent, but it's kind of ironic. Out of all the years where I was in Texas or California and Andrew was a way for college, we still managed to all get home for Christmas. Here we are, within 15 or so miles of each other, give or take, in the greater Portland area and we couldn't get to gether. This is the first Christmas in 37 years I've spent alone. I always thought that would occur if I moved away from Oregon and couldn't get home. It never ocurred to me it would happen while I still lived here!
For dinner I made fennel-encrusted lamb chops, yellow curry rice and steamed veggies; to drink I had water and a nice glass of red wine. I also ate at my table with my Christmas tablecloth, napkin and some burning candles. It was very nice, but kind of lonely. Despite also listening to some very nice Christmas music on the Classical station, it still didn't feel very Christmassy.
I do hope everyone reading this had a nice day, and that you were able to spend it with friends and family.
Technically I guess, to be politically correct, I should say Happy Christmakwanzunnakah, but I'd much prefer to close by saying Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
-- H
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Old Man Winter
I'm sitting here at 7:31 on Saturday morning (I was wide awake at 6 am...) watching yet another batch of snow come down, just as I was doing last Sunday. And Monday. And Tuesday. And off and on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday....It wasn't snowing when I got up at 6, but it started shortly after.
I realize that for other parts of the country, the "Arctic Blast!" (as the news channels are calling it) is paltry, but for Portland, it's big. Partly because we have so many hills and snow that melts and then freezes creating ice on those hills isn't fun. Schools were canceled all week, and I worked from home Monday and Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. I was in all day on Thursday and for a half day on Friday as it was supposed to start freezing that afternoon.
I did finally break down and buy two things I should have gotten years and years ago: cables for my tires and winter boots. I've been meaning to get both for a long time, but I always balked at the idea of spending money on things I might use a couple of times every other year. It just didn'[t seem fiscally sound, and in the past years when this kind of weather hit, I simply stayed home.
The cables were well, made, of course -- but the boots, well, for the most part they were, but when I went to put them on Thursday morning the zipper tag doohickey that you pull popped off the top of the zipper; upon inspection, I discovered that neither zipper on either boot had stoppers at the top of the zipper to keep the tab from pulling off...so I had to spend 20 minutes that morning modifying the zippers with needle and thread to create loops to keep the zipper in place.
Every couple of years Portland gets a big winter storm or two; usually it only lasts for a couple of days (so, yes, those of you who live in weather where you have snow from October until March, I realize there are only very small violins for us) and we're done with it. But like I said earlier, it's the ice that can get really bad; with the 11 main bridges going over the Willamette and the many streams going under the streets throughout the city, it makes for icy conditions. One year, there was a half-inch of ice surrounding the leaves on a tree outside my window.
Luckily, I have the ability to work from home. It's tedious, as the email I answer is done directly from our server, and it's more basic than someone would use in Yahoo! or Google Mail. After working from home the day after Thanksgiving (an optional day) and doing it all by hand, I finally remembered, the next Monday, to burn all my stationery onto a CD to have at home. Stationery is my saving grace; it's what allows me to reply to upwards of 100 emails in a day on some occasions.
Working from the server is doable, and even with my stationery on a CD to copy and paste into a reply it's still tedious. It was enjoyable on Monday and into Tuesday, but by Wednesday it was old and I was going stir crazy. I love my little apartment, but it was rather claustrophobic by Wed, and by Thursday I had a dull headache that got worse when the sun came out and was gleaming off the mirror surfaces of the snow and wet pavement.
But at least I don't lose hours by being able to work from home; it was nice to go in yesterday and Thursday, but the weather's supposed to be crappy again all weekend and into the week, perhaps even into Christmas. It's like this all down the valley, too; my friend Ruth in Eugene is "mostly sane" from being at home with her three young, energetic daughters and only one television. Her husband works for the USPS, and so it's probably been equally crazy for him, too.
I have seen snow here many times throughout my 28 years of living in Oregon, and I have seen stiff winds in that same time. But I have to admit, last Sunday was the first time, in my memory, of seeing both at the same time. The wind must have been blowing around 20-25 miles an hour, creating blizzard-like conditions. My terrace is covered, but the winds drove enough snow onto it that I had about an inch by the innermost wall, and there was about four sitting on the railing.
But what was the most amazing was watching the hummingbirds -- yes! humming birds! -- zipping in the wind, trying to feed from the feeder. One little fellow figured out how to hold onto the bottom of the plastic flower reservoir with his feet and curve his little body into the wind while drinking. I did have to add more food to the water to make it thicker, as it started to freeze in the jar, and I discovered it had turned to fairly hard slush in the reservoirs, making it hard for the little birds to feed. I've also been bringing in the feeder at night and hanging it up again in the morning so that it doesn't freeze.
The finches and chickadees and other birds that feed from my suet feeder and loose seed feeder devoured nearly 3/4 of the seed on Sunday and Monday; since then it's been less popular as the weather's been better and more ground has been exposed. But it was fun to sit here in my living room as I worked on Monday and watch everyone out there at their respective feeders. I'm still amazed by how the little hummingbirds were able to feed in that wind -- and that they survived!
I kept meaning to get my deck plants wrapped up and protected against a winter storm, but the weather kept staying calm and warm I just let it go; this storm came with a warning, but I shrugged it off, given Portland has a tendency to go into Panic Mode with a couple of inches of snow. The way it's reported, you'd think we were in the midst of something akin to the Long Winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her book by the same title. So my poor, still blooming, still pretty geraniums got frozen. I did get them wrapped up on Tuesday morning in plastic bags to create a sort of greenhouse environment, so who knows if they'll be okay. For the ones that were too big for the bags I protected them as best I could with empty clear plastic storage boxes and their lids situated in a way to cover them and create a wind break.
I brought in my two jasmine plants, and they already look happier. The big bamboo in pots I had to leave outside (I figure if they can last through snow and cold in China, the'll be fine out there), but my palm looks kind of sad. It's all droopy and the top looks like it got bent and a bit broken in the wind. Hopefully that will pull through.
Tuesday morning I had a funny dream where I woke up and looked out my bedroom curtains to check the weather, and saw a couple of people ice skating on the swimming pool. My thought, in the dream, was, "It's too cold out. I'm going back to bed!" -- And then I woke up.
I really hope this storm blows itself out. It's now really old. I'm supposed to be cooking Christmas Eve dinner at my dad's house, but it's still supposed to be gross around that time, so who knows what's going to happen. I've already ordered a turkey from New Seasons to pick up on Christmas Eve Eve...maybe it'll keep until the weekend when the weather is supposed to return to the balmy 40s.
At least I'm stocked up on food and I'm warm. But I'm getting bored. The shows in my DVR are nearly cleared out, and I only have a few unread books around here. I guess I could go for a winter walk in this weather now that I have good boots just to get out and about; we'll see. There's only so much yoga you can do in your own apartment before you feel like you're on house arrest.
And so it's now 8:03 and the snow is still coming down. Small, dry flakes, but still. There's already a couple of inches out there and the sky is a dull pewter color. This may be the first time in my memory of having a white Christmas (I think we may have had one once before many years ago), but I'm not sure.
I do hope you all are warm and dry as you read this; I am at the moment, and I certainly hope my little birdies are as well.
-- H
I realize that for other parts of the country, the "Arctic Blast!" (as the news channels are calling it) is paltry, but for Portland, it's big. Partly because we have so many hills and snow that melts and then freezes creating ice on those hills isn't fun. Schools were canceled all week, and I worked from home Monday and Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. I was in all day on Thursday and for a half day on Friday as it was supposed to start freezing that afternoon.
I did finally break down and buy two things I should have gotten years and years ago: cables for my tires and winter boots. I've been meaning to get both for a long time, but I always balked at the idea of spending money on things I might use a couple of times every other year. It just didn'[t seem fiscally sound, and in the past years when this kind of weather hit, I simply stayed home.
The cables were well, made, of course -- but the boots, well, for the most part they were, but when I went to put them on Thursday morning the zipper tag doohickey that you pull popped off the top of the zipper; upon inspection, I discovered that neither zipper on either boot had stoppers at the top of the zipper to keep the tab from pulling off...so I had to spend 20 minutes that morning modifying the zippers with needle and thread to create loops to keep the zipper in place.
Every couple of years Portland gets a big winter storm or two; usually it only lasts for a couple of days (so, yes, those of you who live in weather where you have snow from October until March, I realize there are only very small violins for us) and we're done with it. But like I said earlier, it's the ice that can get really bad; with the 11 main bridges going over the Willamette and the many streams going under the streets throughout the city, it makes for icy conditions. One year, there was a half-inch of ice surrounding the leaves on a tree outside my window.
Luckily, I have the ability to work from home. It's tedious, as the email I answer is done directly from our server, and it's more basic than someone would use in Yahoo! or Google Mail. After working from home the day after Thanksgiving (an optional day) and doing it all by hand, I finally remembered, the next Monday, to burn all my stationery onto a CD to have at home. Stationery is my saving grace; it's what allows me to reply to upwards of 100 emails in a day on some occasions.
Working from the server is doable, and even with my stationery on a CD to copy and paste into a reply it's still tedious. It was enjoyable on Monday and into Tuesday, but by Wednesday it was old and I was going stir crazy. I love my little apartment, but it was rather claustrophobic by Wed, and by Thursday I had a dull headache that got worse when the sun came out and was gleaming off the mirror surfaces of the snow and wet pavement.
But at least I don't lose hours by being able to work from home; it was nice to go in yesterday and Thursday, but the weather's supposed to be crappy again all weekend and into the week, perhaps even into Christmas. It's like this all down the valley, too; my friend Ruth in Eugene is "mostly sane" from being at home with her three young, energetic daughters and only one television. Her husband works for the USPS, and so it's probably been equally crazy for him, too.
I have seen snow here many times throughout my 28 years of living in Oregon, and I have seen stiff winds in that same time. But I have to admit, last Sunday was the first time, in my memory, of seeing both at the same time. The wind must have been blowing around 20-25 miles an hour, creating blizzard-like conditions. My terrace is covered, but the winds drove enough snow onto it that I had about an inch by the innermost wall, and there was about four sitting on the railing.
But what was the most amazing was watching the hummingbirds -- yes! humming birds! -- zipping in the wind, trying to feed from the feeder. One little fellow figured out how to hold onto the bottom of the plastic flower reservoir with his feet and curve his little body into the wind while drinking. I did have to add more food to the water to make it thicker, as it started to freeze in the jar, and I discovered it had turned to fairly hard slush in the reservoirs, making it hard for the little birds to feed. I've also been bringing in the feeder at night and hanging it up again in the morning so that it doesn't freeze.
The finches and chickadees and other birds that feed from my suet feeder and loose seed feeder devoured nearly 3/4 of the seed on Sunday and Monday; since then it's been less popular as the weather's been better and more ground has been exposed. But it was fun to sit here in my living room as I worked on Monday and watch everyone out there at their respective feeders. I'm still amazed by how the little hummingbirds were able to feed in that wind -- and that they survived!
I kept meaning to get my deck plants wrapped up and protected against a winter storm, but the weather kept staying calm and warm I just let it go; this storm came with a warning, but I shrugged it off, given Portland has a tendency to go into Panic Mode with a couple of inches of snow. The way it's reported, you'd think we were in the midst of something akin to the Long Winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her book by the same title. So my poor, still blooming, still pretty geraniums got frozen. I did get them wrapped up on Tuesday morning in plastic bags to create a sort of greenhouse environment, so who knows if they'll be okay. For the ones that were too big for the bags I protected them as best I could with empty clear plastic storage boxes and their lids situated in a way to cover them and create a wind break.
I brought in my two jasmine plants, and they already look happier. The big bamboo in pots I had to leave outside (I figure if they can last through snow and cold in China, the'll be fine out there), but my palm looks kind of sad. It's all droopy and the top looks like it got bent and a bit broken in the wind. Hopefully that will pull through.
Tuesday morning I had a funny dream where I woke up and looked out my bedroom curtains to check the weather, and saw a couple of people ice skating on the swimming pool. My thought, in the dream, was, "It's too cold out. I'm going back to bed!" -- And then I woke up.
I really hope this storm blows itself out. It's now really old. I'm supposed to be cooking Christmas Eve dinner at my dad's house, but it's still supposed to be gross around that time, so who knows what's going to happen. I've already ordered a turkey from New Seasons to pick up on Christmas Eve Eve...maybe it'll keep until the weekend when the weather is supposed to return to the balmy 40s.
At least I'm stocked up on food and I'm warm. But I'm getting bored. The shows in my DVR are nearly cleared out, and I only have a few unread books around here. I guess I could go for a winter walk in this weather now that I have good boots just to get out and about; we'll see. There's only so much yoga you can do in your own apartment before you feel like you're on house arrest.
And so it's now 8:03 and the snow is still coming down. Small, dry flakes, but still. There's already a couple of inches out there and the sky is a dull pewter color. This may be the first time in my memory of having a white Christmas (I think we may have had one once before many years ago), but I'm not sure.
I do hope you all are warm and dry as you read this; I am at the moment, and I certainly hope my little birdies are as well.
-- H
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