Portland Snow Day!

Yay for snow!

It's fun when snow falls here in town because it really only happens once or twice a year. It shuts us down because we little West Coasters don't really know how to deal with it...on the roads anyway.

And the more adventurous of us always head out there thinking we know how to drive on ice and snow. And so you watch the slow, oddly graceful sliding of cars into curbs, into other vehicles, both parked and moving. I watched an accident happen slo-mo right outside of the Firestone today. A guy tried to head out and make a left onto Powell, but he slid into the curb; a woman came along in a big ol SUV and stopped in the middle of the road, causing another guy to careen into her at bumper car speed. He roughed up his taillight and was pissed, but otherwise unscathed.

I watched people wipe out on their bicycles (good for them for trying!), wipe out on their feet. I myself nearly took a little skidder on Powell when my back tires failed to gain traction, but I eased into it and was fine. And then a super nice guy named Mark put my chains on for me and all was swell again.


Which means that I was able to keep my date with Chaela and head down to Goodwill to get me some new threads. I have a great dearth of clothes, very little nice stuff. Chaela is the friend everybody needs to have in this situation in that she picks out great clothes for me and she's fun to be around. She will also say things like,"I'm serious, you need to put that down," when I show her yet another thing I think will look good on me. And, "Yeah, that combination of colors will make you look like Beef and Broccoli, so...no."

On the way home, driving slow as can be, I saw families with toboggans and a guy on skis and little bundles of people smiling and whipping snowballs around at each other. One little girl was rolling up a snowman belly.



And then I got to come to Gwennie's sweet, warm and toasty house and make a wonderful dinner of artichokes (that she picked up for me) and chicken (which she cooked for me). And now I am sitting here, with the wind whipping the flurries around and the heater percolating, and really, there isn't a better place to be on a snow day.