It’s Been a Winter Weenieland

Howdy everyone, and a great big HOWDY to my new followers! I want to say thank you so much to everyone who is following – each one of you is a warm spot in my heart and I really appreciate your interest. Thanks, too, for all of the kind comments on my last post! I love comments, so please always feel free to say something, even if it’s just Hi.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything lately; between migraines, depression days, bad weather and slow internet, I haven’t been able to get up the gumption to get anything posted. I have some pictures to post but the batteries are dead in the camera and I swear there isn’t a single freaking AA battery in the house. Grrrr.

The weather bestowed upon us all here in the Pacific NW (south of Olympia, WA down to Eugene, OR) some lovely (unless you were driving in it) snow. Mom had come home with Sis last week to spend some time with us for what was supposed to be just a few days. They got home Monday night and would have gone back down to Mom’s in Portland on Thursday, but the roads were just not good enough. It wasn’t too bad at our house, but Portland really got walloped. Driving in the Portland metro area is terrible when it snows because the snow is really, really wet. Freezing rain often accompanies, and with all the bridges it can be quite treacherous. Let alone the idiots in their 4WD trucks and SUVs that are under the mistaken impression that having 4WD makes you magically stop better than everyone else. Uh, no. More often than not, they are the ones that wind up upside down in the median.

I was at work and was watching the WDOT cameras online. There is a camera where I get on I-5 at exit #36, and the next camera to the north is the exit (#68) where I leave I-5 to head for home. No cameras in between. When the snow started falling by the bucketful, my co-worker declared it was time to get out of town. The mill where I work generates a lot of heat, so if there is two inches on the ground on the mill site, there is going to be a minimum of double that in town. The snow fell heavily all the way home, and I didn’t go to work on Friday because I couldn’t get from the house to I-5. I sent a text to my co-worker, and she said she only got to work because her husband drove her, and she recommended staying right where I was. So I did. Unfortunately, I had called out sick (migraine) on Monday, and then didn’t work Friday, so I will get only half a paycheck tomorrow. Ouch. Sis couldn’t go to work at all this weekend, so she is out $500. O.U.C.H. That smarts!

Mom brought her two little dogs with her – Stanley, the Chiweenie and Shadow, the Chihuahua. SO CUTE! They had a grand time playing with everyone else and it was like a rodeo most of the time. Mrs. Weenie, Stanley and Shadow absolutely loved the snow! Did I get pictures? Nope. Hopefully next time.

I took Mom home on Sunday because I have 4WD (but I know how to use it). The roads were just wet but there were cars off the road everywhere. ODOT was requiring all vehicles over 10,000lbs to put on chains, so big rigs were parked every which way trying to get them on before they got into Portland city limits. This made driving rather exciting because I was either dodging the back ends of their trailers that were sticking out into the lanes, or trying to avoid the piles of thrown chains that were lying in the lanes. Getting to the general area where Mom lives wasn't too bad, but trying to get into her mobile home park was treacherous, and getting to her actual trailer was horrible. I had to engage my 4WD to get up the hill; as we were unloading the rig, some guy in a supped up 4WD that had chains on the back wheels tried to get up the hill and busted one of his chains! I spent the night (and risked death to get to my favorite Mexican place there in Milwaukie – Super Burrito Express – for their Super Nachos with Al Pastor. Totally worth the risk.) and drove directly to work from her place Monday morning. The piles of thrown chains had increased to approximately eleventy million, and I believe they were the cause of the flat tire I discovered when I went to leave work that night. I had to wait an hour for the Les Schwab truck to arrive (thankfully I had my lovely Kindle with me and I worked jigsaw puzzles on it while I waited), then stood out in the pouring down rain holding a flashlight for the guy while he changed my tire. Soaking wet and $45 later, I got home at 8:30pm. So. Not. Amused. The rest of this week has gone fine.

I will get on here this weekend and post pictures of my progress with Poppy Puss (yes, there has been some stitching going on over the last few weeks). I really want to get a small project to do at work on my lunch hour, but I’m having trouble finding anything. I’ll just have to keep looking.

To tide you over, here are two pictures of Stanley sleeping on the foldout couch at Mom’s, nice and cozy under the blankets:

Sorry about the quality - cell phone pictures!

TTFN!