5 years into living in Oregon and we discover, occasionally, that we aren't as prepared for inclement weather as we think. A cold arctic blast hit our area right before Christmas and we were trapped in our house for 5 days. While we had food, power, heat and water (the most important stuff), we weren't able to leave our house for work or pleasure. The driveway was treacherously slick with snow and ice, we didn't have a snow shovel and our cars didn't have chains. Even if we could get down our hill, there was no getting out of our neighborhood or onto the country road that leads to civilization. By no means is this the worst snow we have seen or even the deepest, but it stuck around the longest with below freezing temperatures. We are bracing for another cold blast on Sunday and perhaps another week indoors. We have a snow shovel and chains now, though!
Update:
That second cold blast of arctic air hit us just as predicted and this one was a doozy! Portland reported about 12-14 inches of snow. Our town got about 4 inches. The entire northwestern corner of Oregon shut down for 7 days. No going to work, no trash pickup, no mail...just nothing...for 7 days. Chains didn't help and the snow shovel didn't matter as the temperatures never rose above freezing. Hubs worked from home. I read, watched movies and tv, and played video games but when I got a chance to leave the house yesterday after an entire week at home, it was glorious! There is something about "forced" couch surfing that isn't nearly as fun as choosing to couch surf. All the girls were troopers and did pretty well through it all. Our only issue now is that our reserve of firewood is almost gone. This epically cold winter caused us to burn through more of it than we ever expected, plus half of it got rained on unexpectedly during a storm, so that half won't be available until next winter. It will be a chilly few months in our house until spring as we must rely solely on baseboard heating now (yuck)!
I thought this was a bad afternoon...
...until this happened! She had cabin fever just like the rest of us.
2 comments:
We have had rain and wind and our own cold snap. The high today is only 59F. You can still come back, we won't mind. Just think of all the delicious burrito awaiting you.
You had me at burrito.
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