You really got me
Carla Axtman
I was already grouchy this morning at the prospect of having to drag myself out of a cozy bed and into work, when lots of my friends and family have today off. But things went to a whole new level of cantankerous when I looked out the kitchen window and into my garden. More snow. Ugh.
It's not really "snow" in the traditional sense, at least not at my house. I've got ginormous ice chunks encasing little white sprinkles which sparkled when my headlights flickered over them. It was frozen when I left the house but now it seems to be melting into a slushy mess which will no doubt plaster my car, an already unrecognizably dingy mess left over from the previous winter blast.
On the (literally) bright side, the sun has decided to grace us with its presence. The sky is a glorious blue and the sunlight is freckling the trees outside my window. Perhaps we'll get a few days off from the weather pestilence that shortens my temper of late.
Even with all this meteorological muck, I can't think of a better place to live than Oregon. I'm more than willing to brave the elements and traverse the roads full of crazed winter commuters in order to be here. I've never quite put my finger on exactly what it is about this place that holds me. I just know that it does.
All of this is leading nowhere in particular. But it does give me a reason to declare my love of home....and of classic Van Halen (originally from The Kinks).
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9:13 a.m.
Jan 2, '09
A few years back, I saw David Lee Roth at the House of Blues in L.A. on New Year's Eve - followed the next day by watching my team win the Rose Bowl. There ain't nothing better than that.
Jan 2, '09
More blogs about snow? Oh boy, you're a wealth of knowledge. Must be a tough gig to be a BO intellectual.
11:56 a.m.
Jan 2, '09
Van Halen? I don't think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2GmzyeeXnQ&feature=related
11:59 a.m.
Jan 2, '09
I get it. Portland's weather is a hassle, but our community has something special going on. We could have better weather by moving to Houston, but there we'd have to have our kids enrolled in beauty pageant school or something.
Jan 2, '09
I sepnt a week in Calgary over Christmas. Portland's 'problem' of snow made a lot of my new in-laws laugh uncontrollably. To Calgarians - Portlanders are a bunch of panty wastes. Especially since Portland and the area cancelled school. Just a bunch of over-protective people.
It's snow - get over it. Just don't drive, put on some nice winter shoes, and just stop complaining.
12:40 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
To Calgarians - Portlanders are a bunch of panty wastes. Especially since Portland and the area cancelled school. Just a bunch of over-protective people.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want to waste any panties, either... but it's worth noting that the Portland storm last week was the biggest in 40 years. So, naturally, the region wasn't equipped to handle it. In Calgary, lots more snow plows per capita, I'm sure.
And once the region was slammed, the roads impassable, it's no surprise that they canceled school.
I've been first in line pounding on stupid and timid reactions from Portlanders to slightly inclement weather, but this one was different.
And, actually, here's the good news. For at least a few years, no one will complain about the usual 2-3 day light dusting of snow. We all now know what we're capable of surviving.
Jan 2, '09
@Sarg
BTW, the weather in Houston is NOT better, no matter how snowy it gets here. It is not uncommon for people in Houston to DRIVE their car to check their mail in the summer.
1:23 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
I was hoping to take the kids "twilight" skiing today until I saw a landslide in Sandy has closed 26! Hopefully we'll head out tomorrow.
3:15 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
Sorry Carla, but DP is right, the Kinks version, with Dave Davies' awesome guitar solo that basically invented modern R&R solos, is exactly One Hundred Thousand Gazillion times better than the Van Halen version. Seen 'em both, worked out the math, the Kinks rule, hands down. And Kinks the audience is so much more polite!
Jan 2, '09
Posted by: mp97303 | Jan 2, 2009 1:14:15 PM
@Sarg
BTW, the weather in Houston is NOT better, no matter how snowy it gets here. It is not uncommon for people in Houston to DRIVE their car to check their mail in the summer.
So true about the "Big Onion". I have a debate about Texas v Oregon weather in general going. Many claim that the "winter is nicer". I disagree, as a gardener. We very, very seldom at the valley floor get a hard killing frost that gets all the brassicas and like, which is around 10 F. Dallas my have had days in the 70s last week, but they get that one day that is 8F, after arctic air has dried everything out, and the grass and plants die until spring. Here, it may almost never get above 50, but we don't get that odd really cold day, and it stays green.
Personally, I find the debate absurd. I use no heat or AC in Oregon. OK. Four days last week, before that it was January, 2007. That is not possible in Texas. If one has the choice, there isn't any choice, if you're serious about your personal environmental footprint. If people want to live where you can't survive naked outdoors, they should work on terraforming Mars, imo. At least it's a good point to remember in a green pissing contest.
And it's easier to imitate than invent. EVH may be a nice Pisces male and all, but he ain't no Ray Davies.
4:44 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
Ugh, don't even get me started on Texas weather. I'm glad I don't live there anymore.
While Abby's elementary school may have had to close for four days before Christmas break, it could have been worse.
My nephew's elementary school in Santa Fe, TX is closed for all this school year, maybe longer. Why? Damage from Hurricane Ike. Eyewitness reports say a tornado went over the school (but thankfully didn't touch down).
My parents had snow just a few days before we had snow here. Right after that they were back up to 70+ degrees. Everyone's been terribly sick this past six months or so, including my dad who rarely gets sick. It's all respiratory stuff, which doctors blame on the huge changes in temp, how wet it has been, etc.
9:02 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
not uncommon for people in Houston to DRIVE their car to check their mail in the summer.
Yeah, my point exactly -- the culture (not just the weather) in Houston supports things like driving to the mailbox. It's more than temperature that makes people do things that are so wasteful. I've lived in both Phoenix and Tucson, which are both Sonoran Desert cities of the same altitude, less than two straight, flat hours apart from one another. Though the climate/flora/fauna/etc. are nearly identical, you're more likely to see bicycles crisscrossing the city in Tucson, and more likely to see SUVs driving to and from the mailbox in Phoenix. The mindset is very different. I like Portland's way of thinking, and that's why I live here.
10:47 p.m.
Jan 2, '09
Carla...I'm always on your side...but...um. Van Halen? It was a crime against nature that they ripped one of the best riffs in history off from one of the best bands in history. It would be like trying to eat a burrito in Des Moines. Sorry...still on your side. But the Kinks own that song.
Jan 3, '09
I guess I'll back Carla on loving the VH version of this song. Watching David Lee Roth wiggle his hips was a bit nauseatin, though.
Jan 4, '09
Perspective check: There's a growing number of folks who probably would have loved to go into work on Friday but have no jobs to go to.
Jan 4, '09
And yet another round of misery from the skies. The last day that I considered the weather to be business as usual was Dec. 12. We're bucking for a month of this crap. And all the other stuff that's more important. A veritable smörgåsbord of misery!
Jan 5, '09
Kristin: Actually the Kinks (nor Ray Davies) owns that song - they sold it for $500 back in the 60s.
<h2>Ray tells a great story about the whole mess during his one-man show.</h2>