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The Snow Storm That Wasn't 1/17/2012 4:09:09 PM
The Snow Storm That Wasn’t
It’s about 12:00 noon and I am in New Seasons Grocery having my lunch. Actually, I had finished my lunch and now am perusing through the newspaper when flurries began to appear by the window. I ignored it thinking that it was just happenstance. After all, the weather man was not always correct when they forecast snow. So far, Portland, Oregon, had a mild winter, always sunshiny and pleasant. Sometimes it became cold but that was it. Sometimes, it looked dreary but there was no snow. I remembered when the group at Greater Trumps began betting when the first snow will drop. Could it be November or December? And what day would it drop? Well, even their predictions were wrong. But the forecasters were correct this time. In a short while, snow would drop heavily in the valley that my heart began pumping faster that I curtailed reading the newspaper. I even heard someone say that snow was sticking on the window pane right across the street. You see, ever since I had near accidents in the snow, I grew weary of it. So even though snow does cause it, it was not the number one cause of accidents. Nonetheless, I am a little scared of snow.
So, I quickly put my dishes in the bin, returned the newspaper (I “borrow” the newspaper from the bin of the grocery and returned it like “new”) and dash up to the car to drive home. Better do things at home that was safe. I surely want to have a house on Hawthorne, where Greater Trumps, Starbucks and New Seasons were, so I could just walk home. And even thought the snow was foreboding, it looks cozy when I am home right in the neighborhood I want to spend my time in. But no! I must drive four and a half miles back. The snow became heavier and heavier as I drove two miles away. By the third mile, the snow had started to diminish. Sunshine, slowly, began to show. And by the time I turned on 82nd Ave., total sunshine. There was a gap between the clouds, wide gaps and the sun just shone. When I headed up my street, I began to think. Will the snow persist or will it die down? Former storms have clouds all over the place. But this gap was wide enough that I am sure that the snow storm will not persist.
I turned the car around, just .20 of a mile to my house and returned to Hawthorne. As I predicted, the wide patches of blank space between the clouds parted. The sun shone bright as ever. And, I am free to go to Starbucks, again and spend the time with my computer.
It was news. Indeed, it was. It was the first time in the season that it snowed in the valley (Willamette Valley) and it was not worse. I remembered coming home from the Bay Area, Christmas time. It was heavy traffic up from Woodburn which was 35 miles away from downtown Portland; 42 miles if you measure it from my home. It took me about 4 to 5 hours with my car crawling on the freeway. Cars were parked all over the place and left there by their owners. The news was that, when the people were told that a great snow storm was to be had, everyone just went home, all at the same time. And there were only about 7 snow trucks for the city of Portland. Portland was ill prepared to handle it. But I caught the end of the snow storm. And yes, I spend my 5 hours traveling from Woodburn up to my home in Portland, Oregon.
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