Total number of times I left my house the first week: 3
Total number of days spent without electricity: 7
Total number of days I was thankful for our small generator that powers a few outlets and our water pump: 7
Total number of Dutch Brothers coffee drinks consumed: 8
Percentage of Dutch Brothers drinks that were Kahlua Kickers: 50%
Percentage of Dutch Brothers drinks that were Chai Lattes: 25%
Percentage of Dutch Brothers drinks that were Jet Tea Smoothies: 25%
Total Number of Visits to Cornerstone Coffee: 3
Total Number of Visits to Starbucks: 0
Number of bowling games completed: 1
Bowling score: 61 (yep, I suck)
Number of times I ate at Shari's: 2
I just want to know who got Mother Nature pissed off at Oregon. Really. I mean, we generally get a big snow storm every year, but this was just insane. At most we get about a foot at my house (we're ~1,300 feet about sea-level in the Coast Range), but we tripled that. Down in Willamina, which is on the valley floor, they had a considerable amount of snow, and roads were even closed!
Basically, the snow did a dandy job of messing up my winter break. Being stuck in my house for a week meant that I really didn't see anyone during that first week... I saw my friend Anna when her family came up to get a Christmas tree from our field, and my friend Kari when we went to the Casino for Christmas dinner because we didn't have power. Fortunately, my friend Natalie came and rescued me and I got to spend some time in Corvallis.
The snow finally was starting to melt off by the second week of break. I was able to go places and see people without having to worry whether my little '95 Saturn SL2 would make it up the hills to my house due to ice.
And then Mother Nature got a sense of (very cruel) humor. By January 1st, a good portion of the now had melted. What does a sudden increase in water runoff mean? Flooding! Which means that a number of towns on the coast (i.e. Tillamook) and towns that are in floodplains (i.e. Sheridan and Willamina) either got flooded, or spent the night worrying about the rising water levels (really - there were sand bags in front of a lot of businesses the next morning). January 2nd brought snow to my house. On my last night home, I met some friends at Shari's, and on my way back, I managed to maneuver my car so it was perpendicular to the road. Well, I didn't manage this all by myself, I had a considerable (and I mean considerable) amount of help from ice on a hill. The next morning, when my family piled into the car to take me to the airport, we nearly ended up in the ditch going around a corner, thanks to a particularly slick spot.
I realize that I got to school in Boston, where the weather is incredibly crappy, so I shouldn't really complain. But weather like that never happens in Oregon. We get a "bad" storm every year that just dumps about a foot of snow, and then we're done. I was totally prepared to head home to the usual 45-degrees-and-raining weather that western Oregon is famous for. Thanks for the wonderful "Welcome home!," Oregon. The only upside was how beautiful it all was (well, for the first five seconds):
1 comment:
Word. I was so excited for 40 degrees and raining!
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