Happy New Year

Well, it's been a little quiet here on the blogfront. We spent a busy winter break getting Stuck on the East Coast while visiting family and friends. We have driven back East for the winter break two years now (because we're crazy like that). This year, we got to enjoy Christmas with our little niece 1900 and many of the family in New York. It was a balmy 60 degrees on the day after Christmas! After the deep freeze we had had here at Farm U for the end of the semester, it was a lovely change. I bet it was warmer than the Rose City even! Of course, we had our 7+ kinds of fish for Christmas Eve and Peter got to play with Transformers on Christmas Day with a family friend's son. He was pretty happy about that.

We headed up to City with a Famous Harbor after Christmas to see more family and friends. We got to connect with several people we hadn't seen in a year (or maybe more?) and I even got a bunch of lesson planning and syllabus prep done. Plus, we went to Trader Joe's. That place rocks. We definitely need to live in a town with a Trader Joe's in 100 miles next move.

We had one of the best New Year's Eves I've had in a long time with some of Peter's friends (well, I'd call them my friends by this point too, but they were PEter's first) at home. We played games, ate homemade chili (and I might have to have a chili-off with the cook), and drank too much. Luckily, we planned well and were able to spend the night in the spare bedroom. We all went out to a fancy breakfast (well, brunch really) and met up with even more people.

And then.... then the car broke. We were driving back to drop off our lovely hosts after breakfast when we heard a loud thunk. I thought some kid had thrown a hard snow ball at us, or maybe we had run over a rock. But, it turned out that the clutch broke. Yep. The clutch cable snapped. Luckily, we were driving about 20 mph on a quiet suburban street. Imagine this happening while we were going 80 in rural upstate NY. Or Ohio or something. Ugh.

So, we called The better world club (the gree alternative to AAA. Comes recommended by the Car Talk guys!). They were very helpful and called lots car repair places, but wouldn't find a single open one. Remember, this was New Year's Day. So, we had the car towed to our friends' repair shop, thinking that we'd go back on friday and talk with them then. Of course, our plan was to LEAVE the East Coast on Friday, but that clearly wasn't going to happen. All of the passengers in the car thought this was a workable plan and Peter waited for the tow truck, left eh car, and slipped the key in the drop box.

Friday morning. We call the car place. No answer. We wait an hour. No answer. We eventually drive over and deduce that they are closed. And the next day is a Saturday so they'll be closed through the weekend and OH CRAP. We really wanted to be home by this point.

So. We call the guy taking care of Miles and arrange for more visits. Then, we drive around, looking for an open car place. We find one! It's actually only a block or two away on the same street. So, we ask about the repair, explain that the car that is broken is parked in their competitor's lot down the street etc etc. They had the cable and agreed to put it in. Now, we had to figure out how to get a car without a clutch two blocks down the street. The car guy said, don't worry, we'll take care of it. So, we walked back to the car, he hopped in, started the car and drove it without the clutch the two blocks. Amazing.

That afternoon, they called to tell us that the car was ready. We packed that night, after a sushi dinner (!) and hit the road early Saturday morning.

Miles was happy to see us Sunday night.

So. We're back to Farm U, safe and sound. PEter and I started classes yesterday and I start teaching at SLAC (small liberal arts college) next week. I'm sure we'll both have updates about it all shortly.

I hope that you're all well and that 2009 is good to you.

A break

We're off to the Left Coast tomorrow for a few days of break and "rest" (aka running around crazy-like to see friends and family and eat good food).


Someone isn't too happy about our trip.

This is assuming that we can actually get out of the Midwest. We acquired 1.5 inches of snow in a few hours today.

It's cold and blustery out (although 20 degrees warmer than the other day). Let's hope that our flights all leave as planned. We're looking forward to seeing you all very soon.

Dunes

If I look out the bedroom window, I see drifts of white. The wind has been fierce, and I can watch it sculpt the drifts, creating the undercut that makes them look like waves as they are about to crash. The wind picks up the top layer and blows it into the air. The small particles sparkle and swirl, showing the patterns of the wind.

If I squint just right, I can almost convince myself that I'm standing by the ocean. Even the cold isn't quite wrong, standing outside waiting for the bus it's almost like the coast. Those early spring days, where it looks so lovely outside and then it turns out to be soooooo cold. It's like that but colder, much much colder.

The snow is often so beautiful. It's so cold here that the snow isn't flakey or lumpy but instead it's tiny granules. They shine and I actually need my sunglasses here. They also sting just like the sand as they just get blasted towards all exposed skin.

The comparison falls apart quickly but, in a way, it brings me a little comfort to pretend, just for a minute, that I'm home.

Our First Snow of the Middle

A snowy creek in the woods behind our house.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, there was some strange noises coming from the bottom of the bed. At first, I though it was Miles chasing a rubber band or something. After a few minutes, I realized that something was tapping on the window.

Our backyard

When we rolled out of bed, we found the ground covered in snow and ice raining down from the skies. Kimberly was very excited. Though she has been in snow before, she's never been in an ice storm before. When we went for a walk later in the afternoon, Kimberly was completely enthralled with the icy trees and frozen forest. I have to admit that it's pretty beautiful when the trees are all covered in ice and everything kind of twinkles in the light. It's not as fun when the trees start losing limbs under the weight of the ice.


Some pics of the ice and snow here (obviously), some on Flickr (if you're interested).

Our apartment is right behind this tree. Ain't the building lovely.

It's melting....

It's almost all gone now, the snow. Sigh. We actually had to go to work yesterday and today. Oh well. Peter says that it's good the snow's melting; that at least it hasn't had a chance to turn brown. I guess he's right, but it sure was fun!

At least it's not cold anymore!



[01.20.07 1:57 p.m. As a follow up to the melt, here's Kimberly's snow angel, trying to hold on for a little while longer - PEter]

It's still here!!! (and we are too)

Well, what started out as a freak snow flurry has shut down an entire city. Peter already has cabin fever. Sigh. He's roaming around the house, proclaiming "red rum" and laughing manically. What have I gotten myself into?

anyway, back to my description...

It's beautiful, the snow. We walked to New Seasons for lunch supplies and saw all sorts of cool snow men and snow sculptures, people outside playing, cross-country skiers, and kids on sleds. One creative pair of parents were pulling their tot in a laundry basket!

The buses are running, kinda. The roads around here are still icy and snowy, but the freeways look relatively clear. The weather folk are predicting freezing rain tonight and a low of 29, so that means that the streets might entirely ice over. Will tomorrow be another snow day?

I hear that this is nothing compared to Iowa. I'm scared.

Not Supposed to Happen

In case you were wondering, it NEVER snows in Portland, which is why today was so amazing. Apparently, at 5 am, there was nothing on the ground (I wouldn't know, I was sleeping). In fact, we watched the weather report last night, something we rarely do, and the weatherman said maybe some flurries, but that was all.

So it wasn't surprising that when we woke up this morning, Kimberly's exclamation of "There's snow on the ground! Alot! And it's still snowing!!!" were skeptically received. Then, I looked, and Holy Crap! it was snowing.

I need to head north and cross the Columbia to get to work, so I went back to bed; it just wasn't happening, as The Couv is usually worse than Portland and I didn't want to get stuck up there.

However, Kimberly had quite the adventure trying to get to work; from the bus, she watched several accidents and numerous near misses, including the joy of watching the bus you were just on sliding backwards off the bridge. She came home eventually and we went out to enjoy the snow.

Kimberly is giddy as a 8 year old; like I said, it never snows out here. She's making snow balls, snowmen, snow angels, snow-_____ (fill in your own noun) and drinking lots of hot cocoa.

The snow is generally wrecking havoc on the city (click here and watch the 15-car collision), shutting most everything down. They don't have snow-plows out here and they don't have salt/sand trucks, because it never snows out here. The news people say it's going to melt a little, then freeze over night again, meaning tomorrow will be even more fun. I think I'll just turn off my alarm tonight.