violetismycolor

GO BEAVS!!!

Sun Bowl:  Oregon State vs. U. Pitt. 

 

Adam is home!!!

 

Adam's drive home was long, but not snowy/icy/hard till he got to Salem.  The hour-long drive from there to here took him FIVE HOURS!!!

Seriously...

But he is home now and we are very happy for it.

Christmas, though...well, our church cancelled Christmas Eve services.  We won't be able to make it to my brother's home tomorrow and neither will anyone else in the family.  We are all hunkering down in our own houses, doing individual Christmases...now THAT is a first!

and the snow just keeps coming...

I wandered the mile down the road to Hillsdale, with Cookie as my companion.  And this is what I saw:

   

Cookie on an almost abandoned road; a few walkers are on the horizon, poles in hand.  Parents pulling kids on sled.  Folks with snowshoes.  A jack-knifed semi, with one of Portland's finest there to help out.  Folks doing the right thing:  chaining up.

This is NOT normal for Portland, Oregon. 

We are in what the news folks around here are calling "The Winter Blast"!  Oh, yes, very dramatic.  And the latest forecast:  Christmas Eve: Snow, Freezing Rain, and Plain Old Rain.  Okay guys...make up your minds!

Note:  Adam had no problem with the roads till he got to Salem, where the traffic slowed down to about 5 miles per hour.  It should be 40 minutes from there to here, but we're still not sure when we will see him...

playing around with the camera...

  First off, I have bugged Ross by taking photos of him when he was just innocently sitting at the table with me.  But he's so darned cute, I just can't help myself.   

He had a lot of grace and didn't yell at me. 

SIDE NOTE:  Adam spent a couple of hours trying to decide if he should stick with his plan to fly home tomorrow, or to hop in his car today, and start driving north.  The fact that his plane was originating in Chicago (under a winter weather alert) and then heading through Phoenix (where he was getting on, and doesn't want to be stuck) before heading up to Portland (ALSO on a winter weather alert)  AND  the fact that his friend Jim's flight to Portland was cancelled and he can't get here till at least Thursday...all that made him decide to start driving.  It should take him two days. 

Okay, everyone...we need those wishes, prayers, good vibes...heading this way to ask that Adam get here safely and with no problems.  Appreciated!

Now, back to the photographing.  I got out my diopter lenses...like having a macro lens.  And I took close-up photos of my Christmas village:

and my flowers, from my sister-in-law who is ALSO named Diane Calhoun: and then I moved on to my Christmas tree:   

 

COOL, huh?

makes me wish I were back in Fiji...

  So...THIS is what we are looking at here.  SNOW drifthing THIS high.  This is what I dug out from on our backstair.  Cookie couldn't get out to do her business, the snow was so high.  She, a Sheltie snowdog, couldn't maneuver in snow that was higher than her little Sheltie-legs.  It was comical, but also disheartening. 

We managed to pick Ross up from the airport last night, though.  Right in the thick of the worst snowstorm I have EVER witnessed in Portland, Oregon, OUR Ross was supposed to be flying in.  5 out of 6 flights were canceled...both incoming and outgoing.  But my prayers and positive thoughts managed to work their way up to the Powers-That-Be, and Ross came in...and we got in and out, safely.

But I wish where I was right now, was back in Fiji...

bravery has nothing to do with it...

I ventured out into the Portland winter storm debris today. 

First off, you have to understand that people in Portland don't DO snow.  Nope.  A snowstorm is predicted and all hell breaks loose.  We stock up on supplies as though it's Y2K.  We make sure we are equipped with snowtires, studs, chains, whatever (Most people do, but apparently John and I aren't smart enough to do that...).  We try to hunker down once the storm hits...knitting is a great pastime, catching up on reading the classics is another...

And yet, I went out today...IN MY CAR!    

OMG, I was petrified.  I only drove the mile down to Hillsdale, where there is a coffeeshop and a small grocery store...i.e. other human beings.  I bought food for the next few days.  I had a mocha at Starbucks.  I went to the post office.  I couldn't make it out of the post office parking lot without reversing all the way to the downhill exit onto the main road.  But once I got onto that main road, I had enough traction, and a small enough set of slopes, to make it all the way home. 

Man, was I proud of myself! 

I also took the opportunity of snowy roads and Christmas-light lit house to try some nighttime photography...not great but a first attempt.  Here is my house:

christmas village building...

It takes about 2 hours to put my Christmas village up every year.  It's so darned cute that it is worth every minute.  (Of course, it also means that it takes about 2 hours in January to put it away again.  I don't always feel as patient, then.) 

But I was trapped at home, waiting for the repairman to come and rescue my clothes dryer from almost immediate extinction (from the way it was sounding, anyway...) and when you have 5 hours in waiting-hell...well, let's just say it was a good time to do something like that.

I love my reindeer barn, especially...and Santa and the reindeer, and Father Time and the New Year Baby...oh, I love it all.

***you know!  click on the photo to see it larger...***

 

Thanksgiving was fun...

We had Adam home for about 5 days for the holiday.  He spent lots of time with friends but also lots of time with us.  We saw Australia, which John and I liked and Adam didn't.  We had dinner at my sister, Ann's (with her husband and 5 kids)...my brother Brian and his family (7 kids) were there, and my Mom and my Mother-in-Law.  We played a fun game (which I had never heard of before) called Apples to Apples.  Apparently, apart from me, everyone I know has played this game before.  Hmmm...

***you know the drill...click on the pic to see it larger***