The Great Portland Shutdown of 2014

 

So last year we didn't have snow all winter long, ok maybe a slight storm where there was enough to dust the car and made my 3 mile commute to work 45 minutes instead of 15, but nothing huge. When it does snow here, the city shuts down.  Part of it is the fact that people have no clue how to drive in snow. There are also factors of they don't have snow equipment, they refuse to use salt because it is 'bad for the environment' and use sand instead which they then have to drive a machine 3 MPH for the next week to sweep back up to recycle and use for the next storm-don't ask that is just Portland, and Portland is very hilly so when the initial snow hits and melts it turns to ice then the snow piles on top of that and it can be pretty treacherous at the bottom of hills, especially if you aren't familiar with driving in snowy conditions. 

What we are experiencing is a rather large storm even by Utah standards, we got about a foot in 14 hours or so, more over night, and more is in the forcast to come. JD's school was cancelled and they are having their test on Monday instead of Friday-which is a bummer since it was supposed to be a free weekend.  My work was cancelled Thursday, and we were sent home early on Friday.  Saturday JD taught people how to clear snow off their cars-we saw one individual with a metal BBQ spatula trying to scrape off his car before JD ran out to stop him and grab our ice scraper/brush to help him, not before he scratched his car up a bit I am sure.  There was also a lady trying to 'salt' the sidewalks for her neighbors which was very nice, but she was using blue Morton's table salt to do this. JD walked to our nearby grocery store to get a few food items that didn't require cooking in case the power went out with the freezing rain that was expected Saturday night.  

Church was cancelled on Sunday.  We invited the missionaries over since they live in our same apartment complex to eat with us and then we watched the Thomas S Monson biography film on LDS.org for our 'churchy' lesson. It has just been an interesting and fun weekend.  I have liked being home with my boys and spending time together.  We have been bundled up and exploring the snow packed roads and watching funny people all weekend.

This is 185th Street, a busy road that always has a car on it, completely snowpacked.

We watched people hiking up and down 185th throughout the day, I am glad we live at the bottom because it is a pretty big and steep hill.