Indio, California: You may recall, I sometimes post photos sent from our house sitter of our Portland home covered in snow? I giggle with delight that we are in sunny Palm Springs while our house is covered in snow and our house sitter is snowed-in.
DT snapped this photo of our house in Portland. Wednesday morning.Last minute, Dave was summoned up to Portland for a meeting. (Yeah, never mind that he is retired. He is still helping the University of Oregon with a few things. Volunteer.) He booked a Portland flight, arrived Tuesday afternoon, rented a car, stopped-by the grocer to pick up something for his dinner and made it to our house as it began to snow. 2+ inches were predicted.
It snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. All night. When he woke, over ten inches had accumulated and it was still snowing. He could not make his meeting. If Dave could get the rental car out of the driveway (which he could not), he would never make it off the hill. Everyone planning to attend the meeting was in the same situation, so the meeting was changed to a conference call.
Drat. He could have done that from the sunny desert.
The snow continued to fall. By Wednesday afternoon, 15 inches had accumulated at our house. This was a huge event for Portland. The City was in peril. Portland hadn't received a snowfall to these levels in decades. Since 1943 to be precise. Snow depths much over an inch or two is so rare, Portland has little snow removal equipment. The city just shuts-down. People on the east coast laugh at us because schools close (and grocery store shelves empty) when Portland receives snow, but few citizens have snow tires or chains. Few roads are plowed. It is just too dangerous to drive, so everything closes and Oregonians hunker down with hot cocoa and wait-it-out.
Friends were sending me photos of their situations:
That is really a lot of snow.
The temperatures were falling. It was 15 degrees Thursday morning. The snow was not melting. Dave missed his flight back to Palm Springs Wednesday. He did not really miss the flight; the flight was cancelled. Portland International Airport was shut-down as well. He missed his flight back to Palm Springs Thursday. I think he was getting cabin fever. I think our house sitter was getting cabin fever. Together, they shoveled one side of our circular drive... quite a feat as we, naturally, do not possess a snow shovel.
There were chains for the rental car. He chained up and made it to the airport in ONLY THREE HOURS (usually a 50 minute drive). The rental car was returned. DT went to the accommodation desk in the airport concourse and rented the last airport-area hotel room available.The honeymoon suite.
The suite had a Jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room. (Not in the bathroom - in the middle of the bedroom!) Just the thing for an already-injured back that had just shoveled a very long driveway.
There is one daily PDX-PSP flight. DT has a reservation and a boarding pass. The flight is on schedule.
Until my next update, I remain, your lonely correspondent.
RV PARK: The Motorcoach Country Club