I know the weather is truly terrible across much of the country, so some reading this may think I’m whining about nothing. Okay, but good grief.
There are a lot of hills here in Portland, and when it gets snowy and slick, cars and people do slide about. We live on a pretty steep hill, and that presents a problem for us, and sometimes we have to stay at home for a day or two. This time since Wednesday.
It started snowing Wednesday mid-day. We were out running errands and got home just fine at 1:30, but by 3:00 there was enough snow to get things slick, and by 5:00 people had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up. Also by that time, all the major freeways and streets were clogged and the hilly areas were difficult to drive, up or down. Only neighbors with chains or studded snow tires could get up our hill. Our 4-wheel drive Subaru was a maybe.
But that was Wednesday. This is Saturday. We went out to the library, no problem. Our other neighbors have been up and down the hill, we saw UPS and FedEx trucks come up the hill today. However, we haven’t had Postal mail delivery since Tuesday, so we’ve missed four days. We saw Postal trucks out, with chains, on our trip to the library, but up our street? Nada.
So all the cards and exquisite gifts we’ve undoubtedly been sent are out there in limbo. Guess we’ll get them Monday, when it’s supposed to rain.
Tip the Wink 
It is a mark of my ignorance that I never thought of Portland having snow. Which is pretty silly since even Birmingham, Alabama, deep in the South, occasionally gets a good bit of snow. Anyway, it would be scary on hills in that situation, and I am glad you can now get out and about.
Tracy, remember Portland is on the Columbia River, so on the Oregon-Washington border. if you look at a map with lines of latitude on it, you’ll see that Portland is as far north as northern Vermont. We don’t get a ton of snow because of the Pacific maritime influence, but it does snow a few times each winter.
Wednesday through Saturday…a lot of time for quality reading, Richard. And snowmen! Tell me you and Barbara made a snowman!
Jerry, it’s always time for quality reading here. It takes a lot more snow than this to build a snowman, Jerry. We only got 3 inches. Maybe another inch tonight, but a lot melted yesterday and this afternoon.
It’s snowing again, now, but we’re told it will clear by mid-morning. It’s pretty when it’s white and fresh.
We have already had over a foot of snow and it is very cold-single digits. I am fed up with winter already and have no idea how I will get through a year with no California. Ugh.
You’ll be fine, Patti. Try to enjoy the holiday!
Bummer, Rick. What happened to the old Post Office motto? Never mind, I know the answer. We go days without mail in snowy or too cold weather sometimes. We had our own issue with the PO yesterday. Since we joined Amazon Prime we get [supposedly] guaranteed two-day delivery. Jackie ordered a new electric pencil sharpener on Thursday when the old one finally died – yes, some of us do still write things by hand. It was supposed to arrive yesterday. We got several updates, including a note that it would be delivered by 8 pm.
Then we got this note that it was left in the mailbox at [love the precision] 7:11 pm.”
Do you see it? No? Well, neither do we. I don’t know if the USPS guy took it home, threw it away, or left it at the wrong house, but we didn’t get it, and the Amazon “customer service” person was zero help. Now we have to go to the local post office Monday, undoubtedly to be told that, yes indeed, they did leave it in our mailbox. And Amazon will not do a thing until after 4 pm on Monday. So much for Prime Guarantee.
/end rant – sorry about that.
As to the snow, we had a couple of inches yesterday morning, but not to worry! It is going to melt when it turns to rain and goes to 40. Not! It stayed around 35 all day and getting around was a total slushy mess, as ,many people – including businesses on the Avenue – just didn’t bother to shovel since the forecast was for melting. Every corner was a mess to cross with water puddles and/or slush. Yuck.
As for Portland, my brother’s take was this: A better explanation is the fact that we have one or two incidents a year, and the limited city budget goes to things other than snow plows and deicing highways.
But out where you live, this is a big inconvenience. It is like the weather people here showing the aftermath of a storm and saying it is all gone because they are in Midtown Manhattan, the first place cleared and easier anyway as the tall buildings cut down on totals most of the time.
And now it is 52 degrees (25 degrees higher than yesterday at this time, 35 degrees higher than on Friday), with actual rain and melting on the way, followed by a return to the low 20s and freezing overnight.
We will finally get back to a more normal mid-40s by Wednesday,
Jeff, you’re being too hard on Amazon, they have no control over the USPS or – obviously – the weather. Your issue is with the Postal folks, who reported it delivered when it was mis-delivered.
Barbara checked tracking on a package that was out for delivery yesterday, when everyone was driving up and down our hill just fine, and it said no delivery was possible due to “conditions”. I guess that was the sunny afternoon and dry road.
It will all turn out okay. Good thing you keep a supply of sharpened pencils to see you through!
No, did not mean to blame them for the delivery problems, just the lack of sympathy.
I went out to check again today – nothing – but when we came home a little while ago, voila! What do you know? It was suddenly left on the floor near the mailbox on the first floor. So, it wasn’t put in the mailbox at 7:11 pm – it wouldn’t have fit anyway – but was delivered sometime between noon and 2: 30 today.
It works great, by the way.
I’d gotten an email from Amazon notifying me an item would be delayed (due Friday). It was delivered today. The driver – a kid – boasted that he had no problem with our hill and wondered why our street was listed as unsafe yesterday. Apparently uses local .gov sources for detailed information. So no one checked our street yesterday. Oh well.
Sorry for the excessive italics.
No problem.
We have a foot of snow on the ground. Icy conditions! More snow forecast for later this week. Winter is here!
But I’d bet you get mail delivery, yes?
I’m very thankful that we rarely get snow that impacts on driving. Of course that also means that we don’t learn to deal with it here in Ireland. It makes no sense for us to invest in winter tyres, or chains, or anything of the sort when we only need them for once day every 15 years or so 🙂
We don’t have them either, our all-wheel drive Subaru does just fine 98 % of the time. In these few days a year we stay home, which we retired folk can do.
Yes, our mail got delivered…at 7 P. M.!
We got a tiny bit of snow this weekend, but it was on top of ice and that meant several people in ditches. I didn’t get out until around 5:00 p.m. Saturday when I ran down to the local Sonic to get some tater tots to go with our meal. The roads had been fairly clear by then and it was mostly through residential neighborhoods, so I took it slow and saw almost no one out. Very, VERY cold this weekend. Made for a good excuse to stay indoors under a blanket reading.