Well.....so much for......


.....riding my skooter on a regular basis in the middle of January.

- JUST get back into town at like 2AM, die for a few hours, and decide to pop into work. The AM radio wakes me and they talk about how ".....The Sunset's a mess right now, and the 217 isn't any better....." and I find the will to crawl out of bed after three hours of sleep and go to my window.....

Jesus....it's snowing.

Now, in Portlandia, it'll snow MAYBE once a year (IF that), it'll melt as soon as it hits the ground, it'll have Oregon drivers suffering incontinence out of shear fear, and it gives the news people an excuse to Drop the Dead Donkey and blow 26 minutes of the 30 minute newscast on coverage of a snowfall that dropped a grand total of 1/4 of an inch accumulation.....it's just too funny!

Well, not THIS time.

This time, it dropped, like, five inches in The Hills of Cedar (where I reside), and about four in Portlandia proper. And all hell broke loose.....accidents were all over, people were screaming about how the public works division wasn't plowing the streets quickly enough (EXCUSE ME!!!!! This shit happens to us MAYBE once every ten to fifteen years in the Willamette Valley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY, in light of the fact that it almost literally never snows here, would the public works division have a fleet of snowplows at the ready on a moment's notice?? Christ on a bike, shut up, would you people? I mean, just grab a six-pack, quit crying and.....oh forget it.....), and I just laffed at it all......

.....and of course, at about 4PM, the sun went down and everything, snow and water, on the streets, started to totally freeze!

.....and of course, This Blog resides in an apartment complex with (literally) a 12% grade on a 120 foot incline/decline in it's roadway network (could you please explain to me WHY do I live ON the Hills again?)....and, uhhhh......uhhh....no snow chains (see? Most Oregonians actually HAD and were USING chains! Me?? Uhhh.......)

......so after work, I go park my car about fifty feet away from where my usual parking spot is (because my Peter Garrett-style tires just weren't equal to the task posed by the aforementioned snow-and-ice covered incline/decline) and I just laff and pray that I didn't fry my tranny trying to git up the incline to my usual assigned parking spot.......

I can factually state that there is more snow on the ground in Portlandia than in Buffalo!

Pic from The Ranch this morning (my former residence):














Um-hum....and we're supposed to get an ice storm here Thursday Morning........

.....cute....






- SAW the strangest thing at work today. I was looking over a new map our GIS division produced that displayed officially recognised neighbourhoods as well as any and all schools. Cool.....

THEN, I look at the Nike World Headquarters (not actually IN my fair city of Beaverton, but rather in "Unincorporated Washington County") on the map, and in it is a school designating symbol (a tiny square with a tiny pennant flying on top). Next to the symbol, it states "Joe Paterno Child Development Center."

At FIRST, I thought it was a cute joke one of our cartographers must have played, wondering if anybody would catch it (you know....kinda like "Vince Lombardi High School" in that 1979 Ramones classic flick Rock and Roll High School (Starring P.J. Soles and Ron Howard's "Johnny Drama"-like brother, Clint Howard).

But no!! I checked it on Planet Zowie, and lo and behold, there REALLY IS such a thing! I mean, no, don't get me wrong, please, this is NO knock against Mr. Paterno, but for some reason, I was not aware that his name was synonymous with such names in the child development genre as Pauline Sears, Dr. Norman Wetzel and Fred (that's "Mister" to you) Rodgers!

And if he IS renowned in child development circles, WHAT EXACTLY does THAT say about the football players at Penn State that were under his tutelage?

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If the weather cooperates, I'm back on The Road again this weekend and This Blog will return next week.....if it stays fugly outside, I'll post something sooner!

-E-