Due to inclement weather, Portland will be closed until further notice.

In Portland, we like to complain that we never see any snow.  Now we like to complain that the freakin' snow won't stop.  We have about a foot so far and it's still coming down pretty strong.  Everything is pretty much shut down.  Unless you're an EMT or a snowplow driver or a television reporter, there's no need to be anywhere, and no good way to get there.  After everybody on the street put our trash cans out last night, they decided that they won't be coming to pick them up until further notice.  Although Tri-met was official driving buses on most routes, I watched a guy at the stop outside my house for at least an hour.  I don't know if he ever got his ride.

I'm actually enjoying all this.  It's easily the most snow I've seen since we moved here, and since everybody is inconvenienced the same, I don't feel too bad about missing work.  It's been pretty cold (~20 degrees), so we don't spend much time outside, but it's beautiful, especially since it's mostly been snow and not so much ice lately.  Mizz loves playing outside and would stay until he froze to death if we let him.  D is not as impressed with the cold, but he loves staring out the window and watching snow fall with me.  Our main downfall to being outside is that we don't own much cold weather gear.  I dug out old ski pants and gloves for Franny and me, but the Mizz is playing outside in two layers of pants and fleece mittens.  We had to borrow a snow suit for D.  The Mizz has a pair of snow boots that we picked up somewhere, but Franny and I only have hiking boots and heavy socks.  But we're so enthralled with big snow that we go out and freeze anyway.

I noticed not long after we got here that weather reports on the west coast contain much more guess work the back east.  In Virginia, we got to watch the weather coming for days before it got to us.  Here, we have a dockworker 60 miles west squinting at the horizon, saying, "Weather's comin'."  Last weekend, they got it right on Sunday and the snow matched pretty well with what was predicted.  For the rest of the week, however, they predicted snow and ice everyday, and pretty much we just got wet roads that steadily improved all week.  Most area kids got the week off school, and lots of businesses were closed or limited.  Then Friday night, it was snowing, and for the most part, it hasn't stopped since.  Now I just heard that we might expect 5 more inches for some new records.  The National Weather Service updates/advisories/warnings have been changing every few hours and quite often don't match the last one very well.  Now, what was supposed to be rain by tomorrow afternoon has been changed to rain/snow and then more snow.  We'll see what actually happens, but for the moment, we're not going anywhere.

The best part though is that we're going to see the first white Christmas I've had in a long time.  Christmas lights look so much better in the snow.