White Christmas

Well, for only the second time in ten years I got up to Oregon to have Christmas with my mom and sister. First off, I lucked out so much that I flew up on the 18th, as people were stranded trying to get into Portland starting the next day. Why? Record snow fall for the area. Somehow I was there for the worst snow in the Willamette Valley in 40 years. It was beautiful though, which Oregon always is. As my mom and I were driving home from the airport it began snowing, and didn’t stop for two days. After the first day there was some rain, which froze over and created a layer of ice on everything. The pics included show the ice layer. You had to be careful walking through it because your leg would slide as the ice broke and your ankles could easily get sliced open. In morning of the ice layer we were pulling sheets of ice of our cars, check the pics out. On the third day of snow I got the bright idea of heading out for a ride. Bad idea. I almost took a header into a 50 foot drop over a creek. I was averaging about 7 mph on flat ground, but it was fun. What’s not so fun? Taking a whiz in the snow on a bike ride and falling into a ditch full of blackberry bushes. Not something I saw coming, and not something I want to do again. Some of the days I rode, mostly I went running which wasn’t too bad on hardpack snow. One of the rides turned very cold and I got hailed and snowed on, riding into a 25mph headwind up Parrett Mountain, which had several 12% plus grades.

I shoveled the driveway a couple of times, and was pleased to have my Perrier chilled as I did so. Coffee drinkers here in CA do not compare to those up north, as this trash can illustrates.

What a difference, the calm after the snow storm.....

Cold weather does that to us I suppose. I spent most every day riding or running, then playing Wii and cooking for my mom and sister. It was nice to treat my mom and make sure she relaxed. She kept asking to help with something but I really wanted her to just sit down and watch TV, she needs the break. We went to a U-cut tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree, which costed $30 for a 6-footer.

Towards the end of the trip it thawed out and the temperature which was mostly in the 20’s rose into the 40’s. Here is the difference in one day, amazing. On one of the snowy nights some raccoons came into the yard looking for food, here’s a blurry pic of one. All in all, it was a great trip. It was nice to get away from LA and be in a more relaxed and friendly culture.