White Christmas

Christmas is a time to share with friends. Marilyn does more of this than I do with all her girl friends sharing lunch and gifts. However, the year the weather limited the number of gatherings as the ice and snow caused several of the events to be canceled.
She still managed a couple of lunches and the annual pizza dinner with three tennis friends. Mine was limited to the usual coffee with my early tennis group and sharing the pictures of the group with our former member, 86 years young Wayne, that had to quit a couple of years ago. Marilyn and I were also blessed with a visit from my special singing friend, Pauline, and her husband Ed as they traveled back to Victoria, B.C. They had to put on chains to get up the hill to our house and could only stay one night but it was a wonderful time to catch-up on what has been happening.
Of course Marilyn has the house decorated just right and the table is set with the Christmas dishes long before anybody arrives. Like maybe two or three days before they arrive. The snow has putting the sharing of gifts and food with the granddaughters on hold until the last minute. Living in Portland with all the snow and ice has severely limited travel. Some the have tried talk of the hours it takes to get just a short distance and all the accidents you see along the road.
Today is overcast and we do see snowflakes fall once in awhile but with the temperature at about 35 degrees it doesn’t stick to the road. You can more of my Christmas pictures on my Flickr account.

Cold and Snow Continued

Well the cold and snow continues in Corvallis. It has been a very long time to have snow on the ground and freezing temperatures. We may even have a white Christmas. Well it looks like we may be above freezing in the daytime for the next week so maybe most of the snow will melt.
I don’t have snow tires so I have been forced to put on the cheap chains on my car. I never planned on using them. I only had them to meet the carry chains requirement that is sometimes posted.
They did plow our streets yesterday and it was a little above freezing so Marilyn got out for a few things she wanted to do. Then we got two more inches of snow and it froze last night. Now we wait for the next break. I put the chains on Monday and we did go out Wednesday to get a few things. I hope to take the chains off today.
I spent my life being ready for snow and able to travel in bad weather. Now I am ready to not think about chains, snow tires or even ice on the road. Maybe that is the reason we go south for the winter.

Snow in Corvallis

It seems Corvallis gets a bad storm about every year and this may be it, at least for now. We escaped the start of the storm on Sunday as it hit Portland with cold and snow. Chains were required to travel in Portland not just the hills around Portland. However, we had a nice day all things considered. We had some early morning snow but it never got below freezing so the snow melted and we even saw some sun during the day.
As darkness came so did the wind, snow and cold. Now at 9 PM it is 26 degrees F. and snowing. We will see what tomorrow will hold. I don’t think I will be playing the 7 AM tennis and Marilyn’s 9:30 tennis has been canceled, too. Maybe it will be a day to turn on the fireplace, pop some popcorn, and relax. I think I will save this note and not post until tomorrow and maybe even get a picture to post. It does look like a white Christmas but then I am sure all the snow will be gone by then. They are saying freezing for the rest of the week, but it never seems to last too long.
Well it is Monday morning and it is cold 23 degrees F. It got down to 21 last night. I don’t think we got much snow. With the wind it is hard to tell just how much there is but none of the drifts are that big. Most of the schools are closed for the day and the paper was late as is the garbage pickup. The birds are happy I had filled the bird feeder but the hummingbird is not that lucky since the sugar water froze. The wind blew snow onto the covered deck and entry but not really that much of a storm just cold. It is just the ice that will case problems if it melts and freezes again.