This is Portland, we do what we like. This is Portland, we do what we like.

y'all ever been to portland opera?

I haven't been. Let me know when there's a really great (heavy) one.

I almost made it out to see the Symphony do Beethoven's 9th a few months back, but all my buddies chickened out when they found out that it's not a $5 show.

Just got back from trudging to the Alberta Market. I have enough supplies of diet coke, beer, and chicken wings to hold me over.

That's ice on the streets, and it's not going away tonight.

they are doing britten's the turn of the screw in feb - totally awesome/heavy/crepey.

Ok, that got my attention! I love Britten and James. Thanks for the tip!

starring anthony dean griffey, an awesome britten singer (did grimes at the met last year!)

And tickets are only $40-$160! Ouch.

I just thought I could drive the 10 blocks to freddy's to load up on groceries. Brakes went out twice and the car slid into some pretty heavy intersections but hey, I got my damn milk and beer and frozen pizzas.

Yikes. My housemate just split to pick up his girlfriend from work. I told him to leave her behind but he wouldn't listen.

Dropped my roommate off at the ER tonight after his body started shutting down due to the four day bender he's been on. Roads were icey, but you cruise around at 10-20mph and you're fine.

I hope I get tomorrow offa work.

dont hafta go in til later!

Son of a bitch my new employee orientation got cancelled today cuz of the weather, another week without a paycheck.

Seriously PDX you know I love you but way to be a whiny little bitch just cuz of a few inches of snow.

They probably could have started it late, but chose not to hassle with it. Sorry about the paycheck drought.

Srsly though, it's unfair to compare Portland's snow situation with places where snow is common all winter. The city doesn't have many snowplows or sand trucks, because it would be a waste of money to invest much there. It is illegal to use salt on the roads in Oregon. The drivers are largely dolts in snow, because they have no experience in it, plus few of them own chains or snow tires, and they think their SUV is a magic snow machine.

Lastly, and most importantly, the snow here falls wet, packs down quickly, refreezes at night, and is more like glare ice than anything a Midwesterner would call snow. It is a bitch to drive on, especially where there is any kind of a hill - and there are lots of hills.

You put all this together and 3 inches of snow is a lot worse than it sounds.

Some places are warmer than Portland.
Some places are colder than Portland.

What's up with that?

I hear there's been a lot of that going around.

I know I know you're totally right I'm just pissy because of money and such

For the record, though, I will be maintaining my "these guys are such wimps running and hiding after a couple flurries" posture in any bus stop intra-midwesterner small talk.

wtf? It's healthy to maintain a "these guys are such wimps running and hiding after a couple furries" posture!

oh flurries

sorry i bit your steez portland thread, didn't know i was at the time: THIS IS HSTNGS WE DO WHAT WE LIKE (SOMETIMES KILL WAHT WE EAT TOO) - HSTNGS COMPAINION THRD PART: !!

think of it as an homage

I'm going to work tonight. It's Heavy Metal Ladies Night @ Tube (18 NW 3rd). Come out and have a drink my fellow sissies!

Actually I have plenty of practice driving in snow and ice and plan to just take it real slow...

Most main roads have been plowed and sanded by now. Have fun. Drink slow.

I'm going to work tonight. It's Heavy Metal Ladies Night @ Tube (18 NW 3rd).

Hey, my brother-in-law is DJing there on Friday.

Cool. What's his Dj handle?

He's Doctor / Professor / Adam or some combination of any or all of those three.

A Damn Assessor Proctor?

I see him listed on the Tube myspace as DJ Prof Adam

Y'know, if we're going to have weather like this we might as well have a football team.

4" on my front walk so far.

It looks like a good six or so out here, with no indication it'll stop anytime soon. Just praying that nobody loses their power.

I hope the max lines are still running. I'm supposed to go do booze & board games at a friend's tonight, so i just needs to go from the 72 to the yellow line. Hmm.

While catching about 10 minute of the local news hysteria I vaguely noticed a crawl at the bottom of the screen about MAX dififculties. You might want to check out the Tri-Met website.

If there is freezing rain, as predicted, somebody's going to lose power. I hope it isn't me. I am south of town, so I am further from the Columbia R gorge, which is the main perp in freezing rain events, so I have good hopes for keeping my power tonight. Good luck.

Usually the max stays up unless there's enough ice to freeze over the lines, iirc.

xpost, guess i'm wrong on that one.

I'm close enough to downtown that I figure if I do lose power (which I never have at this apartment) it will be restored quickly. I doubt the city likes downtown going off-grid even briefly.

good news everyone! the buick can get around in this mess!

so after testing the car up & down the street a bit, i found my iphone power cable. Both main and black & decker auxiliary batteries for the iphone are now at full charge, so i'm set.

The ice has arrived. We lost power for about 5 hours this a.m. It came back about 30 minutes ago. It could go out again pretty easily. Luckily our house has a fireplace and we have wood. Because we camp a lot, we have all the stuff we need to camp out at the house, if necessary. We've done it before. We even have a kerosene heater.

I hope kingfish didn't stay out too late last night.

crashed at friends house after latenight boardgame and Bill & Ted party, took bus home since max train never came.

Good day for a walk. Bad day for motorcycling. Stay warm.

kgw is saying another 1/3rd inch of ice today then 4-6 more inches of snow tonight. City's basically a wasteland until Saturday. The shit Greyhound is pulling with their cancellations/way they're treating the people they've stranded is totally disgusting.

My girlfriend was supposed to fly out to Chicago to see her family today. Flight was canceled, and they rescheduled her tomorrow... in Seattle. With no trains available and Greyhound shut down. A++, everybody.

The good spirits of Portlanders helping one another out has been uplifting, though. Hope you're all warm and well.

Seattle just cancelled a whole bunch of flights right now. I imagine PDX would be in BETTER shape. SeaTac is not a happy place right now.

Alberta St Pub is still open, so i'm heading there on foot to get warm and read a bit.

daaaamn and I was feeling sorry for myself cuz it is summer solstice here in Peru, in the upper 50's at night and pouring down rain. I will now feel better. I imagine Eugene is almost as fucked as PDX. I had read in the Farmer's Almanac that it would be a cold winter, but this is almost unheard of.

Damn this place is jumpin'

Eugene isn't bad. 40 and raining. Blazers had to take a bus down there to make it to Denver for tomorrow's game.

Hope the airport's running normally tomorrow; i need to fly to knoxville.

Made it to work with no problem. The Buick can conquer all this shit!

aaaaand now my flight's been cancelled! hooray!

You all think Lake Oswego is big enough to get the "Lake Effect"?

We've got more than a foot of snow piled up here. Another 4 inches fell on top of yesterday's ice. Yesterday's ice was on top of about 8-9 inches of accumulated snow. All the shrubs in the yard are kissing their toes. But I still have electricity, and a cellar full of food, so I am golden.

Hooray! I made it home! Found out that the chains I had borrowed were too big and i needed a push to get out of the snowbank I was parked in, but it worked!

now i need ot figure out how the hell i'm going to fly out of here.