Hmm. Well, it's not quite as wet and boring out there as I had thought....

In fact, it looks pretty much identical to last night. Snow. Ice on the snow. Water on the ice. Things melting. The roof is still covered. I don't think that thaw actually made it much further than when I last saw it.

Given that it's doing this now, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get to the office for part of today. Actually, the freeways between me and work are in pretty good shape. Things are ugly as you get closer to Portland, but they don't look bad where I'd have to drive. That's irrelevant, however, until my car deices. At present, the door on it cannot be opened, which pretty well prevents any other attempts to get it driveable.

Scott's car is in better shape, since he has cleared it each day, but he's still going to have to run it before he can deice his hood, to which his wipers are inescapably stuck right now. That's okay. Waiting until the roads are not "sheet ice with water over" to go in is probably a good idea.

They actually got Eastside MAX running. Westside and Airport, they're working on.... *chuckles* My radio station is suggesting we put a cork in the Gorge to stop that east wind.

Bbrrrrrr.

Don't care what the weather site says, my thermometer AND my knees say it's 32 (why my knees? because they hit the snow again, of course). Scott got the car open for me this morning and I just now ran it quite a while and deiced it. The tires are decent, the front left is still a bit icy on the side, but otherwise good.

At this point I am waiting and seeing. The freeway's supposed to be fairly clear but there was an ice-triggered accident near the south Wilsonville exit an hour ago, but that was on the bridge, so.... Wilsonville Road was decentish when Scott took it. But he said our road was bad, and what Scott can handle I am sometimes flinchy about. And I have no idea what the work end surface streets are like. Kruse Way is probably clear - it is the surface-street end of 217 and will have been sanded so that we are still getting grit on our cars in a month. But the two side streets and the parking lot, those may be another matter, and I have not heard from anyone who has gone into work but that they are all staying home.... So no on-the-site reports on what it is like.

Still, if it's 32 now, in another hour or two I should be able to get in, which would be good as there are a couple things I'd like to get done. We have two people supposed to fly out midday tomorrow. I'd like them to have all the stuff they need, which I have to prep. Of course, even if I do, no idea if they can get into the office (one at least lives in an area that is not looking good at all this morning), and no idea if they will fly out tomorrow in any case (airport being closed today and all that...and the airport's right on the river which is supposed to have freezing rain potentially through tomorrow evening).

My knees are cold. But my car can be seen. Couple inches of snow and, in the end, almost a half-inch of ice over it on the top, though the ice on the sides was much less.

That was not a happy place.... That was not a happy fun day.

Sooo, I worked from home. And then, around 10:30, I went into the office. Because CDs needed to be created (could have let this go as the odds are they won't be able to be picked up by the person that needs them), I needed to do some stuff I hadn't brought the tools for (did not do it: installed the tool I needed to remote-access the machine that's all set for them, on that machine, so now I can do them rfom home), and I wanted to grab the on-call phone that is not in circulation this week. Because, well, the person who is on call had their power out and generator failed.

When I got to the office, his generator was running again. When I got home, the power company had restored his power. Had I known this, I would not have gone. Had I known what it would be like, even if I'd known he'd be out of power all weekend, I would not have gone.

( No, I wasn't hurt. Not even close. But EW. Driving whining. )

Also, on the drive to and fro, I encountered Odd Road Clutter: 9 lost tire chains piled at the edges of lanes, probably exactly as they came off (four on the way up, five on the way back down, no two real close). One hubcap, as well, on the way up. Lots of tightener bands for chains - way more than just the chains, which makes sense given how many are used on each one, at least the truck chains.

The funniest, hands down, was the divider dots. you know how sometimes, where they paint lines, they put down little squares or round things or whatever that are raised and reflective? Sometimes they are round. And as I got up to the clearer areas, I would see that some of these had been torn up (I'm guessing by chained vehicles, likely semis) changing lanes. But what was funny was what drew my attention to it: the fact that some of them had come to rest, solo, in the middle of the lane between the two bands of them.

Very funny and strange. I am sure the department of transportation is neither amused nor surprised by this. I was both. It was funny seeing these little round things in all the wrong places.

Once again I have come in from the cold tired and all. Think I will talk to my doctor as I again felt short of breath. I am not real concerned about it but will bring it up at the next physical, and be careful about going out in this stuff.

Also, must quote the radio after listing off several incidents in their traffic report: "In fact, there seems to be a truck stuck on every single patch of ice in the Portland-Vancouver area. If they can find it, they will."

Giggling, now. Sleepy, but giggling. And warm.

...sigh. I hate cell phone commercials. (general whine alert)

I'm not fond of cell phones. I don't want one except for emergencies, and they're too expensive for that and annoying. But the commercials are the worst. Why do I have to listen to whiny, stupid people that don't even sound like real whiny stupid people? And why would I want to identify with them?

I really wish I thought Verizon would go out of business so I didn't have to listen to their commercials.

Having a bit of trouble with one game-setup thingy.

My snow and ice are melting. This is good for logistics but I do not know if I like it because I do love the weather. We will be at risk for flooding if this melts too quickly, also. I'd rather see it melt slowly over the weekend. That might result in a couple coworkers not making it to where they needed to be, however.

Oh, well, the weather is going to do what it's going to do and we'll all find out.

Today and tonight have been good overall. I am just mildly grumpy right now.