Nora the polar bear

by Kimberly A. Cook                         (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

The best laid plans of mice and women. On Dec. 7th I picked up a load of artwork and plants from my sister and brother-in-law’s house to help them move into their new mini-house; they are in my neighborhood now.

 

On Thursday they made two early morning car loads. I was at their new house babysitting their cat and baking lasagna when the snow storm hit about noon. So with a full moving truck, they were stuck at their old home with everything packed except two LaZBoys and food in the frig and freezer.

The moving crew barely slid up and off their hill but the 150 foot difference in elevation made for an auto slip and slide. Their old house is on the top of a steep mountain. They watched one neighbor’s car get to the side of their house and then slide backwards down the long hill. Not a trick to try with a full moving truck.

Waited for the oven to finish cooking the pasta. Five minutes after I took the lasagna out at 2 p.m. I heard it on the window. Tink, tink. Crap cakes! Freezing rain.

Threw the still hot lasagna in the frig, said goodbye to Comet and hightailed it home. Long story short, I babysat Comet on Friday while they were still stuck. Saturday they were able to get the truck off the hill around 11 a.m. and the moving crew unloaded in the afternoon and evening.

Long day Saturday but got the second load moved and unloaded too, the lasagna ate and Comet got to see his parents again. He’d been in kitty solitary in a new place for more than 48  hours but was doing fine since he was wearing his kitty calming lavender collar. We all needed one.

Sunday I watched three NFL games in a row from my LaZBoy. Barely moved. Forgot what it’s like to heft a few boxes. Spec Ops Cat made up for missed lap time. Monday and Tuesday spent grocery shopping and meeting a friend for lunch. Finished up chores in time to get ready for the next snow storm due in yesterday.

Which became quite interesting because today I had jury duty. Snow started at 1 p.m. Wednesday and dumped. So everybody and their brother, co-worker, relative and favorite enemy ended up bailing onto the highways at the same time. Gridlock ensued!

Basically Portland shut down. The freeways shut down. But my bird bath heater is working great. Iceageddon ensured my jury duty was finally cancelled today, so I’m home playing hooky. Trying to catch up on blog posts.

So here’s a video of Nora the polar bear and the river otters at the Oregon Zoo enjoying their second snow. Last week. This last storm was our third. We might have more this weekend. It’s going to be one of those winters!

The rest of the country has been hit hard by bad winter weather too, so we are not alone. Since we don’t use salt to treat our roads and we have hills, snow turns to ice and it amounts to toddlers trying to drive cars on a hilly skating rink. Does not end well.

A HUGE thank you to the law enforcement and medical first responders, road crews, mass transit folks, electric line repair personnel and “essential personnel” who go out in these messes and help us all. Plus the UPS driver who just drove through my neighborhood with chains on the big brown truck. Wishing you donuts and hot chocolate or coffee!

Everybody stock up on food, books, cat litter, blankets, soup, cat food, chocolate, chips and dips now. Good luck this winter. We might just need it! Go Nora!