Global warming? Surely you jest . . .

I grew up in Montana so I was used to the snow, ice, and cold. When you live in very wintry conditions for 3-4 months out of the year, you learn that life keeps going, and you just work around the snow. I had a similar experience when I moved to Portland. It rains all the time. You buy a rain coat and umbrella.

Not being one to let the weather get in my way, I have found this past week in Portland almost unbearable. Never in the 10 years I’ve lived in Oregon have I experienced a winter like this. Occasionally there is a day or two of snow and ice but then we go back to our normal temperate rainy season. This year, that is not the case. It started snowing last Sunday and the weather has been miserable ever since.

I don’t mind the snow and can and will drive in it, however the conditions here are a bit extreme. Anything that isn’t an arterial road is not plowed or sanded, sidewalks are not cleared and no one here knows how to drive in the snow. After a week of this insanity, I have cabin fever. I do my best to get out, but everything is so much more difficult than it should be.

For example, this afternoon I decided to make the 10 block trek to the gym. Normally this is a non-event. However there is snow everywhere and trying to get me and my snow boots through a minimum of 6 inches of snow for 10 blocks is exhausting. I felt like I got more exercise walking to and from the gym than I did while I was there for an hour!

Part of the problem is that Portlanders are not prepared for this kind of weather. It happens so rarely, why would most people here have snow gear? When I started thinking about it I realized that people don’t even own snow shovels to clear sidewalks. There are 4000 miles of roads to clear here and only a handful of snow plows. I enjoy a brief snow in Portland, but this is getting ridiculous.

Now of course even getting home for Christmas is becoming an issue. With major interstates shut down, I have purchased a plane ticket home at the last minute. Now even getting out of here on a plane is becoming a challenge, with most flights being canceled. It’s not even that I want to be home in MT for Christmas all that bad, I really just need to get out of Portland!

In my mind, global warming would have actually been warm and included fewer blizzards in Portland. And until this darn snow melts, I am destined to be attached to my pink snow boots. Sigh.