Winters in OR...

12/15/08 - Lake Oswego

12/15/08 - Downtown Portland (Blue Moon - sweet bar)

So moving out of OR has been great. The advantages of AZ definitely outweight everything that OR has to offer. But this week, Portland got hit with a huge snow/ice storm and it took me back, maybe cause a week ago I was still wearing shorts and sandles in AZ. For some reason every winter Portland has a few days where the city basically shuts down from a combination of ice/snow. I've had some pretty interesting adventures during these days but thats for another post. This is a reflection of winters in OR...

1. The obvious, snow in town means snow on the mountain. I still get a daily snow report from Mt. Hood. They opened last weekend, only a partial opening, but still open nonetheless. Sunrise is opening Friday 12/19 and I'm sure Snowbowl isn't far behind so not all is lost!


2. Living an hour from Mt. Hood so I could wake up in the morning drive to the mountain, spend a weekday there(checking e-mail via phone every so often of course), and be home before sunset.


3. Watching buses go sliding down hills covered in ice on the news. I've never experienced this myself which is probably why I think it's hilarous. Why do bus drivers think they can make it down steep hills covered in ice when cars can't? Do a YouTube search for Portland + Ice storm, it's worth it.


4. Getting a free "Working From Home" day cause it's too dangerous to drive on the road. I don't have kids, so a snow day is still fun. We won't tell Intel I have 4 wheel drive and would have been fine. But i've learned driving in the snow/ice is more about the other people on the road then you...


5. Snowball fights - nuff said.


6. Snowmen - a little scary. Kinda like Scarecrows. But still fun to make. I have a pic of this from 2 years ago somewhere. I made one with some kids that lived down the street, it only lasted a day or so but was pretty sweet. I'll do some searching I think I took time lapse pics...


7. Knowing that in 24 to 48 hours all this snow would be gone and I wouldn't have to deal with it in town anymore.
   

Anyone for a trip to the snow?

FOUND IT!!!

I'm in...

Well with the urging of a few friends I've created my first blog...

I decided to start with a weekend update.

First I had a nice weekend ride out at S. Mtn with a few friends from work, it was awesome. East/West loop and Ridgeline

The weather in AZ right now is the best. It's not hot, and not too cold, perfect riding weather. (Duane, one of these days you need to get out here...)

Next we headed off to Zoolights with Amy/Jason/Jadon and the Meese's. It started off with Jadon getting a light up necklace, more "stuff" for Amy. We walked around and looked at "all the beautiful lights" per Jadon. Not many animals, a Zebra and an elephant or two was about it. But the lights were pretty amazing. 2.5 million lights, obviously sponsored by an electric company.

This Picture pretty much sums up the Cardinals loss against the Vikings. I should have known it wasn't going to be a good game when Jason decided to skip it to stay home with the family. I ended up leaving shortly after half time. I've seen enough football this year, and we've got a playoff game coming up...

It was definitely worth leaving early even though the Cards did try to make a comeback, I got to go to Polar Express - IMAX with the fam. Jadon and his SWEET 3-D glasses. I tried to snap a picture of him watching the movie and eating a corn dog but it didn't turn out... We had to stay after so we could "listen" to some of the songs. And Jadon loved it so much he wants to go back again soon.

And that was the weekend...