Snowed In

This weekend we had the most snow we’ve ever experienced living here in Eugene. We’re talking a lot of snow, even more than last January. Then we had 3 or 4 inches, I think this time it’s more like 6 or 8.

First, a little background information: It’s been really, really cold here for a few weeks – temps in the low 20’s at night and dry, clear, bitingly cold days. I’m always watching our pool, we have a direct view of it out front, hoping it will first of all freeze completely over and then it will snow right on top, making a smooth, pretty white pool instead of the ugly green swamp full of dead leaves that we get to look at 8 months out of the year. This is the closest we’ve gotten so far:

I think this was a slight dusting of very dry snow overnight, on Thursday. Sadly, it didn’t last. Then, on Sunday morning we woke up to this:

It had already been snowing for quite awhile and it just kept snowing until mid-afternoon. Not only were we planning to go to church, but it was the all-church potluck that we’ve been having every month or so, and I had spent some time on Saturday getting ingredients prepped to make a big batch of curry. I cooked it up while we debated whether to try to take the bus to church… but we decided we were pretty well snowed in and decided to go out and play. (We had neighbor K over for lunch later, so that was a nice result of having a surplus of curry keeping warm on the stove.) Out on the clearing next to our apartment complex, we constructed a Snow Arch:

It took a little bit of doing. First we built up two posts, leaning toward the center, and then we built two “lintels” and each lifted one up to stand on a post and meet in the middle. I held up both while BN secured them with snow in the seams. Cool! We were so happy with our snow arch.

Later in the afternoon, after it had snowed another several inches, I went out to look at the arch and see if it was still standing under the extra weight. Guess what? Some idiots on snowmobiles had completely mowed it down. Why is it that certain activities tend to attract jerks? Well, that just made me mad. And sad. But we did get a lot of joy out of making it, out of fresh snow that was falling down right outside of our very own home. All my life, snow has been a vacation-only experience. I’m kind of glad it’s only a once-or-twice a year experience here, because if I had to deal with it for months I’d probably hate it (nothing scarier than driving in snow!!) But it’s really, really fun to be “snowed in” once in awhile. And we live up in the hills of South Eugene, so there’s more snow here than in other parts of town. In the late afternoon we took a walk around the hilly parts of the neighborhood. Spencer looks so pretty all dusted with snow:

I wonder what it’s like at the top this week? I guess it’s probably not possible to hike up there when there’s so much snow. Or maybe the trees shelter the trail?

This morning BN had to get up extra early to find his way to school on the bus which doesn’t come up here in the snow… van shuttles and different stops are in effect. He’s teaching pre-calculus at 8am this quarter. I, lady of leisure that I am, went out for a walk in the mid-morning, rather than my usual run since the terrain is all snowy and I wanted to bring my camera.

Half a year ago I was running on this street, crossing the starting line for the Butte to Butte. I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be so hot! It looks like a different place altogether today.

I’m supposed to go to ceramics class with my friend TW later today. Luckily she has 4-wheel drive, because our car still looks like this: