Early morning walk

The meditation and the 8:00 a.m. gym class were cancelled so I headed out for another walk through the snow.

It seems the neighbor cat peeked around the corner before retreating back to her side of the building.

The library was yarn bombed in the summer and the bombs still remain, now capped with snow.

Snow on this yarn bomb bike staple.

I need to go back and check to see what is usually under this cone of snow.

I'm guessing it is decorative grass.  It's so very conical.

Here's some sewer work that was interrupted by the snow.

At the Interstate/Lombard intersection there was trouble with this truck.  Other cars had to back up and a passerby directed traffic, so he could make his turn.

His chains were not quite affixed.

Birds were out and about.

More drifting snow.

Postcard from the Ukraine

"Hello from Ukraine!

"Happy New Year and Christmas!!!  On this card you can see a part of our history of cartoons.  You can find it on youtube (for example) 'How cossacks'. I hope it'll be interesting for you."

Then some cyrillic and the translation: "A faithful friend is the greatest treasure."

Thanks Larisa!

A delicious lunch

I was rewarded by venturing out in the snow, by this delicious lunch.  An apple, Triscuits (my favorite crackers), kalamata olives, mini dolmas and bits of cheese.  I've just discovered New Seasons sells bits of cheese, which is great, because I can never justify buying the bigger pieces.

It was delicious.

Walking in the snow.

I got up early for a walk in the snow.  Here's the view from just down the road.  As you can see, there have been few cars, a few people and one bike out and about before me.

Walk sign covered with snow.

Partial obscuring of street sign by snow.

I think that no one will want this couch.

A rare sight in Portland!  A shoveled walk!

Portlenders are very good at hunkering down in the snow.  We're stalwart through the worst driving rain, but everyone just gives up at the first sight of a flake.  Example:  it's 7:15 in the morning and I was the first person to walk on this stretch of sidewalk.

It was a blowing snow, so there were some fun shapes.

I shoveled my walk, though.  When shoveling happens only every few years, it's quite fun.

I set out later for another walk.  Here I cut through a pristine alley.  But you notice a bike has been here before me.

A van, but what's this?

A bit of snow graffiti.  This was sweet graffiti.  My friend captured a picture of a car where someone had written "PENIS" and another passerby had amended the word to "DENTIST"

More drifts of snow.

Icicle.

A rare sight.

The temperature is never 21 degrees.  The little weather icon never flashes snow.  But that's what's happening right this second.

Postcard from Virginia

Another nice postcard from one half of Pike Schemes was waiting for me when I came home from my early release day.  It was accompnied by a letter too!

Early release due to SNOW!!!!

It's been very cold (for here) all week, with the temperature hovering in the 20s during the day.  Usually when it is this cold, it's sunny and too cold for snow.  But not today! Today we got snow.  Here's the view at work at about 12:15 pm.  The school district called an early release of 1:00 by 10:30 in the morning, so for the first time, I got to experience the process of getting all the children to leave in the middle of the school day.  It went smoothly and everyone was gone by 1:30

I was home by 2:15, stomping the snow of my Doc Matins on the way in.

The kitties were very interested in the snow.