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Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. Supposedly it got all the way up to 74, which felt more like high 80’s since we’d been stuck in the low 50’s in recent months. I was driving around town in the earlier part of the day, doing errands and gathering supplies for my silkscreening class that I’m taking at the Craft center. Later in the afternoon BN and I took a bike ride to Coldstone Creamery, which was doing a brisk trade on the sudden hot day.

No matter that this week has been cold and rainy again…

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:

… it feels like years since you’ve been here. Here comes the sun…

Today was absolutely beautiful. Just a few days ago it was cold and rainy, and it will probably be cold and rainy again before spring is over. But it was the perfect weather (rather, lack of it) to celebrate my last day of work before Spring Break. And, I went for a walk at lunch time and I finished my last email at 3, so I got to go outside again and now I’m footloose and fancy free. Ahhhh.

Aren’t these beautiful? I took all these photos during a half-hour stroll around the neighborhood. It feels so, so good to have the sun shining down steadily all day… All my life I associated the sun with harmful rays, but now I feel sun-starved during the non-summer months and when I get a chance I go out for a little while and soak it up. Gotta get that vitamin D.

Yes, the pool did freeze over – the night after it snowed last week, Thursday, and it’s been frozen ever since. It did snow a little bit more yesterday, but it was such a damp snow and intermixed with periods of rain or sleet, that I didn’t get a clean white sheet like I wanted. It still looks cool, though – the surface is “frosted” and we’ve been throwing snowballs over the fence and they’re still there, sitting on the ice. It’s thick, too, apparently, because – I kid you not – an animal crossed the ice last night!!!

I woke up this morning and looked outside first thing, taking note of the weather. In spite of yesterday’s slush-fest, white patches still remain and this morning we have fog. I looked down at the pool and noticed where the snowballs mostly landed – in the middle near the deep end. Then I noticed some sort of track crossing the shallow end. I thought, it almost looks like an animal crossed the pool…

Then I looked at the steps leading up to the pool enclosure, which still have white snow on them, and there were clear, crisp paw-prints leading up to the fence and over to the edge of the pool. I think it was a raccoon or something. I wonder if the little feller did it on a dare or if he had some other motive? (No food in the pool area, that’s one of the rules.)

As you can see from the All-Knowing Apple Weather Widget, yesterday was the start of a major cold snap here in Eugene. It snowed some during the day, and during the late evening it really started snowing in earnest and we already had more than an inch by the time we went to bed. Today woke up to a winter wonderland! Wow! It was a real snow day, the schools were closed and snowmen were in abundance. The bus routes were disrupted (we are near a significant stop, meaning one with a shelter, at the top of a hill, and that’s trouble when the roads are icy.)

Our apartment complex roofs are flat on top with steeply slanted orange metal … what’s the word I want… eaves? Well, anyway… The snow collects on them and then slowly slides down in sheets. It’s pretty cool. [A side note: this image is sponsored by our collection of unusual and foreign coke bottles: I have one from Germany, one from India with real hindi script lettering, plus no short term missions experience would be complete without the sweet tastes of Fanta and Thums Up sodas. Cheers!] I was disappointed that the pool didn’t freeze over. For some reason the management doesn’t use the pool cover (we heard rumors from a past neighbor that there was a wasps nest inside of it. ooo, scary.) and so it collects lots of leaves and other crud. It makes our living room window view much less attractive. So I thought that if the pool would freeze and then snow covered it, that would look smooth and white and pretty as long as the snow lasted because nobody is going to step on a thinly frozen pool. And the gate is padlocked. Maybe it will freeze tonight during the low, low temp of 18� !!!

We were actually kind of snowed in by our 3 or 4 inches – our parking lot is at the bottom of a fairly steep incline (or at least it seems steep when it’s snowed over) and so I decided I would try taking the bus down to my usual Thursday Ladies Luncheon bible study and prayer group. Partway through the morning my friend GP called to say that fortunately her car was fixed and she wouldn’t need rides from me anymore; but unfortunately she’d tired herself out clearing snow at her apartment complex (she’s the manager) and wouldn’t be coming to the lunch. While I was conversing with her, I watched one of my neighbors attempting to drive up out of the complex… the wheels were spinning but the car was not moving and I was dreading to see it start to roll back. But thankfully they made it out OK. My bus plans confirmed as the right plan, I gathered my small change and off I went. It started to snow pretty heavily, and as I rode down the hill with snow blowing by I felt like I suddenly lived in a different town.

We had hardly any snow in Tahoe while we were there – there was a very small amount on the ground when we arrived on Wednesday and then on Wed nite it snowed an inch or so overnight. Driving home on Sunday, we drove through snowstorms for 2 different segments of our journey but didn’t have to put chains on, thankfully, and we made it home it record time.

Then, there was a bit of snow on Monday, while I was running back and forth between the apartment and the laundry building. Go figure. That night it snowed for real and we woke up to a snowy landscape. Very nice, I took a long walk around the neighborhood. We have had snow the last 2 winters as well, but this is by far the earliest. Spencer Butte looks really pretty all sugared up with snow…

It’s cold today! My Mac OS 10.4 Weather Widget says the city temp is 57�. That’s not even sixty! I’m wearing my earflap hat and drinking hot chocolate. I feel like it went from summer to winter in the space of about a week… I wonder if we’ll have any more 80� temps or if we are firmly entered into Fall.

I’m not ready for fall… I truly appreciated summer this year – sure, I had moments where I was uncomfortably hot but I never cursed the sun. I begged it to stay as long as possible – I know before very long I’ll be missing the sun. Yeah, it’s finally raining today and it’s nice and cozy. But the novelty is going to wear off very soon and THEN I’ll wish myself back in July.