It's the most wonderful time...

Marie and I made it out of our driveway after two attempts.  I dug the car out of the snow for the second time in about 12 hours.  I shoveled and shoveled while our neighbor was towed out of her driveway and then shoveled around her car.  

Marie got in the car and I told her I would push, direct, and dig.  We went backwards a little bit, but I wasn't watching close enough and Marie got stuck.  I told her to try and rock the car.  In Montana, usually the ground is usually frozen enough, that you will spin on the last layer of ice before hitting rock forever; not in oregon.  The ground was not frozen so my car tire, with the chains, dug down through the top soil and into the ground about 3 inches.  It was enough that the car could not get out.  I shoveled near both tires, and as we were stuck a police car stopped and rolled down it's window.   He instructed us to use state highways because the county roads were more sesceptible to falling trees with the freezing rain.  We thanked him and he laughed as we tried to continue with our struggle.  He left and Marie pulled forward.  I dug a little more of the snow out of the way and filled in the hole.  Marie backed out onto the road successfully and we escaped Carlton unscathed.   

On highway 99, we were following a small car, when all of a sudden both Marie and I saw a tree crack and fall in front of the small car.  He skidded and nearly hit the tree, I luckily had seen it coming and slowed down in time.  Coming toward us in the other lane, a pickup slid through the top of the tree sideways and bounced through the boughs.  We all got out of our cars and a line began to form in either lane.  Marie asked the pickup owner, who was a city worker, if he had a chainsaw.  He did and we all made short work of the tree.  Police cars showed up as we were finishing up clearing the tree and you could tell they were happy to not have to deal with this one.  They were searching for downed trees all morning.  

Marie and I made it to the train station successfully and were delayed about 3 hours before we departed.  We met up with our friend Anne and she took our car to her house.  The train ride was 25 hours long and we arrived in Havre Montana at 8:25 the next night.  We ate a late dinner and made it home after midnight.  

All my siblings made it home by Christmas Eve and it was the first Christmas with all four Eklund kids in 4 years.  

To add to it.

I dug the car out. God put a foot of new snow down. I borrowed a shovel to try and dig the car out. The hardest part of our journey today will be trying to get to the main road from our driveway and side street.


I am anxious this morning. Our train leaves at 4:45 pm (with delays).

dang.

I don't know what god I angered by mocking the panic here last week when snow started falling, but the god has struck with vengeance. I am pretty freaked out. The freezing rain sealed the deal last night. I took pictures as I tried to de-ice my car. It was basically a car-sicle. If I could have peeled the ice off carefully enough I could have rebuilt the shell of my car using 1 inch thick pieces of ice. Here are pictures of my windshield.

Tomorrow we are suppose to leave at 4:45 pm. Hope and pray for us please. Amtrak is delayed and has canceled some. Our train is suppose to still run though.

Well the weather outside is frightful...

Today Marie and I had tickets to "The Nutcracker" in Portland. We left Carlton with about 6 inches of snow on the ground and huge flakes falling. We took my car over to Napa and bought some chains before we left town. The drive to Portland was not bad, we only slipped a little on a hill. As we got downtown Portland, I was shocked at how many people were running red lights. I did get stalled right before a parking garage. I was stopped at a light and spun my tires through two cycles of the light. Two buses came up behind me, one man got out and helped Marie push and I got through the light (it was red). We walked and got lunch with a friend, and then saw the Ballet. The ballet was great.


Truly made me feel like Christmas was coming while leaving into a winter wonderland.

We then walked around town and saw pioneer place and downtown lights. The buses and max trains were packed and people were waiting everywhere for the public transport. We put chains on my car in the garage and then drove home.


It wasn't bad except right near Carlton. The road had not been cleared for a while and we were breaking trail. The snow was transitioning into freezing rain and my wipers were not effective. I drove 15-20 the last 10 miles.

When Marie and I got home, we walked to the post office. I made a snow angel in the parking lot and then rolled around three times on the way home. When we got in the door,...I realized my phone was gone. We retraced our steps and ruined all of my snow angels to try and find the phone. It was no where to be found. As soon as we walked in the door, we turned on the TV and saw that an Amtrak train has been stalled for 4 hours in portland. Hopefully this is Amtraks only "whoopsie" this year.

It is now freezing rain outside and will make it pretty miserable. Hopefully we can leave on the train on time Monday! Peace and drive safely!

Snow Day

On Sunday I woke up and went to the livingroom to watch football but I was saddened to find that all the networks were showing winter storm warnings. There were reports that the wind chill was "very cold, it is about 12 degrees." There was also a woman in the snow, " I don't have a ruler but I would say at least one half inch has fallen." This was breaking news.

At around 7 pm it school was cancelled for the Monday. I walked around in the beautiful sunshine today and took some pictures. I figure my family can laugh at what cancels school in Oregon.

I will say, it is more rare for the snow to fall here and usually it is a wet snow. This is dry, exactly as we find in Montana. There aren't many snowplows or gravel trucks, and people are certainly not as skilled while driving here. I understand why they cancel school, but I feel like it is Montana weather here. I love it.

Happy St. Nick day

Marie and I have not been up to much. Thanksgiving was super relaxed because we had our large meal the Saturday before. We didn't get out of our pj's until 5pm and we went to the new bond film. We then went wine tasting on Friday.

Saturday, Marie went to Eugene to visit family and I went to the school to grade some papers. At 1pm I was called by a friend who had an extra ticket to the Beavers-Ducks Civil War Football game. The tickets had sold out very quickly and were hard to come by. I left my grading and rushed down to Corvallis. We had seats in the sixth row from the field near one of the endzones. We were next to the Duck band and fans. It wouldn't have been bad except the game was a blowout and some drunk beaver fans tried to pick fights. All I could do was laugh and smile when they talked trash,...there was nothing I could say back.

Sunday I graded for about 6 hours.

This weekend the high school had a staff holiday party and I was picked to do music for it. I did some acoustic solo stuff but I also put together a jam band of teachers and we practiced for about 3 weeks on and off. It went well.

I am surprised that we only have two weeks until Winter break and I will be going home to Montana soon. I am excited.