Saturday's photos show snow

Saturday night, icicles on the street light, shot from our kitchen window.

Pod, sculpture on the corner of NW 10th Avenue and Burnside, across the street from Powell's Book, in the snow this afternoon around 2 p.m.

Blowing snow from the USPS truck, around 3:15 p.m., in front of our building.


Woke up Saturday at 6 a.m. to no new snow, then woke up at 8 a.m. to this, completely white streets and sidewalks.

Here's the shot from the kitchen window, looking straight down at the covered scooters. You see the hedge, sprinkled with snow, the sidewalk covered with snow and one set of footprints, and then the street. I wonder what that ring is on the right side of the photo? Some sort of metal embedded in the sidewalk? I'll have to research that later, days from now--too much snow has fallen during the day.

Took this photo about 8:30 a.m. Notice the snow by the wheels.

Duncan's walk, around 11 a.m. today. He won't want to go out later this evening--he's got such short legs and will find the going pretty rough. I might have to carry him to somewhere with less snow, maybe there beneath the hedge.

The D50 decided it needed the flash when I took this shot of the sidewalk, looking south towards Burnside--see the glowing reflectors on the parked vehicles? This is the same sidewalk I've shot every evening from up there at the top of the slope, with my back to Burnside.

The scooters at street level, around 11 a.m.


Now we digress from the snow for a few photos. I feature Duncan, the dashing dachshund, who always takes off like he's shot out of cannon once we get inside the building. He's not running for the fun of it, he's running--loping, Mama calls it--for the apartment where he knows his food awaits. I have to tell you that I took these photos while sort of trot/running myownself, so they're blurry--if I don't trot/run, too, he gets to the end of his leash and chokes himself! In this shot, he's rounding the corner in the first floor hall, on the way to the lobby and the elevator.

Here he's made it out of the elevator and almost to the end of the leash, on his way to turning left towards our front door.

He's leaning into the corner, close to the wall which illustrates very well that phrase cutting corners.

And there he waits, at the front door, where he usually looks balefully over his left shoulder, wondering just why I'm not there yet. In this shot, though, he's staring at the door, trying to convince it to open without my putting the key in the lock and turning the knob! Singlemindedness reigns. Oh, and guess what. If I do not coordinate those actions perfectly with unhooking his leash, the little guy will swivel around and take off running back down the hall! I've had to chase him all the way diagonally to the backside of the apartment before catching him!


Back to the snow. Here's that same car parked across from the kitchen window, about 12:45 p.m.


After Mama and I ate a mighty good brunch, compliments of yours truly, I just had to get out in the snow. Oh, I can't go on without telling you that I sauteed some sweet onion, then put in a diced, partially cooked potato, covered the whole thing with a lid after flipping it a couple of times--with a spatula, I can't flip the skillet like the guys can. In another skillet, I put part of a slice of yummy ham, to heat thoroughly. In the oven, a can of Grands Original biscuits baked. And in a third skillet, I scrambled eggs, getting some out early for Mama 'cause she likes 'em runny; I don't so mine stay in the skillet longer. Anyway, back to going out in the snow. I needed a goal for the trip, and Mama provided one for me when she asked, "Can you get a pecan pie at Fred Meyer?" I jubilantly answered, "Oh, I can go to Whole Foods and get us a pecan pie!" Since Thanksgiving we've both wanted a pecan pie from there, after eating some of the one that Brodie's dad Gary brought for Thanksgiving dinner. I put on my standard-snowy-weather two pairs of pants, put the Yak Trax on the black rubber boots and tucked my pants legs into them. Then I put on my Los Lonely Boys cap with the bill and both of my raincoats. In my pocket I had my gloves, keys and phone. I grabbed the water-resistant tote bag and set out around 1:15 p.m. In the bag I had put two library books to return because I knew I could take the bus to the streetcar to the library, and then take the streetcar to Whole Foods and a bus home.

Walking to NW 23rd to catch a 15, I spied my favorite pickup that I often see in the neighborhood.

The bus came a few minutes after I took this photo which is looking south towards Burnside, two blocks farther west than the other photo of the sidewalk beside our building.

When I got off the bus at NW 23rd and Lovejoy, I had to walk a little over a block to the streetcar stop. I took this photo as I walked, no cars coming at me--I was safe. I think this is NW Marshall.

I took this photo of NW 11th and NW Everett from my seat on the streetcar.

That's the streetcar that I was on. I had crossed the street before it headed on up the hill, south on SW 11th. I walked the two blocks to the library's drive-up return box and dropped my two books into it, then walked a block east to SW 10th where I waited for the streetcar going the opposite direction from this one.

While I waited, I saw this eastbound MAX on SW Yamhill. There on the other side of it, can you see a bit of a rust-colored house with two narrow, tall windows on the second floor? That's the place with the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" in the window. Today I noticed that it is a law office.

Here's the beautiful Central Library on SW 10th Avenue.

Looking south on SW 10th. See the Virginia Cafe neon sign on the left? No streetcar yet.

Looking north on SW 10th. Lots of people were out, pedestrians, drivers, riders.

Bicycle chained to bike stand behind streetcar stop shelter.

"Oh, boy!" hollered my cold tootsies. "Here's the streetcar." I couldn't jump right on, though, because people poured off.

Icicles on an awning on Burnside. I noticed them as I walked from the streetcar stop on SW 10th to Whole Foods at SW 12th. The door is a block north on SW Couch, and I as I walked down the sidewalk, I stopped several times to knock the snow out of my Yak Trax, as I'd done several times on my walk from the streetcar to the library. I really didn't like the feeling of walking on the snow with my own lumps of snow attached to the soles of my shoes.

In the store, I got great directions to the pecan pies from a vegetable man. Once I'd made my purchase and stashed it inside the tote bag, I put my hood back up and walked up to Burnside again, to wait for a 20 at the nearby bus stop. I rode it to Fred Meyer and got off to get us a roasted chicken, another carton of milk, some unsalted saltines, and two cartons of our Breyers Lactose Free Vanilla ice cream; it goes off sale today and we will not pay full price--it's too expensive and that's out way of limiting the amount of ice cream that we devour. You can tell from looking at this shot that Burnside ascends at a good rate from this corner. That's why I waited for another 20 to make it the rest of the way. And that green building you can see through the snow, on the left, is the Volvo place, the one with the wonderful blue neon sign. The snow was blowing into my face from every direction and I didn't even think of looking up to see how the sign showed through the snow.

And here's our sidewalk again, from the top of the slope. You can almost see the spot where I took the earlier photo in today's post, if you look hard.

Before we go, one last shot of the scooters, from street level.

And the car, parked across the street. Notice the snow on the wheels and the falling snow. It's about 3:15 p.m. in this photo.

And here's the car at 8 p.m. Big difference in the snow, don't you think?


So, Mama just told me to come into her bedroom and bring a paper towel. She wanted me to wipe off a window so that I could see the snow across the street. Naturally I took a photo. I hope you can see that the snow on the street is the same height as the snow on the sidewalk. The doorway is at the Manhattan Apartments. And the light at the bottom is from vehicle headlights.

And here's the corner. Oh, boy, are Duncan and I gonna have us a time around 10 p.m. when I take him out for the night!

And it's still snowing, plus tonight it's supposed to change to freezing rain. It's 18 in the West Hills, 16 in Southeast Portland. And they're saying 8 inches of snow in the West Hills, which is south of us by a few miles. Wow.

UPDATED TO ADD:
Duncan and I made it fine outside at 10 p.m. I carried him half a block and put him down beside the next door building's wall, right where it met the sidewalk. The wind had blown some of the snow away from there. He did his business and turned right into the deeper snow! Thank goodness I had pinned his coat--the Velcro pops open sometimes. I picked him up right after this shot, managing the plastic bag and him, my camera hanging around my neck.

And I managed to get this shot of the street light with icicles hanging from it. This one is west of our building.

We crossed the street and I took this photo of a truck and its snow. Wow! That's our building in the background.

Once we went back across the street, Duncan wiggled so much that I had to set him down rather than drop him. Then the little guy headed for the steps. Perhaps he thought he could make it up them with the help of the snow. I don't know, of course, but I do know that when he comes to the steps on an empty sidewalk day, he stops and waits for me to pick him up and put him down by the front door--arthritis and old age have impacted his ability to climb up and down steps. Look how deep the snow drifted beside the fence and the front wall! And you can tell by the visible edge of the steps how deep it is on the sidewalk and the steps themselves.

A shot of the hedge and fence, topped with snow, taken from the top step. Notice the drift on the right side of the fence.

Here's a wide shot, the same direction. That parked SUV has quite a coating of snow, too, just like the red one from the earlier photo. You can just see the red truck, there across the street diagonally from the closer one.

Here's a shot of the other railing. Looks like several crown-shaped snow formations, sitting on the hedge. Interesting.

Now Sunday morning we're at 21 degrees at the airport and freezing drizzle, making a quarter of an inch of ice on top of the snow so far--the most snow in Portland since 1998. We don't expect to warm up any day soon, either.