“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Snowmagedeon has hit the Pacific Northwest again. The last "rough" winter that we had around here was back in December 2008. I remember it clearly as I had graduated from College and was going to Portland with a friend of mine for the testing exam for my license for my new career. I had at the time been suffering from an awful cold, horrible lungs and immune system I tell you. I remember being sicker than a dog, and running a temperature. My friend and I had consumed several pots of STRONG coffee between the two of us and I went in and took my exam and passed even in my sickly, actively contagious, fever induced state. We had made the mistake of agreeing to meet my niece at Loyd Center, a mall supposedly only a short drive from our Hotel. This was before GPS was actively used and we had our cell phones and "local" contacts or friends of ours that could "give" us directions to drive where we needed to go and neither my friend, nor myself have ANY sense of direction. Think the blind leading the blind in an unfamiliar environment. I think we had left around 5:00 that evening and finally made it to the mall around 8:00 long after my niece had left, after various wrong turns in the city of Portland and numerous more cups of coffee. Then we had to venture out and back to the Hotel. Somehow, and to this day I still have no idea how. We made it back to the Hotel via several journey's to Vancouver, one to Lake Oswego, and several places that we didn't know where. Keep in mind that this was all the while calling my dear friend Red's "friend" who was having a party where all of the occupants were laughing at our ordeal, and kept asking us where we "were" and how we got "there". I have to be honest, if I knew those answers I wouldn't have had to call that "friend". Finally, between my friend are I who are very smart we devised a plan of action; desperate times call for desperate measures. The whole problem had been that we had not been able to find when I-205 turned into I-5, no matter where we turned there was I-5 taunting us and not able to get on it and back to the Hotel. So we drove up to where I-205 turned into I-5 which I believe is Woodland Washington. So 6 hours into our ordeal and numerous tanks of gas later (the same amount of time it would take to drive us all the way home) we were back at the Hotel. To this day it was still a wonderful, hazy (remember fever induced and my friend was sleep deprived) drive where we were fully caffeinated, horribly lost, and in that so tired, you're rummy point. Yes, Hollywood could probably make a movie out of this, and to this day we are still teased mercilessly, but now we have GPS.
Today I only work five hours this evening so have spent the day relaxing, the girls and I painted our nails and I caught up on some of my reading and planning for Spring when the snow stops. Check out my current reads. So inspirational for Spring, now only to make all those ideas affordable.
Until Next Time Take Care,
Yoko
I've gotten 2 seed catalogs recently too. I've been pouring over them, dreaming of spring. :) Hopefully your finances loosen up a little and you're able to garden this year!
ReplyDeleteI'll be able to afford some; I just have to figure out my budget very carefully. I also have a lot of seeds from previous years that I'm going to try germinating so we'll see what happens. My main concern will be the herd of deer that live on our property year round. At minimum we usually have 2-4, several years we had around 12, bucks, does and babies. I'm currently scoping prices on electrical fencing around my raised beds to save my gardening efforts and my blood pressure. ;)
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