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December 23, 2005

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

I guess the main topic of this week is the weather. We about froze ourselves over the weekend and then a warm front moved in and it has been raining cats and dogs and it has very windy the rest of this week. Sunday night we drove home in 25-degree chill and by Monday afternoon, it was 60 degrees! Go figure!

We went back into town last Friday as Dave had a game to engineer and I spent the day doing the last of my Christmas shopping. On Saturday, I ran over to see my Mom, as I wasn't going to be at her place until after Christmas. That afternoon, we drove down to Salem to watch our 3-1/2 year old granddaughter Paige, in a gymnastics exhibition. In spite of the fact that she had a terrible cold, she did quite well. I think she has found her nitch, as balancing on high beams and twirling on bars are just right up her alley. That kid is fearless! After that, the two girls came back to West Linn with us to spend the night. This offered their parents the chance to get in some last minute Christmas shopping and attend a party later that evening.

Lara, Greg and Dave and I ended taking all four of the grandchildren on the Zoo train to see the Christmas lights. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea because it was really crowded and we debated on whether to stand in line for an hour to ride the train. Besides, it was freezing up there. It was about 28 degrees and the wind was blowing at a pretty steady 15 miles per hour, so the wind chill was brutal. But everyone was pretty well bundled up and we we're glad we stuck it out. They put lights up all around the zoo grounds - most in the shape of zoo animals and it's a pretty impressive show. The girls loved it in spite of the cold. After that, it was back to West Linn for some hot cocoa and donuts.

Leslie and Jason came by the next morning and picked up their girls. In the afternoon, we headed to the Rose Garden to engineer that night's game. The weather was calling for freezing rain and snow flurries later on that evening. In fact, the freezing rain started about the time we got to the arena, so we just made it. Things got worse in a hurry after that and they debated about postponing the game but decided not to. There were only about 2,000 fans that braved the weather (compared to an usual 14,000) and as it turned out, the Blazers did win so it was worth it.

After the game, around 9:30, we decided to head home. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get out of town or not, so we had packed our bags just in case and told the kids that if the roads were too bad, then we would turn around and try to get to West Linn instead. We figured that since the storm was coming from the east and we were headed west, that the roads wouldn't be too bad. Boy, were we wrong!! Things did get better for a while, so we made the commitment to keep going. No sooner did we do that, however, then they got a lot worse! The roads were slick all the way to the Highway 53 cutoff! That's about 50 miles of snow and ice. We were in 4-wheel drive and doing about 35 or 40 all the way. We only had one problem, when the snow covered the edge of the pavement and we went off onto the shoulder. We kept it straight and recovered, but the adrenalin was flowing after that! We made it home around midnight and it was pretty dicey getting home. There wasn't much traffic, which was a good thing. Although I couldn't help but think all the way home that if we had gone off the road, we would be stuck there until morning.

The rest of this week has been pretty much finishing up on Christmas stuff. I wrapped the rest of the gifts, got our Christmas letter out the door and made another batch of cookies. I think I am ready. Also, the guys finally showed up to trim the 10-foot high cedar hedge that is in front of our house. How do you trim a 6-foot wide hedge on a side hill? You just climb right up in the middle of it and hack away anything you can reach! They picked the days to do this awful job when the wind was blowing about 25 mph and it was pouring down rain. I have to admire them for sticking it out and it really turned out better than I thought it would.

Tuesday, the City Council appointed Dave to the Planning Commission. So just in case he didn't have anything else to do, there's now more on his plate! Let's see, he is also President of the Wheeler Business Association and I hate to think maybe he might run for mayor next!

We hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.