Pacific Northwesterners are a hardy people. Our mail carriers wear shorts in freezing rain, youngsters play soccer knee-deep in mud. We scorn umbrellas, Gore-Tex and fleece are acceptable attire at the opera and ballet, and our weather forecasters use 47 different descriptive adjectives for "rain".
We cope with the dark and wet and cold by drinking copious amounts of organic, fair-trade coffee in the morning followed by gallons of organic, local microwbrews and pinot noir at night.
Winter in Oregon is not for the faint of heart. As hardy as we are, this year's winter was particularly long and dark, causing rampant Vitamin D deficiencies, and possibly even an uptick in sales of self-tanning products. According to the National Weather Service, from February 26th to April 7th —41 days!—we had no clear days. None. Nada. Zilch. It's enough to tempt even the diehards to head for points south. Or at least consider learning the basics of ark construction.
Even the Oregonian posted a front page story, with a 4 column-wide photo of the day the sun briefly returned to Portland, just under the story about an 11th-hour federal budget compromise being reached.
I won't say there was panic on the streets around here, but everyone I encountered seemed deliriously happy for some reason, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't over the budget.
Now that that scary-bright ball has again disappeared behind the cloud cover, people are acting normal again. And we've all gone back to our regular routines.
Cheers!
We cope with the dark and wet and cold by drinking copious amounts of organic, fair-trade coffee in the morning followed by gallons of organic, local microwbrews and pinot noir at night.
Winter in Oregon is not for the faint of heart. As hardy as we are, this year's winter was particularly long and dark, causing rampant Vitamin D deficiencies, and possibly even an uptick in sales of self-tanning products. According to the National Weather Service, from February 26th to April 7th —41 days!—we had no clear days. None. Nada. Zilch. It's enough to tempt even the diehards to head for points south. Or at least consider learning the basics of ark construction.
Even the Oregonian posted a front page story, with a 4 column-wide photo of the day the sun briefly returned to Portland, just under the story about an 11th-hour federal budget compromise being reached.
I won't say there was panic on the streets around here, but everyone I encountered seemed deliriously happy for some reason, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't over the budget.
Now that that scary-bright ball has again disappeared behind the cloud cover, people are acting normal again. And we've all gone back to our regular routines.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment