{"id":32,"date":"2008-12-15T17:26:43","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T00:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rubschlager.com\/angie\/?p=32"},"modified":"2008-12-15T17:26:43","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T00:26:43","slug":"snow-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/2008\/12\/15\/snow-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow Day!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since moving to the great state of Oregon I have received two things I just never had in Illinois.\u00a0 Land for a garden and snow days.\u00a0 Before I moved to Oregon, snow was not a big deal, hardly an event.\u00a0 You want snow, Illinois will give you snow.\u00a0 Snow like no body’s business.\u00a0 Illinoisans have an almost callous indifference to the white stuff.\u00a0 When I was young, we never had a snow day.\u00a0 Did I mention never?\u00a0 We could get several inches and school might start late, but school started.\u00a0 Idle minds lead to the devil or some such nonsense.<\/p>\n

Not so in Oregon.\u00a0 Snow is an event in Oregon.\u00a0 Schools close at the possibility.\u00a0 The very forecasting of frozen precipitation sends people to the grocery store to stock up on supplies.\u00a0 The local news coverage is almost equal to an election year.\u00a0 We got four inches yesterday.\u00a0 KPTV deemed it ‘Arctic Blast 2008.’\u00a0 A tag line they repeated with such frequency it evoked hysterical giggles from Matt and I.<\/p>\n

\"Arctic<\/a><\/p>\n

To the uninitiated, snow experienced mid-westerner, this response is flabbergasting.\u00a0 My first year here, I looked aghast at my co-workers as they made plans to work from home at the slightest hint of snowfall.\u00a0 Tire chains are legal in this state.<\/p>\n

Then it snowed.\u00a0 Great big fluffy flakes, to the approximate depth of 1 – 2 inches.\u00a0 Then I learned.<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing.\u00a0 Northwestern Oregon is hilly.\u00a0 On average, winter temperatures are mild.\u00a0 Often above freezing, this means snow gradually melts and then turns into ice at night.\u00a0 Oregonians are a friendly people, but many of them drive\/crash in snow maybe once a year.\u00a0 I have never seen a plow in this area, unless you count a dirt mover, which I don’t.\u00a0 They don’t use salt.\u00a0 Let me emphasize this last point. with the first point.\u00a0 Oregon is hilly and they don’t use salt…<\/p>\n

I can accept everything but that last point.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the second point, the mild temperatures, the ice.\u00a0 This is dangerous.\u00a0 This is why things close down.\u00a0 Natives will tell you salt is not used because it damages the woodlands.\u00a0 Newsflash, that eurotrash weed, English ivy, ruins more roadside timber and greenery than a judicious application of road salt would.\u00a0 How about just the hills?\u00a0 Or how about this.\u00a0 How about we just all agree that snow is a reason to stay home.\u00a0 Yeah, you could go to work, but why?\u00a0 Go stare into the middle distance.\u00a0 Somewhat similar to computer problems when you can just shrug and say, “Look, I’m sorry, but the computer is down and there is nothing I can do.”\u00a0 People accept that.\u00a0 That’s what snow should be across the country.\u00a0 It snows and there is a collective shrug.\u00a0 The people we are shrugging at, they get it.\u00a0 They’ve been there.\u00a0 “What are going to do?\u00a0 It snowed,” they reply.<\/p>\n

The end result is, I finally get to have all those snow days that those hardy folk in Illinois denied me as a child.\u00a0 Take that Illinois.\u00a0 I even get to make the call.\u00a0 Work from home?\u00a0 Yes, I think I will, thank you.<\/p>\n

I now live in a state that is sane enough to let Mother Nature say, “Now hold on there little camper.\u00a0 You see that white stuff?\u00a0 That’s snow.\u00a0 You’d best stay home if you know what’s good for ya.\u00a0 Just a bucket of stupid out there.\u00a0 How ’bout some hot cocoa?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since moving to the great state of Oregon I have received two things I just never had in Illinois.\u00a0 Land for a garden and snow days.\u00a0 Before I moved to Oregon, snow was not a big deal, hardly an event.\u00a0 You want snow, Illinois will give you snow.\u00a0 Snow like no body’s business.\u00a0 Illinoisans have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[22,23],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts","category-work-life-balance","tag-sanity","tag-snow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/angie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}