Or, to be more exact, the threat of snow.
Whenever Portland receives a snow forecast, people far & wide start canceling out of activities, schools start closing, and the environment, in general becomes quite anxious.
Case in point. Last week, there was snow in the forecast. Tuesday morning, my housekeeper's day, this is what the ground looked like.
Because photos only give limited information, let me tell you what you're seeing: a white slushee. Big, fat, white snowflakes have floated to the ground and are sticking only on the greenery; on the pavement it melts. Interspersed with few-minute bouts of wet snow are clear times, and few-minute bouts of rain. Notice the wide path of running water making its way to the drain on the corner, just past the curb's edge.This was the situation at 9am. My housekeeper called to cancel.
After picking up the voice mail, I called her back and said that I would prefer it if she were able to show up. She said the traffic was backed up. I said if she wanted to come later in the day, that would be OK with me. She said she didn't want to miss any of her afternoon appointments, and that the weather report said the snow was supposed to get worse & worse during the week. I said that, of course, she needed to do what she believed in her best interest with regards to health & safety but, actually, it was only really sticking on the grass, that the streets were more like slushee wet (and that refers to my little side street: main streets were certainly quite clear), and that as the day continued the weather should continue to get even warmer. She told me she had already canceled her Wed & Thurs clients, too,and suggested she come on Friday instead. I said that if she felt the need to stay away then she should do so, but it didn't work for me for her to come on Friday (and then back next Tuesday): she should either come in today or simply skip it (and, unspoken, was that her pay would be docked for the missed week). She said she'd call back in an hour to let me know her decision. I said I wouldn't be home in an hour, and she could call if she liked but I'd know whether she came or not because I can always tell whether she's been here or not. I repeated that she should do as she felt best with regard to her health & safety, but, for my part, I hoped she'd be able to come in, and that snow wasn't sticking on the streets. She said she'd investigate the matter further.
When I came home at 12:30 it was apparent that not only had she come, she'd been able to do everything (or, at least, the most important parts) in even less time than usual.
Here's what the ground looked like then:
No snow at all, temperatures in the low 40s.(My 2-doors-down neighbor doesn't attend his landscaping much, so his leaves often clog my corner street drain. Shortly after snapping this photo I removed a bunch of mud + his leaves from the grate and the back up of water cleared away with a quickness.)
On the other hand, it did snow that night, starting around 8pm. It was gentle, fat, wet snow; it accumulated; it was very pretty. I had forgotten how everything gets quieter (muffled, plus less traffic, too) and brighter (reflected light) when there's snow on the ground.
Here's what it looked like when I came back from my gaming social:
The next morning it was very wet & melting: again, like someone had thrown a white slushee over everything. By afternoon it had all disintegrated into water. The next few days we had big rain (not torrential, but not like the often-present sprinkling or light rain).For that, my housekeeper quit on me: the as-yet unrealized threat of snow.
My point is not about her in specific: she's a VERY typical Portlander in that way. Yeah, some of our people come from the Midwest or East coast, and they know how to drive in snow, but generally speaking, fear of the threat of snow shuts people down here, and it's one of the few things about Portland that consistently annoys me.
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