Guess what! It snowed this morning! If this does not sound like exciting news, you obviously have not spent very many winters in Oregon. The default winter landscape in these parts is rain or sun. This winter, in particular, we have had so much rain that Oregon has lived up to its reputation as a drenched state. But when it’s not raining, we just have cold, clear skies. (Which, incidently, can be just as beautiful as snow. 
)
But this morning we had honest to goodness Valentine’s Day snow!
It didn’t stick, of course. By this afternoon it had completely melted away, leaving no trace but a small buildup on the bottom of our cars’ windshields, which my friends did not fail to mold into projectiles and fling at me after class. Now, as I look outside, it is bright, sunny, and completely devoid of residual snow. Ah well.
But really, we are quite unaccustomed to snow here. Two years ago, we had unprecedented INCHES of snow on the ground on New Years’ Day. The city just about ground to a halt. In every neighborhood, children burst out of their houses covered from head to toe in puffy winter gear, toting toboggans and snow-shoeing their way down the streets. OKAY. Maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but we sure didn’t know it. There were actual inches of snow on the ground, people! Inches! Suffice to say, we get excited about snow in Oregon.
Why the weather chose to dump a tantalizing bit of snow on us this morning, I don’t know. It’s certainly the first real snow we’ve had all winter… and probably the last, as well. Oh well. I’ll just look forward to the half centimeter we’ll undoubtedly get next year.
February 15th, 2006 at 2:27 am
wow, looks like you got a bit more out where you live than at the O.House here. Stuck a bit thicker. But it was definitely awesome. I ran around in it and caught snowflakes in my mouth! Yay! Had I been in a class on campus I totally would have just stood up and walked out saying, “Excuse me professor, but IT”S SNOWING!” and left!
I’m still bitter about that snow we had in 2004. That was the day I left for New Zealand and I wake up to find 4-6 inches on the ground with it still coming down… and I’m flying out, first time we’d had snow that deep in Eugene in probably close to 7 years…. and I missed out on all of it, including the ensuing week or two. 10 hours later I was debarking the plane for my layover in Fiji and 80degree weather…
February 15th, 2006 at 2:27 am
PS - The FedEx man wished me Merry Christmas today.
I say this was God’s valentine’s day gift to us
February 15th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Lol! That’s great about walking out of class. That’s totally how we feel here when it snows, because it NEVER does!
Also, it sucks that you missed the “Great Snow of ‘04.”
But you were on your way to New Zealand, so I don’t feel too sorry for you. 