Dear Wacky Mommy:

Baffled in PDX

Dear Baffled:

What it means, my friend, is you are an idiot, because school had a two-hour late opening today and you didn’t know. Loser. Yeah, that was us this morning. Funny thing is, we were on time for only the second time this week. Kinda neat, huh? Actually, really neat, because it meant that instead of heading to reading groups, we headed to Sohbet Coffeehouse. I’m having some peppermint tea, and homemade granola with honey and fresh apples. I already had a cappucino, and the kids had hot cocoa.

And… Hockey God’s with us. A rare Friday sighting of my husband. He’d planned to do a troubador kinda thing with Wacky Boy’s pre-k class — playing the guitar for the little tykes as they strolled from class to class, wearing their paper reindeer antlers and jingling bells, singing (you knew it) “Jingle Bells.” (Not the “Batman Smells” version, either.)

But no morning pre-k because of late opening. Funny thing about Portland — anytime there might be a storm, or actually is a storm, or someone remembers one time there was a storm — the town pretty much shuts down. An inch of snow? Leave work early. Lots of rain? Call in sick. Portland is slacker-happy this way.

Thus it is a gorgeous sunny morning here in North Portland, yet we have late school opening. The west side did get hit pretty hard by the winds, I heard. But the Portland School District has a kind of all for one/one for all attitude and doesn’t close schools individually.

Some of our more famous storms: Columbus Day Storm, way back in 1962 — Zoot, there’s a map on there for you; and the various ice storms of the 1970s (We “cooked” Jell-o outside on the back steps! We pulled the sled to Fred Meyer to do the shopping! Then Fred Meyer lost power and we had to leave!) There was the “Big One” in 1995; the flooding in 1996, etc.

It’s not too bad in this part of the world, despite the erratic, moody climate.

My least favorite thing about living here is when climbers get lost. When families get lost. When skiers ski off-course. There are three climbers lost on Mt. Hood right now — they’ve been missing since Sunday. So send those good thoughts out this way, please. Sometimes it’s not just sunshine and drinking hot cocoa, waiting for school to open.

xxox

WM