la dolly vita

A lot of nothing has happened since my last post. I finished the previous blog with mention of the weather, so that's where I'll start. It has been cold and white with snow. Local meteorologists were calling this the worst storm since 2004. I don't think they're saying that anymore. I think it's much worse.

Last week, I moved from Shaun's to Derek's house. Shaun said I was welcome to stay longer, but I wanted to give them time to prepare for company. And they've got the baby coming and all. Derek's baby (aka 'the kid') is about 50 days old, so that makes it totally ok for me to crash there. They're not busy. My second day there was my birthday. We played Wii and picked up some yummy Mexican food for dinner. I had the spinach enchiladas. I really enjoyed them. They had lots of shrimp, so I thought of my mom - because she likes shrimp, not because she is a shrimp. The roads were just a little slushy, so we were able to drive to the restaurant.

Derek and I drove to the grocery store on Friday. It was super crowded and kind of unpleasant. We complained to each other about people driving around town with snow chains on bare pavement. Derek even rolled down his window a couple times to yell at people. It was funny. Later that evening we headed to TVCTV to film an episode of Portland Men on Sports. I didn't help set up too much. I pretty much just helped Derek roll the cameras out from the corner. My big job was to sit in the control room and control which cameras got recorded. Camera 1 when Derek talks. Camera 3 when Loren talks. Camera 2 when they talk to each other. Not hard, but kinda fun to feel like I had an impact on the final product.


I worked a half day on Saturday. The schedule was light because of the weather. I saw only two patients. Too bad. After work, I gassed up at the 76 on Walker, kinda near the Nike campus. I jibber-jabbered with the gas attendant, which is unusual for me. Of course, we talked about the weather. This was the first time I've put regular unleaded in the car since I got it four years ago. No worries. I don't think I'll be hitting the gas hard enough for the supercharger to kick in anytime soon. I decided to change a setting on my navigator before leaving the lot. The lot goes slightly uphill before going down the driveway to the street. I had a bit of trouble getting up that little hill from a standstill. My wheels spun and I fishtailed a bit when I let the car roll down the hill. And I still couldn't go, so I backed up more. And I still couldn't go, so I backed up more...then I made it up the hill and down the driveway. That lot was unusually high with snow. I guess the asphalt and lack of traffic allowed greater accumulation than other areas.

I returned to Dereks to pack up and grab a quick bowl of chili for lunch. In the 45 minutes I was there packing, enough snow fell to fill the foot prints I made walking from my car to the house. My original plan was to leave Sunday, but I knew the weather was getting worse with more snow and ice coming. I didn't want to get stuck in Portland. Because the days I'm working in Salem are so close to the holiday, the doctor I'm working for made me sign a contract with a special section about penalties for not being able to work...severe monetary penalties. I'm glad Vince allowed me to come a day early. Actually, my original, original plan was to spend last week in Roseburg for my birthday before working in Beaverton on Saturday, but the weather messed that up. No worries, though.


So, here I am at Vince's. Vince and I drove around town last night so he could show me around. It's a neat little town. We got plenty of freezing rain rather than snow. It's so pretty. And again, I'm glad I'm here now. When I left Portland, chains were required only on semis on I-5 from Portland south to Wilsonville. Now, chains are required on all vehicles in the Portland Metro area.

A special welcome to my one and only follower. It's like having my very own fan club.