Here's a stitched-together panorama from our dining room window. Let's put this into context:
In this picture, it's 8PM the Saturday night before Christmas. Peacock Lane is directly in front, in the center of the frame, behind the tree. On the Saturday before Christmas, Peacock Lane should look like a shopping mall on Black Friday. There should be carolers. There should be crowds.
Except...
When it's 18 degrees, with sustained winds of 20+mph. That's what you're looking at, here.
It's beautiful. You just don't get much of a chance to see Peacock Lane like this unless you just happen to live staked out at the top of the street like we do. Not that I'm bragging. Just sayin'.
Today, two days later, the snow has accumulated so as to fill the streets up to the curb. I worked today from the dining room table. The VPN to work is running much better than in the past. I was able to do almost everything I would normally do from the office, but from home. In the picture here, you can see people walking down the center of what should be Peacock Lane itself...if it weren't buried in the snow.
This morning I did some work on the Odyssey. Installed the chains, tested the battery and charged it when I couldn't get the engine to turn over. Once it did start, I idled it for a good half hour to defrost the windows. Not because we needed to go anywhere, but just so -- if we did need to drive today, we could. Just being prepared.
Other people today were prepared for work as well, Until almost dusk today, the most common form of transport on Stark Street was cross country skis. The most common mode of travel this morning, for people who were obviously commuting to downtown, were their skis. Really. Here's one of the half-dozen sets of ski tracks they were creating in the process. This set of tracks ran over the sidewalk in front of our house.
Our plan has been to travel "over the hill and through the woods" to grandmother's house on Christmas eve. At this moment, all those highways are closed. We could, in theory, drive along the Columbia River to Astoria, then down Hwy 101 to get there. That's a 200-mile, four-hour drive...but it gets us there
Better than using the cross country skis to get to Grandma's!
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