It”s a hard freeze
My friend A got a traffic ticket a while back and has a court appearance this morning, so he asked me to give him a ride from Oregon City to Downtown Portland. It is 23 degrees out there, a hard freeze. My biggest worry, since the ice is less slippery than it woud be closer to 32, is "the other guy". I got my tires siped last month, and it helps, but….
Idiots with their huge 4x4s think the laws of physics don’t apply to them. Well, they aren’t the only idiots out there… Portlanders forget how to drive in poor weather after a few weeks of sun.
I got up early to turn on the TV and to check the court online… and it’s open at the normal time. Damn. I wanted to stay home. I called A when I left home – gave myself double the usual time to drive down there, and I idled down 99 to Oregon City at a safe 30 mph or less. A lives on one of the hills in Oregon City and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it up that hill. I called A when I was this side of the Clackamas river and he walked down to meet me near the highway.
Since I had the news on, I knew that they’d been de-icing the interstates, so even though it’s kind of out of the way to go I-205 to I-84 into downtown, we drove that way instead of US 99, which is more direct.
No problems. I stayed in the right lane and kept it under 45 – everyone else was passing me. Fuck ’em, I’m not going any faster than I feel like.
(I got online before I left home this morning and changed the deductible on my car insurance – I can’t afford that thousand dollar deductible any more. MAYBE I could scrape up 500 on the Visa card, but I don’t want to have to – slow is ok with me, and when I dropped A off downtown, I drove straight home. It’s safer here in my apartment).
Yeah, I’m sorta wimpish.
It will be all of 18 degrees F tonight, another HARD freeze, and I don’t have to go out.
*****
It was a bench warrant for A if he didn’t show up, and they DON’T CARE what the weather was like – we HAD to try.
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Glad you made it back home safe. I’m home today as well. I thought I would try to make it, but the people I work for called and said not to worry. They live on a steep hill in the Cedar Hills area, I guess it’s nasty over there. Off to work more on my paper. Enjoy your lazy day.
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well I guess you’re not going to come up here and help me get wood then if the temp’s bother you…lol
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not a thing wrong with wanting to be safe inside where the ice and snow isn’t. take care,
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yeah it’s c-c-c-c-c-c-old around here too.
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i know all about the justice system not closing for bad weather. Our president judge says “i can get in”—well, not everyone has a mercedes and a garage to keep a car in. I can take vacation time, but then what do i do when it IS vacation time! Glad he is retiring this year and a new judge is coming in. I think she is more sensible about weather conditions. 18 tonight—brrrr—sure didn’t
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miss doing papers when it was that cold out, or snowing, or icy. You did the smart and safe thing coming home.
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I am glad you don’t have to spend the morning putting newspapers together in the cold warehouse. I spent the day in an unheated home office fixing computers and that was enough for me. I don’t want to think about what it would be like in the early morning!
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RYN: Oh, I agree that many people come into our lives for various reasons. I also think that it is possible to be in love with more than one person. However, my upbringing always seems to overshadow my conscious. Organized rules based on conformity mold me back into shape and control some of my decisions. There being only ONE person in life is more of an expectation rather than reality, thesedays. I do admit that I tend to revert back to those ancient ways of life and thus am doomed to live a life of uncertainity and imprisonment.
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I drove 15 miles each way in 9 degree weather to fetch my turkey. I was very glad to be home. WHere I live now is only 1.5 blocks to the nearest grocery store and about a half mile to the “big” store. Ace and Truvalue are between the two. Nice and compact. The pharmacy is only a block away….
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