Wasted Time . . . Hope and Prayers

             Marketing is horrible in Douglas County.  I noticed that shortly after we moved here from Salt Lake.  Marketing in Salt Lake was ALWAYS in everyone’s face ALL of the time.  It was quite refreshing not having advertisements and commercialism thrown at us every single minute – but I slowly understood the need.  Surely there has got to be a happy medium.

Roland and I had both applied for several positions in August.  Nothing seemed to pan out.  Perhaps that is why Roland went with this hidden jewelry store which others had evidently heard of.  I never have.  The location is NOT a prime location.  It’s set back behind several food places. 

For the first two months of being hired the Roseburg location wasn’t even open – though the building was there. The pandemic had slowed down its reopening.  And then when they did reopen they didn’t have any heat. 

The employees there really like Roland and wish he was the manager.  He was enthusiastic for the first six weeks or so but is no longer happy with it. 

        I haven’t been very supportive about Roland’s job situation.  I feel bad that I haven’t been as the cloud above his head has burst.  I am certain that I have contributed to that – but not totally.  It has just taken him longer to understand my complaints – well some of them anyway.

        Initially he had said that if he didn’t get hired in the manager position that he would not take the job.  He was not offered the manager position but he did take the job.  It is at less than what he was making through the school.  

I think I posted about the local community college calling finally calling back (from August – just getting around to it September/October) and had one interview but was not called back.  Now he has an opportunity to interview through the VA – also applied to in August.  We are now praying that this one will pan out. I think that even if it does not Roland will be giving his two weeks notice pretty soon.  NO ONE is happy there.  Wasted time.

Decisions and Ripple Effects

          How many of our decisions affect others?  Choosing to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich over tuna fish may not have any kind of a ripple effect as making a choice to drive or walk toward oncoming traffic. 

          Yesterday morning Balras Sing Dhillon had stopped his car just outside of Myrtle Creek.  Whether it was a conscience decision or not is unknown. 

Police received a call about a vehicle stopped in the northbound left lane of the interstate approximately six in the morning and went to investigate. When they approached the vehicle, the driver took off. 

The driver continued for another mile before crashing into the medium.  He must have climbed over the medium after he abandoned his car.  Was he running from the police?  Was he so disoriented that he didn’t know what he was doing?  I believe the latter as it is said he ran onto the freeway and was struck by multiple cars that were going southbound.  Just before he died several people were affected by the decisions he had made.

Drivers between Exits 119 and 113 had nowhere to go.  They were stuck in traffic – lives were changed.  I do not know how many jobs were affected.  I know there were schools that were missing a number of instructors for one to three hours (depending on what time each school started).

The decision made created lost time – not only for the teachers but their students as well.  In one school the students of the absent instructors were required to go to the gym.  There they were given the choice to participate in physical activity or watch from the bleachers.  It was suggested they do homework or study – which many were obviously not doing as they surfed on cell phones or visited.

It was a weird day for everyone.  Instructors.  Students.  Aides.  Other community members who had been called to assist until the instructors arrived.

Often the decisions we make – whether consciously or not – affect others. The driver was a 35-year-old man from Lincoln, California.  We don’t know what brought him to Oregon.  That is what the media said.  The fatal accident is still under investigation as so much is unknown.

I am reminded of another incident also involving a car.  The driver had not taken his medication and was not supposed to be driving.  He wasn’t in his right mind when he made his decisions.  He drove onto the sidewalk and hit some students who were walking along 4000 West as they were returning home from Kearns Junior High.  Some media indicated there were seven students.  Other said five. 

I don’t recall the year it happened.  But I remember seeing the emergency lights spinning in the dark.  The road had been closed for more than 24 hours.  All the students involved had been taken to the hospital.  None of them were kept overnight as I recall. I don’t know what emotional scars were created or how long they lasted.

The one thing about Utah is there are alternatives.  There are back roads and exits that will still allow one to go in all four directions.  Here, in Oregon, there are not a lot of back roads or options.  We may think our decisions might not matter – but they do.

It Was on my Agenda

            Even though I knew I had two classes coming up, I had agreed to fill in for one of the aides during the last two weeks of February.  Technically, my two classes started on President’s Day which I had off.  Still, I struggled through that first week and did not make the best grades compared to the other ones I have been getting.

            It snowed on the last Sunday in February.  The next morning I had three messages on my phone:  “Buses will be delayed for two hours on Monday morning”  “Buses will be delayed for two hours on Monday morning”  and “School has been canceled for Monday."  I thought I'd take advantage of having the time off and get a better jump start on my classes than I had the week before.  I was able to listen to the live lecture and had completed one discussion post before taking what I thought would be a short break

            When I lived in Salt Lake City,  it was rare when anything closed due to snow - even with several feet on the ground.  I appreciated the many times UDOT worked around the clock trying to clear the main roads and eventually get to the side streets.  It is safer to have dry roads.

       Roads were still busy with cars regardless of the weather - some drivers had experience driving in the snow, but there were several behind the wheel who should have been taking public transportation which was my preferred method of transportation to use on those wicked snowy days.  UDOT had the equipment for dealing with the snow.

       The roads in Oregon are very different from the ones in Salt Lake.  Schools close when there are less than two inches on the ground.  Even though they call it a "snow day" it is really about the conditions of the road which are windy, only two lanes (one lane per direction) no guard rails and major drops - thus if a vehicle slides due to the ice or moisture, it may go off the road and over the edge - not a good thing for anybody but really not in favor with a busload of children.

            Aside from the roads and lack of equipment, this part of Oregon also has many wimpy plants that are also not conducive to even a light snow.  Anything more than two inches seems to be too heavy.  The plants take on a new shape if they don't topple over.  We had lost power in Utah due to trees or other items falling over power lines, but not like this. The snow in Oregon is a slushy snow.  Heavy wetness.  Nobody who lives here has ever recalled snowfall like what came down the last week of February.

            I had made plans.  Lots of plans.  There were clothes on the bed which I needed to put away.  I had only posted one discussion and would need to post for my other class.  Plus I needed to set up a Linkedin account as part of my grade. Right before the power went out, I had headed toward the closet where we keep the vacuum cleaner.  I never made it to the door. I had accomplished only one thing that was on my to-do list.  I still haven't put all the clothes away. How ironic, as that was the only chore I have had that hasn't required electric power.

            So what's the first thing we do when the power goes out?  Wait a few minutes to see if it will come back on.  Run out to the shed and make sure the lamps, batteries, propane, cords, and gasoline are where they are supposed to be. We thought we were prepared.  We had those things.  We have food storage, water, a snow shovel.

            Roland dragged out the generator as we didn't know how long we'd be without power and needed the outside light to hook up the generator before nightfall.  It wouldn't start, however.  We had to look for an alternate.

            Several years ago Roland had purchased a portable heater called Big Buddy.  We had it first in the Kearns house and moved it with us to West Valley and then out to Oregon.  We had never even used it before.  It was still in the box. 

           

            We had several batteries including D batteries.  In addition to what was in Roland's office, we kept exactly eight D batteries in a bag tied around our lantern as that is how many it took.  We hadn't stored any batteries with the Big Buddy.  Roland found enough to get it going but was short two which we borrowed from the lantern supply.

             

            On Tuesday morning Roland had suggested we drive to Eugene. He thought we could go to the library to hang and get warm.  We also needed to purchase some items.  As we passed Winston and Roseburg, there were signs of power – but not all of Roseburg.  Not all of Winston.

            Walmart was open in Roseburg.  We ended up picking up items there and at Costco.  It’s just as well that we didn’t go to Eugene.  We would not have arrived as I5 was closed from Cottage Grove to further up in Lane County.  It sounds like it was closed for quite a while.

            I took the opportunity to use the wifi on Roland's phone and looked up the phone numbers for my instructor's so that I could call the following day if our power was restored.  Even without the wifi, I believed I had a way of retrieving the numbers without wifi. I did have to call on Wednesday morning.

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