Them Thar Hills

          Jenna loved the snow.  When she'd been spotlighted in her kindergarten class, I mentioned that winter was her favorite season.  It was at the time, but I don't know if it still is. Like me, she also likes the fall. She does love the snow, but she also became sick of it one year as there were tons of it dumped down on us;  it was so high and so long that we were glad when it finally came to an end. 

          Each time it snows in Oregon (which is NOT often in the area where we live) she has gotten more excited - which is kind of funny, because I think with each snowfall we've received, the amount that sticks has been more pathetic than the last (which is fine by me;  enough so it's pretty, but not so much that I have to drive in it)

          When we lived in Salt Lake, Roland would point out whatever mountain we were driving towards and ask Jenna, "What's the name of that mountain?" or "What is that mountain called?"  It became a game for them. She'd answer: "Candy Mountain"  "Carmel Mountain"  "Beautiful Mountain and So Forth"

          Yesterday it snowed.  Flurried off and on.  Moments of sunshine.  The snow hadn't stuck until this morning.  I expect it will be gone by this afternoon - except in the hills above us.  For the first time since we've been in Oregon, Roland pointed to the hill next to the towers and asked, "Jenna, what's the name of the mountain." 

         

          "I don't know."

          "I call it Tower Hill,"  I volunteered.

         

          "What's the name of the one next to it?"

          Jenna finally volunteers, "Dwight."  Made me laugh.  So now we have a new nickname for the hill next to Tower Hill.  We will call  it "Dwight"

It appears that Dwight has more snow than Towers.  LOL

Jenna's Wish List

Jenna has never been greedy with her wish list.

Some things are not practical.
Generally her wish is short.

She rated the following from 1 - 10,
10 being the highest.  Only 7 things on her list.
What I'd like to fulfill most is wish #4.
That will require a lot of prayer.

She just wrote her list in random order

but not order of importantness. 
The two things from the list that
she would like most
I don't have control.

1.      New  charger for tablet

(Roland finally broke down and
got one for her as she was using
up his phone battery.)      
                  rates this as a 2

2.      "Everyone wants to steal your cheese" t- shirt

          rates a 7. 

3.      toy box chocolate surprise                  
          I don't even know what that is
          rates a 4

 4.     a good friend to move in across the street         

          this is one we both would like
          both of us would make this a 10

5.      common sense hoodie

          rates a 5

6.      better singing skills     rates a 6

          I think somebody in the ward
          offers singing lessons.  I will look more
          into that

7.      brothers    10


She would also like to see it snow.  I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

No Weather Consistency - so What else is New?

          It's been raining quite a bit this year - more than usual from what we understand.  More downpour and more frequent.  And yet the riverbed told a different story - as though it had been recently drained.  The last two times I checked, the water was fast and appeared to be near overflowing.

          Springtime came early last year.  Mid-February it seemed.  This year Spring just barely started.  It snowed on December 12, 2015 and again in January 2017.  We heard that snow in these parts is rare.  December 12th snow was gone on December 13.  This year the snow didn't stick around, but did snow more often.

           We've also experienced hail.  I have not used my winter boots since February, but have not returned them to the shed just in case.

          We moved in at the end of a drought.  It was always hot and smoky.  The fire meter was usually on extreme, sometimes high, but never lower - not until September anyway.  I did take a picture of the one in Myrtle Creek.  This is not it, but the faded needle mark is the same as shown in this photo:

          The ground, overall, has been too soggy to step on.  The lawn needs mowing, but it makes for wet grass and mud.  The hills are really green right now.  No matter what the weather, I seem to get hot between 6:00 and 8:00 pm.  What’s up with that?

          I know this post seems disjointed.  Sort of like the weather.

         

         

Visiting Salem

                It seems highly possible that we will be moving again within the next 2-3 years.  Roland wants to start a business, and we considered an adult day care in Myrtle Creek - we had even found the most perfect building and location - but the business will need to be open 6-8 months before we can get the benefits for Veteran and Medicare support.  It would be less costly just to take over someone else's business or become a sub company and partner with a business that already has a name; they would be our parent company, I suppose. 

        He has talked to a woman in Taggart who offers adult day care as well as residency.  We are just interested in doing the daycare portion at this time.  Or he is, rather. I have not made it a secret with how I feel about business.  I don't want to get into food.  I think Roland would rather just leave Myrtle Creek and go to where he can not only create a business, but establish cliental - which actually doesn't seem so promising in Myrtle Creek.  Roland will have to educate potential cliental on whatever business he chooses - where some of more populated cities are already in the frame of mind to except (or even accept) whatever kind of business Roland may open.  

         I personally, will have a very hard time leaving this area.  I love the close-knit - pull-together community that we currently live in - not necessarily offered in larger cities.  Roland's always talking about moving to Eugene - which is my opinion seems to resemble Salt Lake City in many ways.  No.  I don't want to live in Lane County.  I'd be willing to move to Polk or Marion County.  I wanted to prove to him that Eugene and Portland are not the only two cities in Oregon with business opportunity.  On Saturday we went to our state's capitol city: Salem. 

        Most of the items I had written on my list for outdoors and the weather was quite overcast and often raining.  The Riverfront Carousel is an indoor carrousel.  It was a two and a half hour drive each way, but I think it was worth it to capture Jenna's smile. 

        We first stopped at a Burger King in Cottage Grove.  We were hungry.  She always asks for a crown.  I think at least two of my boys would do the same, and proudly wear the crown.

        The name of Jenna's horse was Razzle Dazzle.  She noticed the horse's medallion right away.  I don't think I would have noticed.  We thought it to be exceptionally cool.

I thought she should be on the outside  so that she could grab rings out of the fish's mouth.  The person that ends up with the "brass" ring gets another free ride. 

Jenna leaned out to grab the rings.  I think we had seven of them.  Assorted red, white and green.  But there was a heavier ring to represent the brass ring. 

        So Jenna went around again and smiled widely as she collected rings. 

        We took a short walk around the grounds and took a few pictures of the riverfront. 

       

        After Jenna finished with her delight at the children's playground (which she is obviously too big for)

        We headed to the Salem Public Library.  We were allowed to park for free as there was an event going on.  Several tables had been set up by members of the community to advertise places of business - sort of like an indoor fair without the food or rides.

        Jenna loved earning prizes and demonstrated her skills on ukulele. 

        The instructor's were impressed with how quickly she picked up on the fingering, but Uncle Bill had showed how back when we were still living in Utah.

        I have a cousin who lives in Salem.  Unfortunately we have not been able to touch base (except through facebook) since we arrived in this state.

        I had a lot of ideas in my head about what to post and how many new blogs I could create.  It was the weekend and my family became a priority over the keyboard.  Or else I have been tired.

        It snowed on Sunday morning.  Jenna was really happy about that.  We drove to Church in the same conditions we had faced all too often in Salt Lake . . . but it was gone long before Church let out.  Weird.

Abnormal Weather and Our Wonderful Neighbors

          Yesterday I received a phone recording to inform me that school had been canceled.  Outside there was more snow than we had seen since arriving in Douglas County - not enough to close schools in Utah.  I remember taking Jenna to school when the snow was higher than she was - though I'm sure even Salt Lake would consider closing if the snow were actually as tall as she is now.

          Northern Utah is equipped with salt and bulldozers and snowplows, etc.  It's actually routine.  And the schools calendars account for snow days.  The citizens don't encounter the harsh weather in this part of Oregon - or so we've been told.  Bus drivers already have the challenge of a narrow and windy road with drops on either side.  They haven't been trained to deal with the elements of slick roads due to snow and ice.

          My son has complained about getting stuck in the snow, and Jenna offers no sympathy it has been her hope to have an opportunity to play in the white stuff as she did in Utah. Yesterday provided her that opportunity. She decided to spend her snow day sliding down hill. 

        She moved to an area closer to the house - closer to the pipe where the hose is connected.  She crashed into the pipe and we had a fountain in our yard for about 20 minutes.  We're not blaming her.  I think the person who sold the house tried to cover up the flaws rather than repair them.  I honestly believe the weak pipe was one of those flaws.

          Plumbers aren't as available here as they are in Salt Lake.  Contractors, electricians and so forth might live within the county, but it's highly probable that they come from another county altogether.  I don't even remember who we called, but I thought it would take a while and wanted the water shut off so that we wouldn't have to be billed for the ice skating rink that was starting to form in our yard.  

         

          After the water was shut off, our neighbor from behind us drove around to assist.  I don't know if he's a licensed plumber, but he's certainly less costly and just as efficient.  Roland was still on the clock as he tried to remove the water from the pipe so that our neighbor could repair.  They turned the water back on and everything seems to be working.  We covered the pipe so it didn't freeze overnight.

          Buses were delayed again for two hours this morning.  The snow can be seen on some of the hilltops, but no longer on the trees.  I suspect any snow that can be seen from the house will be gone by the time Jenna returns.

           After she had gone to school on Tuesday, I had purchased some chocolate cherries for Cherry Chocolate Day.  We held our candy upside down so that they looked like cups and we made a pretend toast. 

          Yesterday we made up questionnaires and looked up trivia games on line as it was trivia day.  Today is whipped cream day.  Before she left the house I had her listen to "Whipped Cream" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (here) and we started watching the 1961 version of the parent trap as I thought the twins might have worn whipped cream on their faces in the scene where they are fighting during the dance at camp.  They don't.  But it almost looks like it could be on one face.

          We did not finish.  We will watch the remaining 45 minutes after she gets home.  Maybe we could even make and eat whipped cream.  We'll see.  We obviously can't make purchases for every single (non) holiday.  That would get too expensive.

Lights in Rain to Snow to Power Outage

            We were told that a light parade is done each year.  It takes place on the second Saturday of December.  The vehicles start the drive in Riddle and move through Tri-City and through Highway 99 over to the street just behind the one we're on.  The parade then turns down the only street that connects Riverside to Division,  Division to one of the numbered avenues and then on to Main Street. 

            The parade is a big deal, and downtown offers free hot drinks and chili.  There are fireworks at the park stadium.  This has been a tradition for 22 years now from what I understand. I was surprised they were able to do the fireworks with all the rain.  We heard  that it's unusual to have that much rain to fall throughout the day and hasn't happened often. 

            Roland found a corner where two couples were standing beneath an awning.  They had a fire going and told us we could join them.  They said it was rare that it was the only corner with a fire going.  In the past there have been fires on at least three corners.  They bring out hot dogs, marshmallows and sodas.  They said we were welcome to whatever they had, but that it was on the inside of the house rather than outdoors where they usually cook it (I guess)

            We had waited for the parade for a longer time than the parade itself.  Our neighbor said she counted 32 vehicles and clocked at 7 minutes and 23 seconds.  I, for one, was rather impressed.  I wish I could have captured the beauty of it all - but my pictures don't do justice.  We did create a video off Roland's phone. I was able to load it to facebook (finally).

            My neighbor said the sky had been pounding the rain down all night.  It didn't stop until after 4:00 yesterday morning.   When it stopped being rain.  I really wasn't surprised to see snow on the ground yesterday morning.  We'd been told that it rarely ever snows in these parts.  A light snow really.  From what I'm used to.  Jenna was excited.  She built a snowman, made snow angels and begged for a snowball fight. 

            I don't know what time we lost power.  We used the backup generator we had to check the status against what we had heard on the wind-up radio we have.  It wasn't just Myrtle Creek or Douglas County that was without power.  Medford was mentioned and so was Grants Pass.  That's a lot of area. Our generator went out while we were still online.  It's pretty useless now.

            Roland went to Roseburg and back.  He purchased a new generator and several power chords.  He wanted to be prepared for the upcoming week.  He works from home and needs the Internet.  But by then, the Internet had gone out as well.  We didn't have church.

            We had invited our neighbor to come over and enjoy our heat and play some games.  She stayed with us until the power returned.  .  Pacific Power had reported almost 7,000 customers throughout Douglas, Josephine and Jackson counties were without power as of Monday morning. That number is down from the 25,000 that were without power on Sunday. We are quite  blessed that our power had returned when it did.  The schools in all three counties were either delayed a few hours or else cancelled altogether

            It reminded us of a Christmas when we had lost power all day - which actually provided perks for many families.  Jenna says she remembers and would like the power to go out on Christmas this year.  She wants only lights from the tree and a lantern at the table so that we can play games.  I'd like to listen to music.  Both of us seem dead set about the television being on.  Now that we have a new generator, Roland would still resort to a video, I think.

          

  We were standing near this fire pit.  The awning provided protection as we watched the parade.  Unfortunately it was not able to protect itself.

same corner as  parade route the night before

continuing down this street