Monday, February 11, 2019

Good morning! It’s Monday, February 11, 2019, and together we emerge blinking from our burrows after the snowstorm that picked Seattle over Portland, leaving us with just a chilly rain. Half an inch or more, with highs around 40, converting whatever snow you had into a dirty gray concrete that shrinks and dissipates into nothing. This rain would be falling as snow, but for the weathermaker’s left turn into Washington, which has been pulling up a southerly wind for us while delivering still more snow to Seattle. The NWS up there is calling the forecast for the next two days “extremely complicated.” Sunrise 7:18 AM….sunset 5:31 PM. And through it all, we’ll gain 12 minutes of daylight this week.

Road issues? Yes. Columbia Gorge. Snow flurries and spots of ice between Troutdale and the Dalles. There’s a winter storm warning east of Cascade Locks, but it looks like the snow level is rising, so we might not have our annual truckers convention at Exit 17.

School Announcements? There’ll be many; The Grammys were still on TV last night Battle Ground and Gresham-Barlow preannounced a 2-hour delay today.

Flight Delays? Ooh. Lots. Sixteen canceled and 21 delayed in and out of PDX as of 0300, mainly to SeaTac.

Power outages? The winds the kicked the cold out knocked over some branches too, and there are about 500 customers in east Multnomah and Clackamas Counties who are beginning their Monday with no hot coffee.

Glad that we’re not in it here in Portland, but our coziest good wishes to folks up I-5 from here.

Spring Training begins this week–some teams are having their first workout today! I think the Mariners begin tomorrow. Expectations are low for this year’s team. That’s the perfect recipe for a Cinderella year, of course, but sometimes a pumpkin is just a pumpkin.

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Portland’s City Club is out with report that says the local government is in dire need of a top-to-bottom redo, wiping out the current fossilized form in which the elected policymakers are also tasked with actually managing the bureaus–a skill that few politicians have, which is why virtually every other city has a professional city manager who’s hired by the council to run the bureaucracy. Instead, the City Club report says Portland should expand the size of its city council,and elect its members by district so that every part of town has a direct voice. This idea has come up again and again, and, like a sales tax, it’s been defeated every time. But that’s not to say it isn’t a good idea.

Speaking of government with sand in the gears…we’re plunging headlong into another shutdown, unless wiser heads somehow prevail. Friday is the deadline.

Came in from the cold after a few miles on the trails, pulled off my Yak Trax, and flipped on CBS in time to see Kasey Musgraves collect one of her Grammys, and remembered that she’s in Portland, at the Schnitz, one week from tonight. Stayed with the show for an hour and was struck by the power of the performances, one after another. Lady Gaga knocked my socks off, but others did too—I’m too jammed to do a review, but if you have comments, we’d love to hear! (Some of those performances out-powered what we saw at a recent football halftime, if you get my meaning).

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Let’s see…what other notes do I have for today…

The Oregon Symphony is doing Dvořák’s Eighth tonight at the Schnitz. It’s different from his others; more cheerful, rooted in Bohemian folk tunes, and pales in popularity to his smash-hit 9th.

Whitney Houston died seven years ago today.

It was on this day in 1990 that women were allowed to join Portland’s Arlington Club, which had been a posh man-cave .since 1867. It was on that very same day that Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years

This was the day three years ago that the last of militia cowboys holed up in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge surrendered to authorities, 41 days after that mess all began.

Happy birthday to the memory of Thomas Edison, whose inventions would have made him a billionaire if he’d been smart enough to be born a century later. Happy 56th birthday to Sheryl Crow, the music teacher turned rock star. And you’d be widely admired if you wore your hair in a “Rachel” today, because there are fifty candles on the cake for Jennifer Aniston. I’m going to use a “Friends” question on “Stump Bruce” today. (“Stump Bruce” is exactly the same as “Stump the Jock”—an interesting trivia question sent in by a listener–that we recently renamed because new people around here kept asking, ‘What’s a jock?”

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In the Daily Drip Coffee Cup today, you’ll find links to these stories, which are all good news except perhaps for the last one!

–“When Driver Sees Cash Flying Through the Air on the Highway, She Turns it All in to Grateful Widow”

–“Cab driver spoils scam on 87-year old woman”

–“Watch as firefighters rescue a family dog from a house fire”

–“Fast hands, calm mind: How an 11-year-old boy’s amazing crochet skills quiet his busy mind”

–“Yikes! There’s progress in Artificial Intelligence technology that could turn THOUGHTS into speech”

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And so was your weekend spent hunkered and snug, or venturous and bold? Do you have a vast cache of red wine and chocolate ice cream? Or Chardonnay and strawberry? There’s a good way of getting rid of all that vino…just turn it into a drinking game. Take a sip every time someone posts the ‘We will rebuild” joke. That’s still funny after 10,000 times. Or keep it as part of your earthquake kit! And about all those loaves of bread that were snatched off store shelves–who has a really good French toast recipe?

I’m doing the KEX/K103 fandango today, beating the headline deadline four times an hour and having a ball doing it. And delighted not to be staying in a hotel. So, I’d appreciate it if you Dripsters who are knowledgable in the folkways here would go on troll patrol. And I’m speed-typing this so, I know…typos.