Monday, February 25, 2019

Good morning to you on Monday, February 25, 2019! We’re under a winter weather advisory in the Portland area until 2 PM, but whatever’s happening should wrap up much earlier. There’s a light snow falling at my house, but it’s a mild 38 degrees, and we’re heading into an interesting morning with lots of dynamic changes as time progresses. It’s been snowing hard in the southern and mid-Willamette Valley, and it looks like it’s weakening as it moves north toward Portland, where the official forecast calls for snow at times. Snow accumulation of up to 2 inches. Highs around 35. The NWS adds: “Snow is increasing in intensity as far north as a McMinnville-West Linn line based on airport observations, radar trends, and social media reports. Expect snow to increase across the Oregon side of the PDX metro area by the morning commute, though road temperatures are very marginal for accumulation for the lowest urban areas. Forecast still looks on track for the Washington side of the metro area to receive less than 1 inch of accumulation while southern portions of the metro area can still expect to receive an inch or two of wet, slushy accumulation.”

So in other words….not much more than an inch in Portland, but heavy snow in the Gorge and the Valley.

Tweet from Pacific Power: Widespread outage impacting customers in Douglas, Klamath & Lane counties w/approx 25K out. Heavy snow causing lines & trees down.

From TriMet: With light snow falling in some areas and temperatures near freezing, TriMet is keeping a close watch on conditions throughout the metro area. We currently have no weather-related issues on bus lines, MAX lines or WES Commuter Rail.

I’m thinking we’ll get lots of delayed school openings…Battleground, for example, is already on the clock for a two-hour late schedule, and a lot more will coming rolling in between now and 6.

Since I’m in my jammies like you and not on the radio like usual, I’m counting on you to shares pix and descrips of what’s happening where you are. Let’s enjoy this moment of snow if we get some. Because as a poet once said, “All it’s got to take is some warmth to make it Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away. Otherwise, here comes a sunless day. But I look at the world and notice it’s turning: Sunrise 6:56 AM, sunset 5:51 PM. And if the snow has somehow missed your house, you stick around and it may show, I don’t know. I don’t know.

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Emergency cold shelters are open.

A white-bearded gent brought his llama aboard a Max train, which was fine.

The city is talking about running the streetcar out to Forest Park.

The Beavers swept the Cornhuskers in baseball.

The Oscars were on last night, and I’d really like to crowd-source this, too. My sweety brought some nice ribbons home from the weekend shows in Albany, so we had the sound down on the TV. Anything worth talking about?

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I don’t know why there isn’t some kind of Oregon Gas Tax Centennial party, but today’s the day, so party on! It was 100 years ago that a campaign called “Get Oregon Out of the Mud” culminated in our state imposing the first gasoline tax in the nation. It was a penny a gallon, which then cost a quarter. The money was promised to build the Pacific Highway, the first paved border-to-border highway west of the Mississippi–which a designer claims was routed near the rural homes of legislators in order to win their vote–as well as beginning the Columbia River Highway. The oil companies were all for it–because paved and rutless roads meant lots of people driving their gasoline-powered jalopies on them. (You’d get 21 MPG on a Model T). Today the Oregon gas tax is 34 cents a gallon, Washington’s is 49, the federal government siphons its own 18 cent tax out of every gallon, and it all began right here one century ago to “Get Oregon Out of the Mud.” And remember the words of the poet: “Should five percent appear too small/ Be thankful I don’t take it all.” Party on.

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Let’s warm up this wintry morning!

–“Cop Pulls Over 3-Yr-Old On Tricycle, Then Challenges Her To Cutest Street Race Ever”

–“‘Umbrella guy, thank you’: Internet praises man shielding student in a wheelchair from rain”

–“Estonians rescue wild wolf from ice thinking it was a dog”

–“Residents leap into action to direct stranded whales back to open water ”

–“Respect the penny’: Montrealer scours city to find lost coins”

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It’s George Harrison’s birthday (1943). You strip down Beatles’ songs into their components, and damn, that quiet and serious lead guitarist was good. Plus he came into his own as a songwriter–just as the Beatles were falling apart.

Time for me to take advantage of the great benefit of a day off…crawling back into the sack. We’re back on the radio tomorrow!