therobots.org - select * from robots

This week featured the first real snow day I've had in a long time. Dropping the normal Portland cold drizzle/mist for a while, Tuesday morning I got up to two or three inches on the ground. It didn't even occur to me that school would be cancelled, but there it was.

I went out to walk around the South Park Blocks and take a few pictures. I wasn't alone; I think 85% of the people in the park had cameras. A group had gathered around the statue of Lincoln to get shots of a seagull that was perched perfectly straight on top of Abe's head. One photographer scared him away, and that was that.

Further up the hill, PSU was filled with foreign students playing in the snow. A group of Japanese students were trying (and failing) to build a snowman.

Coming from St. Louis, I don't have a lot of trouble driving in the snow and ice, and I didn't figure that a couple inches would cause that much trouble on the road, but that was before I saw this video, taken less than a mile away up in the West hills of Portland:

The previous week Tara and I had our own day in the snow. For a slightly late birthday gift for Tara we took a day trip to the Breitenbush Hot Springs, in the mountains south of Mt. Hood. It was nice, relaxing in the hot water with the snow all around. The pictures are of the river that runs through the grounds (sorry about the cell phone quality). The trip down the mountain was interesting, to say the least. I drove about 15 miles an hour for 45-50 minutes, with my teeth clenched the whole way.