Winter Wonderland

Okay, so we didn't get as much snow as the picture in the previous post indicated, and not a third as much as they did just down the road in Corvallis; still, there is about six inches on the ground, with the prediction of more to come, possibly mixed with freezing rain, before normal, plain-old rain comes to wash it all away in a couple-three days.

Lovely.

Even though this was predicted, Thursday was a disaster on the roads around here as everybody decided to leave work early, and apparently at the same instant, snarling traffic. Twenty-minute drives took three hours. There were multiple-car pile-ups on the interstate, some deaths. We aren't geared for more than a dusting here, and people who blow past at forty in a twenty-five zone wind up in a ditch or sliding into somebody else as often as not. 

One of the reasons, after thirty-five years, I still avoid driving in snow if I can is not so much I'm worried about what I do, but what that fool who thinks Jesus is his co-pilot and caution is for everybody else ...

My wife took her car our yesterday and the 4WD was enough, sans chains, to get to my son's house and take him shopping (for tire chains, among other things) but the stuff is packed down pretty good on the roads now, it hasn't risen above freezing for four days, and where cars stop for lights, the snow melts and then refreezes. 4WD helps you get started, but it doesn't stop you on an icy road real well.

We have enough supplies so we don't have to go out, save to walk the dogs, and with their stubby legs, we'll have to stick to the walks or watch them plow with their bodies. 

So, as long as we don't lose power, we are okay.

One of the luthiers I follow who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii put up a picture recently. Showed his car with a few ice cubes on the hood, with a note saying the temperature had dropped to 58º F. overnight. 

In my should-be-writing-but-ain't mode, I've gone over the songs and instrumentals I am essaying to learn upon the uke. About seventy-five minutes of material. Somewhat ambitious since I'm a slow learner, but I'd like to memorize them in the next month or so. I can mostly get through them all using the cheat sheets, and half the instrumentals and nearly all the vocals from memory. Of course, memory is the second thing to go. The first thing is … um … ah ...

Instrumentals:

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Baby Elephant Walk

Falling Slowly

Game of Thrones

Stairway to Heaven

Titanic

Something in the Way She Moves

Quigley Down Under

Ashokan Farewell

Chariots of Fire

Vocals:

Addicted to Love

A Summer Song

Bring it on Home

Cakewalk into Town

Dorothy

Hallelujah

Hey, Jude  

Hotel California

Let it Be

Methamphetamine Mama

One Toke Over the Line

Political Science

Lonely at the Top

The Second Time Around

St. James Infirmary

Wagon Wheel

Woke up Dead Blues

Yesterday

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out