Still a foot of snow. Still freezing. Still (mostly) housebound. Still cleaning up rabbit pellets. Still getting the nightly call that “school is cancelled tomorrow.”

Starting to feel a bit like this guy:

For those of you keeping score at home, we’ve now had EIGHT snow days. Monday is a holiday, so by the time the kids go back to school on Tuesday (ohpleasejesus), they will have had a total of four days in the classroom in an entire month.

The city has declared a state of emergency. Temporary shelters are opening up. Several people have died of exposure (oh, that horrific combo of mental illness/homelessness). Streets are mostly deserted except for abandoned cars. There’s warming and rain in the forecast (huzzah!) but the transition will include a few hours of freezing rain (boo) and we’re already getting warnings of flooding and landslides from the anticipated saturation (double boo).

There are pluses. The children are ecstatic about days and days of screentime (because I’m THAT mom) and are overjoyed that Mrs. Peabody’s “weekend visit” has turned into a 10+ day extravaganza of snuggling and pooping (the latter only sometimes not in the cage).

Even though there’s no novelty to the snow for me, I can still see the beauty in it. I went for a super long walk in my beloved forest while thinking (since this is apparently a once-in-10-years event) that this may be the only time I ever see it under a blanket of snow.

The Husband was also very excited to finally get to use our tire chains.

And he definitely needed them! Even though the main roads are mostly plowed (thanks in part to Seattle, who loaned us 10 snowplows), our neighborhood is very hilly and the only “snow removal” we’ve got is hoping someone else kinda packed it down before you got there. Our garage is at the bottom of one of those hills, so it was touch-and-go getting the car up to the street:

(Plus helpful peanut gallery comments/cheering from some passersby.)

It’s actually a girls’ weekend around here since the reason the car had to get to the top of that hill is that The Boy has a hockey tournament in Seattle this weekend. I sent the menfolk with the car that has the good winter tires + chains for safety’s sake, but that means The Girl and I are dependent on alternative modes of transportation.

Last night I walked over to the Mexican place and picked up takeout and we finally watched the Doctor Who Christmas special (with bonus Justin Chatwin Can-Con-For-the-Win!). Today was blacksmithing and I had big plans to get us there by bus.

(Do you like her toolbox? She’s the only one with a fully decorated one, because she’s just that kind of girl.)

Unfortunately, our bus was over 30 minutes late and I had no idea about the state of the bus on the route we were transferring to and my baby’s toes were getting cold, so thank goodness for Uber! And thank goodness for Mohamed who not only waited for me while I went to sign her in, but also drove me back home INCLUDING right to my door (pretty sure he just wanted to show off his studded tires and winter driving skillz – no complaints!).

It was a sobering drive. We passed several tents (that looked unoccupied, fortunately – hopefully their usual inhabitants have found a warm shelter somewhere). I thought of the folks who aren’t expat Canadians who have standard-issue North Face parkas and Sorels. I thought of the folks who weren’t able to stock up at the grocery store. I thought of the folks with mobility issues who can’t just tromp through 8 inches of snow. I thought of the folks on never-enough incomes who can’t just say “eh, this bus is taking too long” and call for an Uber, and who are panicking about being late for a desperately needed job instead of just maybe being late to a fun day at the forge.

It’s a tough time to be a Portlander right now, that’s for sure. Even for those of us for whom snow is old news. We’re all just watching the weather forecast and agreeing with this guy: