Winter Storm Orion

I went to work today with snow on the horizon. What I didn't anticipate was going home in the middle of what is being called winter storm Orion. Portland doesn't get a lot of snow, ever. About every five years or so, some big storm comes in and blankets the city, but otherwise it's radio silence from the winter gods. 

For those of you in the wintry states that have been doused in snow, this is probably old hat, but for us, it's a winter wonderland. I can't think of anything more magical than being inside under a wool blanket with my sleeping cat while snow falls all around me. Our office is likely working remotely tomorrow as we have a wintry mix on the horizon and are already underneath about 5.5" of snow. What is bearable in the cold climates (and driveable!) is not in Portland - we have about one snow plow and two deicers. That makes a traffic snarl that echoes Atlanta's problems in January. I had one colleague that couldn't get home this evening due to the snowfall and another that spent 2 hours in traffic to travel 15 miles just due to the snowy gridlock. Our freeways had a 20-car pileup due to the weather and so many roads were blocked that the city became a parking lot. 

The only immediate downfall to the snow was that we now have to postpone ring shopping (Ben proposed with a family ring with the intent to go shopping with me for my future engagement ring). We hit the jewelry stores just as they were sending their employees home for the night for safety reasons. I was pretty disappointed but I suppose being grumpy at store employees for going home in bad weather because you wanted to try on diamonds is a #firstworldproblem. We will be back another day and in the meantime, I'm on cloud nine and just about nothing can get me down.