Storm Mayhem

 Most of the country now is getting cold cold weather, snow and ice.

Our storm is gone but the aftermath is leaving a big huge mess.  Trees are down everywhere and many are down over power lines.  

An apartment complex collapsed in Gresham from the weight on the roof of ice.  No word if anyone was inside when that happened.

You can see the Portland news coverage of that here.

The roof of a Safeway grocery store collapsed in Troutdale.

My friend Karen lost power, internet and most cell service.  She's in Milwaukie.  She got her power back but only briefly.  Tonight she got both power and cable/wifi back.  She has to step over the cable line, which came down, in her driveway, but even down, its now working again.

Many people in Salem I know are still without power and may be without for days.  This is all downed powerline caused, from trees falling across them.

There were some spectacular transformer explosions caught on video and one such video included a subsequent fireball of electric surge sent on down the lines.  Lots of crushed car photos.  Lots of crushed boats from collapsed river dock awning videos.  

My Ridgefield WA friend has 16 inches of snow.  They haven't even considered digging out their cars.

And me here?  Nothing!  No snow, a little bit of ice one day, that was it.  Half the town was without power but not me.  Maybe its the underground lines in this area of town.

I took Diego, the buff orange guy, down to Brownsville, to be neutered today.  It's half the distance of the Salem clinic, so I rather liked that.  I brought him home this evening, wormed him, petted him and then sent him on home with the woman who trapped him, after showing her how tame he is.   She was thrilled that he is tame because she's putting him up in a spare room they have.  They have cougars up that road where they live and figured he wouldn't live long outside.  They're out so far, they figure he had to have been dumped.  Their one neighbor has never seen him before.  I too am thrilled things turned out ok for Diego.  He's such a pleasant boy.

I have appointments Friday but now am nervous they'll get cancelled too.  You never know.  I don't know if they have power at the shelter/clinic in Salem or not.  I don't know if their staff can come in, depending on their own situations.  So I am loath to trap any cats for Friday, for fear I'd end up holding them, if the clinic is axed again.

I was something of a wreck last two days, worried about friends in harms way, hoping they're ok, unable to contact them.  Like a repeat of the fires, when I was sidelined with that bad knee, and worried sick about friends and animals in the path of the fires but could do nothing about it.

I guess maybe its the new normal, disaster after disaster, so I better adapt, be prepared myself and other than that, just learn how to live this way.  Day to day, you know.  Forget the future.  Who cares.