[jyl]

Our snow in Portland is melting away fast, now that temps have risen to the mid-40s. Rain predicted every day for a week, I guess its back to the usual Portland winter, with some nice slush as a bonus.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

A couple of thoughts about the Christmas snow spell of '08 -

- Kids got an entire week of snow days. They'll be dreaming about this for years. And the budget-pressed schools were probably glad for an excuse to shut for a few days.

- Love those snow tires. The Prius was a champ on everything - ice, packed snow, deep slushy snow. Never chained up, never needed to.

- No-one else seems to. On a visit to the local mall, I walked up and down the parking lot and counted the cars with snow tires versus the cars with chains. Result: snows 1 (mine), chains (50, then stopped counting).

- Why is Washington so much better than Oregon at keeping the highways clear? We drove to Yakima WA for XMas, the Oregon highways were a messed-up unplowed crawl with most vehicles chained-up, the Washington highways were pretty much clear and dry enough for 50 mph.

- WA state troopers aren't all bad. I got my very first-ever "warning" from a WSP trooper, for 65+ mph in a 60 mph zone with ostensibly snow/ice hazard. Yes, I thought the stop was not quite justified, but for my entire life, I've always gotten the ticket, so maybe my luck is changing.

- Hope we get some more snow this winter!