January 14, 2024
Dear Family:
Portland and surrounding area are stuck in a deep freeze
until Wednesday. Wednesday things are
supposed to warm up and allow the roads, pipes, etc., to thaw. There is about 1 ½ inches of ice pellets the
color of snow on the ground. 
Backyard 1 15 24 - Tigard OR 
Street 1 15 24
But worse
Saturday while the ice pellets were raining down was the wind. There are thousands of trees down all over
and live electrical lines sparking all over.
People were trapped in their homes, some were injured or killed, roads
were blocked and trees crashed into homes.
 |
| Glennda trying to keep warm while painting - she is resourceful and color coordinated. Scott and I think she looks like Mrs Santa complete with a star ornament in the background. |
Luckily Amy’s family including Tanner etc., Taylor’s family,
Don, and Haley’s family and I are safe. Brad
reported that they awoke to -14 degrees on Saturday and their pipes are fine. Glennda
has been without power for over about 30 hours and it is in the 40’s inside
their home. 
Scott trying to keep warm in a house that's 40 degree inside - Corbett Or
Their fireplace can’t keep only directly in front of it warm. I have never lost power and no pipes are frozen. I just took a cast iron skillet of corn bread out of the oven to go with my soup that I made 2 days ago. Yesterday I got an email from NW Natural Gas requesting customers to reduce their thermometers and related gas appliances. Today I got a message that it helped and they were able to repair the issue that caused the caution.
The only time I remember anything like this was in 1964 when
I was living in an apartment at 26th and E Burnside working as a
legal secretary downtown Portland. The
pipes above my apartment burst and poured down the walls drenching all my
clothes in the closet.
I got a fabulous phone call last night about 7pm. Just prior to that I got a “friend” request from Mark Anderson. Brad, Brian & Amy will recall Mark and
all the times I bundled them up and we went to his basketball games. I taught
him and Dave Franck, and Brad Paskett, and Ron Evans in Sunday School. Dave’s mom wasn’t able to go to his games and
was ill. So our family supported him at
church, and at school. Anyway we spent 1
½ hours reminiscing and catching up last night.
It was the kind of conversation that I love to hear in person (rather
than to hear it at my funeral after I’m gone.)
He expressed his gratitude for all I did for him. It just goes to show when you offer service
to others it may or may not come back, but this came back and I was so grateful
that I can hardly even express it. He
and Leslie live near Clearfield (near the Air Base) and he is 63 and they have
4 grown children and 3 or 4 grandchildren.
We have vowed to find a way to connect in person this year.
I have already reached out to Brad, Amy and Brian about this…..Yesterday
when I was looking at B and Cooper and McKay play in the snow and watch Taylor
scoot them down the hill on a sled…..it reminded me of our ice storms when my
kids were young.
Memory #1 – We had an ice storm that covered the streets
with about an inch or two of ice and icicles where hanging off the dormer out
of Amy’s windows. Amy was 6 months old, Brian was 3 and Brad was 5. Amy had pull down blinds in her 3 windows with
little wooden slats that you could pull out.
I was downstairs making breakfast and Brad and Brian were playing with
the icicles out of Amy’s windows with the wooden slate, knocking them off. I
won’t say how it happened because my version isn’t the same and Brad and Brian’s
version, but somehow Brian went out the window and slid down the roof and
landed on the concrete walkway. Next
thing I knew, Brian was ringing the doorbell in his blanket sleeper
(Magilla). I was shocked and couldn’t
immediately understand how he was outside.
He only bit it tongue and his ribs were a little sore. I called the doctor and he said, “Can you get
to emergency”? I said NO, and he said, Neither can I.” So, I was to watch him and make sure he didn’t
go to sleep. We have laughed and talked
about that episode ever since.
Memory #2 – When they were older, and we had ice storms,
they played hockey in the street in front of the house. Brent Peterson a Winter Hawks player who
lived with the Francks, had taken a liking to the boys and gave them hockey sticks
and pucks. So why not play hockey on the
ice!!!!
Memory #3 – When the power went out, that was the time to bring out the camping
recipes and cook on the wood stove and I even did Dutch Oven cooking on our
concrete front porch. Fun times!! Rich had done a really good job of installing
a wood stove in our fireplace in the front room. (That was the rage back then –
survival you know.) It would heat the
whole house and we took advantage and cooked on it too.
I told Amy yesterday that I wish we had had cell phones back
in those days to snap photos any old time.
Back then it cost money to have the film developed and so photos were
taken quite frugally. I would love to
have pictures of those fun times.
Well, my message today is “Never hesitate to help someone
who might need it.” Mosiah 2:17 “And
behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn
that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the
service of your God.” (I believe that
was a scripture mastery scripture from the teaching seminary days.) I love that scripture.
Have a wonderful, safe, warm week. I always find a way to keep busy and in the
last two days, I have done 3 loads of laundry, put the 3 layers of a new quilt together
to get ready to quilt, cleaned out my junk drawer, cleaned out 4 drawers in my
office, moved my office to the dining room, sorted out my plastic storage ware,
sorted old cards, sorted photos, baked a skillet of corn bread to go with my
soup, and finally started organizing, cleaning out my laptop which was what I
was supposed to do in the first place. I
kept getting sidetracked!!. Now I’ve got
tons of new work identified with the sorting.
No rest for the wicked.
Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne
