Portland doesn’t have the most amazing weather on Earth, but it’s leaps and bounds better than Wyoming. That seems to have changed this week when my first Portland snow experience hit, and it’s going all out. I’ve lived here for 14 months or so now and haven’t really experienced bad weather. Last winter consisted mainly of cold rain, a couple icy nights and a few weak attempts at snowing, which mostly amounted to flurries that melted as soon as they hit the ground. A couple days ago Portland decided it’d try its hand at a real snow and did pretty well, but it melted off pretty quickly. Then round two came, and it sucks. A lot.

This city is also not very well equipped to handle this amount of snow, and so everything basically shuts down. The streets are more or less dead, lots of businesses are closing, and public transit is fucked. I saw ONE attempt to plow Burnside, and they didn’t do a very good job. Also, I don’t know if it’s illegal here or what, but apparently they don’t salt the streets, either. In fact, chains or studs are now required for ALL vehicles on the road — it’s pretty crazy.

Here’s a shot I just snapped with my fisheye through the hall window above my apartment. Sure, it looks weak compared to a lot of storms I suffered through back home, but when you haven’t had to deal with the shit for like two years, it’s more than enough to ruin your week.

In other news, Casper refugee Kyle Gunderson (who I’ve just decided to call Gundo) has joined Leslie, Cameron and I in our building, aiding us in our quest to turn these apartments into the Wyoming Embassy of Portland. Though he was briefly laid up due to weather in Oregon’s famously shitty mountain passes, he only lost one day’s worth of travel time and only had to devour one member of his party to survive. He was also cool enough to schlep my bed all the way out here, so hopefully my back will begin acting like it belongs to a 20-something again. I missed my bed a lot, so it’s good to have it back. Thanks, Gundo. I did not miss Wyoming winters, so I’m not really sure why he decided to bring that as well. Hopefully we can send it back in the next couple days.