Greeting from an Oregonian winter land. Part 2

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by StephenMorris8

by StephenMorris8

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Greeting from an Oregonian winter land.

Dear Family, friends and casual acquaintances,

Well…we made it. Most of our stuff is unpacked and the house is shaping up to be a nice permanent home.

The only thing that comes close to buyer’s remorse is the weather. As I type I can see icicles dandling from my rain gutters out of my windows. The snow in our yard refuses to melt. Driving is out of the question. The meandering 2-lane highway is slick with so-called black ice, which makes it dangerous to drive without chains or studded tires; we do not have that yet. It is difficult to go shopping in the main town, which is about 26 miles from our house. We do live near a general store, which is a mile away, but the merchandise is overpriced. Going to retrieve my mail is a hassle too. We have those old time mailboxes with red flag on it to let the mailman know we are sending mail. When it’s snowing or raining it’s a bitch! I don’t own snowshoes, so my feet get wet.

So why did I trade a balmy weather for a harsh one? The good outweighs the bad. We heard from a contact we have in San Pedro that our former house got burglarized. The 16 years we live there, we never got broken into. We also heard that somebody vandalized parked cars on our street by squirting caustic chemical on them. Which ruined paint jobs. The only crime we were subject to here is trash pick up didn’t come this week also hunters shooting off their guns which scares our Golden Retriever other wise…nothing.

One thing I am not use to is the racial makeup here. Most of my life I was brought up in a multi-racial environment. That is life in L.A. Here? The only diversity here is Protestant denominations other wise it’s like a hockey game, all white, all the time. I have seen white gardeners, white trash men and white criminals. That’s right! White guys are robbing convenience stores. There are no gangs in the wilderness. The only rivalry here is not between Crips and Bloods but between Deer and Bears. Plus the hunters do not help the situation either. The only black people you see are on the basketball court of the Portland Trailblazers or on the Ipods of white teenagers. They love the Hip Hop.

For 16 years I had a clean driving record. The day before I left San Pedro I got a ticket for running a stop sign. Pamela got a similar ticket in a small town in Northern California when we were traveling to our new home. The second day in Oregon I get a speeding ticket. This Saturday I have to go to this town called: Beaverton to take a traffic class. Good weather or bad weather I have to go.

Last week we got our satellite television installed. Before that we have been isolated from the world. We do not get newspaper up here, but luckily we got some radio stations from Portland. This week we are getting satellite Internet put in. The guy who use to owned this house cut all the landlines from our place so we can’t get old fashion telephones just cell phones!

We found out Egypt had a revolution and Civil Servants in Wisconsin are fighting the power. I miss walking morning with one of our dogs to buy the morning papers

I hope all is well with you. Here is our new E-mail address.

Love,

Stephen & Pamela

Check out my Moms art….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marilynssoul/?saved=1