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Five - January 31

Hello!
I hope you are all doing well, as the semester/new
year is now in full swing. As you may guess from the
title of this email, I've had a couple of weather
related adventures recently. =) Most recently was
yesterday, January 30th... the "Ultimate Oregon
Weather Day" (I'll tell you why shortly). Earlier
this month, as you may remember hearing on the news,
Northwest Oregon had their worst winter storm in a
decade. Luckily, my flight back from Kansas got in
the night before it all started (Jan. 5th). We ended
up getting 2 inches of snow, and then the next day, 2
inches of ice on top of that... now I know you're
probably thinking "that's nothing compared to what we
have here right now", but for our part of Oregon, this
is the stuff winter nightmares are made of. The
airport in Portland was closed for three days along
with I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge (the main
E-W road in Oregon), and along with countless others
across the state, I didn't work for the entire week.
The girls and I spent our free time catching up on
stories from visiting home over the holidays and ice
skating (quite literally) on our front lawn and the
parking lot across the street. Common sights out our
front window were people walking down the middle of
the street using ski poles and the occasional toyota
camry with snow chains (people got pretty cautious)...
but NEVER ONCE a snowplow. In fact, that week I
learned that the entire city of Seattle owns only 6.
SIX SNOWPLOWS! The few that were in the Portland area
were frantically scraping the airport tarmac for days
and days trying to get the planes off the ground. I
also learned that week that it is illegal in Oregon to
use salt on the roads due to environmental reasons.
Which is understandable, because it DOES get into the
groundwater, but I would have to think that the "storm
of the decade" could be an exception, especially when
road (and airport) conditions would have been cleared
up pretty quickly, and people would have been able to
travel much more safely. Due to this snow and ice,
ironically, my "extreme weather" class at St. Luke's
grade school was postponed until later in the spring,
because of all the snow days that were lost. In
another impact of the recent cold weather, work has
been EXTREMELY busy with people looking for energy
assistance due to high bills and the loss of a week's
wages while many shops and businesses were closed. On
the first Monday back after the storm, I had 28
messages on my phone. By Tuesday, our energy
assistance account for St. Vincent de Paul society
that I manage had run out. Since then, I have been
focusing incoming donations on the food bank, which I
think is a higher priority, and referring everyone
else to another agency in town. The collection for
St. Vincent de Paul is the first Sunday of the month,
so we'll see this week how much I'll have to work with
for the month of February. During this time, I have
experienced occasional feelings of helplessness, as I
am sure is just another part of the social services
occupations that I have been lucky enough to avoid
until now. In speaking with Fr. Jaime lately (the
Hispanic associate priest at St. Luke's) he gave me an
inspirational message "while you may not be able to
help everyone by giving them money, you can still give
them kindness." I think that kindness and a smile are
partly what people are looking for anyway...
The weekend after the snow and ice storm, I was in
Seattle for the national American Meteorological
Society's annual meeting. I felt in a way like I was
"reconnecting with myself" because even if I had
chosen to continue on to grad school this year instead
of JVC, I still would have attended this conference.
In that way, it was a nice glimpse into what my life
would have been like if I had chosen another path.
While there, (despite some difficulties getting all my
necessary materials together due to the ice storm and
the mail delays it caused) I gave a presentation about
the research on hurricanes I did this summer at NASA.
It was wonderful being able to talk about meteorology
again with other genuinely interested people, and I
made a lot of wonderful new contacts and saw a lot of
familiar faces. Needless to say, I am re-energized
again about the prospect of being able to start
graduate school this fall in meteorology.
Last weekend, we had our second retreat of the JVC
year. Eight JV houses from Oregon and Western
Washington (a total of about 45 volunteers) gathered
at the Oregon Coast for our spirituality retreat.
While we were there, a lot of time was spent in
prayerful silence, as well as listening to talks from
Jesuits and our area directors, tying together
spirituality and simplicity. I left feeling
re-energized about JVC and have spent the week since
trying to think of practical ways to live a more
simple lifestyle and commit myself to getting (and
giving) the most out of the remaining six months of my
Jesuit Volunteer year. Like it or not, the Jesuits
have a wonderful way of helping to nudge you into
awareness of how precious the gift of life is, and
challenging you to use that gift in the best possible ways.
Which brings me to The Ultimate Oregon Weather Day
(yesterday). Before I left for Oregon in August, I
decided that I wanted to experience as much of it as
possible while I was here. One thing that I have
heard a lot about since I've been here is the winter
windstorms on the coast... conveniently there happened
to be one yesterday, and.... (I bet you can see where
this is going....) Clare and I decided to leave at
about 9:30pm (Thurs night), and the closest place on
the coast is about two hours away, so we arrived on
the pier in Garibaldi, Oregon at a little before
midnight. Before we left our house, winds at the
coast were gusting to about 61 knots (~70mph), and the
strongest winds are right before the cold front passes
onshore... so it's tough to time it just right on when
to get there. By the time we arrived, the cold front
had already come onshore, (winds had shifted to the
NW, and the temperature dropped to about 46) which
meant the winds had also decreased, to about 40mph or
so. It was still quite an experience to be on the
pier, over the ocean with big whitecaps and horizontal
rain blowing right in your face. But hopefully we'll
get the full brunt of the storm next time... ;) This
experience was pretty satisfying in and of itself, but
Oregon had a lot more in store for me for the
remainder of the day. At about 10am I had an
appointment to take an older couple to the barbershop.
While I was waiting with them, I heard a loud *plink
plink plink* on the skylight over my head. When I
looked outside, the ground was covered with little
hailstones. Strange, I thought... hail in January.
It didn't stop hailing for about an hour... by the
time the haircuts were done and I got home (to get my
camera), the whole ground was covered, and several
very loud lightning strikes confirmed that yes, this
was a thunderstorm in January. While I was taking
pictures, I noticed for the first time a couple
flowers that were peeking up... hopefully spring will
arrive soon, but in Oregon, I think that just means
more rain... However, later on, after the hailstorm,
I did get a glimpse of the sun, and then within about
30-45 minutes, the ENTIRE sky was clear, bright blue
and sun shining brightly. It stayed clear for about
an hour or two, and then, while I was working in the
office at about 3pm or so, I heard another *plink
plink plink* and another, smaller hailstorm had
come... and it continued to rain for the rest of the
evening. No matter how much I think I might have
learned, or might be learning, the weather here is
still a mystery to me... I think that the snow/ice
storm that is supposed to hit Kansas and Missouri
tomorrow is the same one we saw at the coast... but
don't quote me on that.
To take further advantage of the Oregon weather, the
girls and I have decided that we might go snowshoeing
or cross-country skiing on Mt. Hood next weekend for
my birthday. I am excited about the opportunity to
try something new, and to do outdoor activities in a
season that is normally very dreary and wet.
Again, I hope you are all doing well, and I hold you
all in my prayers and think of you often. =)
Many Blessings,
Eric

The first picture is of our house during the ice
storm, (if you look really hard, you'll see the
icicles on our gutters) the second one is of me and
Clare in our front yard, and the third one is of the
first little flowers of spring yesterday "The Ultimate
Oregon Weather Day"... =) (This was after the first
hailstorm... if you look really closely you might see
a hailstone or two)
Enjoy!
Eric


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