First, in the 61 years I've owned this house on the Oregon coast, we've never had actual snow that covered the grass...a few times, a bit of snow with blades of grass sticking up, but never real snow. Last month, we had TWO snow storms that left inches of snow, right here on the edge of the continent, even on the beach! Overall, it has both been the coldest winter here I've ever known, but with far less flooding than usual: apparently all the cold slows down how much water flows off the steep hills above us. Yesterday, we got a warning from the county emergency services: more snow, even below a thousand feet, through the Coast Range. meaning no one should plan to drive from the coast to the valley or vice versa this weekend. The alert started, "This is NOT an April fool joke..."

Fortunately, I got an ambulance to come in order to check my husband into our local hospital (necessary in order to try to get him into a rehab facility) yesterday. When I got home last night, I had to park out by the road, as the creek that crosses our driveway was even with it, with water all the way across. Now, that's the usual winter here: parking out by the road, donning knee boots to carry things down, across the creek, and back up the hill to the house. Usually, flood season is from November though the end of March, but this year we apparently didn't get enough flooding during winter, so we're going to have to add April to the list of months I can't use my own driveway. Did I say I really love development...not?