Mean Streets

So we didn’t get the predicted 12 inches, but what we did get was a big sloppy mess! The mean streets are dangerous to navigate. . . unless you have Sorel Joan of Arctic boots and Yaktrax grippers. Even so, the steep hill descending to my street is a wonder to navigate.

Narrow cowpaths are the norm these days.

An Icy Lagoon

Even with the best footwear it is nerve-wracking.*

* Definition of nerve–racking: extremely trying on the nerves; a nerve–racking ordeal. Synonyms: agitating, anxious, creepy, disquieting, distressful, distressing, disturbing, fraught, hairy, nail-biting, nerve-racking (or nerve-wracking), restless, tense, uneasy, unnerving, unsettling, worrisome. Origin 1812, from nerve + present participle of verbal sense of rack.

 

Icicle Daggers

Oh so pretty the long icicles and rooftops. Walking around in the heart of Portland, danger lurks from above. Last year walking down High Street I stopped in my tracks, perhaps in contemplation of the huge piles of snow and ice boulders on the street. I looked up. At that very moment a colossal avalanche of hard ice and snow catapulted many stories down to the street right in front of me. Would I have been knocked out? Killed? Possibly. What a way to go. When I die, please let it be in spring, summer, or fall. Anything but winter.

Snow Ledge Downtown Portland, February 15, 2017

I’m not making this up!
Ice Falls Off Roof, Smashes Car in Portland’s Old Port