Where Snow Is Snow

Yesterday about 3 to 4 inches of snow fell on my fair city. It shut the city down - I shit you not. Just about, anyway. That's because there are NO PLOWS in Portland. The streets were still covered in snow when I left my apartment at 10:30 today. But, yesterday, I got a snow day!!! For reals!!! I'd thought those went the way of dinosaurs & Santa Claus once you got out of high school. I'm so happy to discover otherwise.

I'd settled in & watched the first three episodes of Krysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue, a mini-series made for Polish television in the late 80s which deals humanly with the Ten Commandments. (If America had a mini-series on the Ten Commandments, you can bet there'd be tons o' Jesus talk & loads of righteous action in there. Not Kieslowski's delicate, moving explorations of single human moments. Apparently Stanley Kubrick said this project was the only cinematic masterpiece he'd seen in his life. And we make fun of the Poles? Is this before or after we watch "American Idol"?)

Though I'd not really intended to venture outside, I ended up desiring nothing more than to organize my filing cabinet (yeah; total dork). So I was compelled to walk the mile to Fred Meyer for some hanging file folders. And I'm so glad I did! True, I thought I was gonna fall smack on my butt several times. But the glorious human-ness of the experience was completely worth it. It was actually nothing like the picture I use as illustration up top there. It was a bit more like this:
Rrraaaarrrgggghhh! Tree-eating snow monster! Which is meant to symbolize that it was REALLY FUN to be outside. The Willamette Valley doesn't often see snow like this, so everybody was outside, walking around, carrying sleds, taking pictures, enjoying it. Everybody looked so happy. Even that lonely-looking kid in the top photo was actually sledding, not auditioning for an Ingmar Bergman movie. There were about as many people out as you might expect to see on a gorgeous spring day.

Did I mention the snow day? It was sweet.

EDIT: While discussing the snow with my coworkers, I was informed that it snows "this heavily" in Portland about once every three or four years. Holy crap. Explains the wonderment.

EDIT EDIT: Hey, wait! They totally just made a movie about the Ten Commandments, called The Ten! And it's got Winona Ryder & Liev Schreiber & Jessica Alba (who is hot when she moves, but looks semi-retarded when she talks) & Adam Brody! And Justin Theroux, whom David Lynch has rather inexplicably anointed as his new McLachlanian alter-ego, plays Jesus! It's a spoof! I'm sure it will be simply divine. Premieres at Sundance this week, which I generally take as a sign that a film is most likely mediocre at best. Ever since The Brothers McMullen took the Grand Jury Prize, anyway. I'll wait & see.