Chris Walsh (chris_walsh) wrote,
Chris Walsh
chris_walsh

Chris of the Antarctic

Well, I can always walk...

I thought that more than once today, and actually acted on it a couple of times.

Yes, Portland may have been practically paralyzed by snow that wasn't supposed to happen, but I could reach work, by Gum! And home, too.

As mentioned earlier, I didn't make it to work this morning. I tromped back to my place, got out of my shoes and started playin' on Teh Intarwebs. Well, 'round 1:30 this afternoon, with the snow no longer falling, I finally told myself to stop lollygagging and do something: either call into work to say I'd not be in at all, or head out the door. I headed out the door. I only had to wait a few minutes for a bus to downtown, but I was still debating whether this was a good idea when that bus pulled up. And, slightly disconcertingly, slid a few inches to the right before I could board.

That was the only road problem I encountered.

So: I bussed to southern edge of downtown, then walked to Portland State University hoping to catch either a bus or a shuttle (I wasn't sure which would be running), then walked to Sixth to Terwilliger and Campus Drive, the quickest way from downtown to OHSU. This is a decent distance. But I made it under my own power.

I surprised my OHSU supervisor when I entered the office a little after 2:30. She told me the other staffers had just left; they'd run out of work! I knew I had Spheris stuff to do, at least, and more transcriptions came in soon after for me to handle, so I got a solid two hours of work accomplished -- stuff I'm glad didn't have to wait.

I made sure to leave work about 4:40, when it was still light outside, and walked about as far as I had earlier getting to the hospital in order to get to a functioning bus stop. I passed a tangle of slid-together vehicles -- none looking badly damaged, but most of them pointing in directions they shouldn't have been pointing -- in the curve between SW Fourth and Sheridan and SW First and Arthur, totally closing that stretch of road. (On the way in earlier that afternoon, the other direction of that road had been closed, due to stuck buses.) I was increasingly glad I hadn't had to drive.

What would've made the night perfect was stopping for a slice of pizza. (I had a craving. I know, that was random. I didn't foreshadow that at all.) The closest I could get based on my route home was stopping at the First and Arthur 7-11 for taquitos. (It's fun to say "taquitos," as Jhonen Vasquez knows.)

But I'm home, I'm warm, and I can relax. Tomorrow will be...tomorrow.
Tags: peregrinations, portland, work
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