The Winter Blast, The Deep Freeze, December 21, 2008, West Linn, Oregon suburb of Portland, Oregon- 12 inches of snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-2 inches of ice on top of the snow!!!! Out my window it is like a decedent crème brulee at Portland City Grill.

Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama 24/7 on the local news, love the channel 2 you tube videos sent in by the community.

My husband is outside shoveling off a ton of snow and ice from the carport that caved in last night which used to protect our fun little boat, carport now ready to crush the little boat. Kirk along with our neighbor Mike, out shoveling the snow and ice off to prepare for the next forecasted storm coming today, tonight, tomorrow or in the next minute. Who knows, it’s pretty wild around here right now. I have never seen anything like this, my life as an Oregonian. It’s supposed to dump another 12 inches.

I love you Kirk, thanks for preparing the fire for me this morning; I will faithfully keep it going all day while I finish making the rum balls, of course along with a hot tottie to complete the project. Way more fun!

To complete the day after Mike and Kirk finished saving our boat, they went over to Mike’s too, save his mobile carport over his boat and then over to Leslie and Devin’s to save theirs. Community, LOVE IT!!!!

6:00pm Snowing all day another 3 inches of snow at least and I’d say 3 inches of freezing rain to go along with it so we are layered upon layer, upon layer, upon layer.

We and 6 neighbors decided today to do the updated version of Normal Rockwell, The Willamette, and West Linn version of a community block party, called a Fooder. Instead of the well known progressive party we all brought what we had for food and partied at one house (ours- supplied the house, hourderves and we would clean up) since we are all 1 house apart and desert at Tim and Julie’s so 2 year old Kyle could get to bed. Simple fun, what a blast, economy trouble, what economy trouble? A few hours of bliss! (Cost $0 money, reward priceless!)

PS: We the women of the group had fun doing a survey on presentation- For the food spread we put out fancy Christmas napkins and a white roll of paper towels- What will the men go for??? Paper towels our the fancy napkins? Yes, you guessed it, the paper towels, not one fancy napkin was used.

Morale of survey -do I work too hard on presentation? Answer: Yes and no.

After the meal I asked the men the question- informing that we the women had a bet and wanted them to settle the bet. Question- Did you guys use the paper towels or the fancy napkins? They unanimously said the paper towels. So the question I had for them was next time getting together we wanted their opinion;, what is their take using paper towels and no fancy napkins, unanimously they said they like the napkins for presentation but won’t use them. So the morale of our survey is....... Keep a few seasonal napkins say 4-5 on the table beside your paper towels and your good to go. We never need spend another dime on fancy napkins, the money we save we could use for a hair cut, mani/ pedi or steak dinner for the widow, single parent or another block party).

To complete the evening we watched Nation Lampoon's Chrismas Vacation. Old fashion? No way! One of the best evenings I'll remember for a life time.

Our request for channel two administration or anyone who can make stuff happen for the community. We woud love to see some old classic movies during our deep freeze while we are at home. We love the christmas classics during the holiday season but since we've been watching alot of that since the storm we'd love to mix is up, we have a community request for channel two news or another programing channel. We have found out that alot of us have never seen the movie Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. Do you have the ability to make it happen? Thanks for all you do and taking time to read our email. We'll be curious what the outcome is. If we don't ask it could never happen.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year!

Your Friends,

Denise and Kirk Harbeck and the neighbors in the Willamette district of West Linn, OR

Denise Harbeck, CPC
Certified Professional Life Coach
(503) 515-8236
deniseharbeck@hotmail.com