Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

Portland's rain is coming down in solid form as of late.

We had our second winter storm on Saturday and Sunday, with an accumulation of 8-10" at our house. The snow was relentless. It just piled up and piled up. Lots of people took to the streets. Why? We do not know. I spent a few hours helping shovel people off the road and also assisting with chaining tires up. Saturday evening my good karma came back to us when a high voltage line came down in our yard. On its descent to the ground (via tree branch), the tree caught fire outside our bedroom.
While Craig waited in the emergency phone queue, a fire truck arrived. We received a stern warning NOT to go outside. Once the firefighters evaluated the scene a tree branch removal truck and PGE came on site.
Luckily, we discovered that the electricity flows up the hill. During the entire event our higher altitude neighbors' homes went dark while we continued to see the light. Until one to two hours later. We lost power until midnight, a four hour outage in total. Not much but it did allow Mara the privilege of sleeping in our bed for warmth.
Since then, it has continued to flurry, adding to the feel of the holiday.
It truly looks like a winter wonderland- or, it would if we could keep the "drivers" off the street and the branches in the trees!