Wednesday, November 17, 2010

NaNoWriMo day 17

Before I get into anything, here is today's word count: 31,138 . Nice number!

Okay. This has been a mixed day. And I'm trying to keep myself on the positive side of the situation. See, the weather here is rocky right now. It's always a little rocky in November - we're famous for the grey skies and the winds and the variability of our November wetness.

Except that this year they are already predicting snow. What?!? We don't get snow this time of year - if we get it at all. But this year there is apparently a chance of snow on the valley floor, in the Portland metro area. They were saying earlier today that there could be up to five inches of snow Sunday or Monday in Portland, or by Monday. That is crazy talk. But that's what they said.

The rumors of snow in the southern mountain pass started on the weekend. Deb and I were already discussing our strategy for that. We had two routes in mind and had backed up our stopover place for Friday night in our drive to San Francisco so that we had the two options easily. One has lower elevation and therefore the potential exists for less snow = better road conditions. But that option also would add about three hours to the drive. But that's better than not getting there at all.

Which is what's happening.

We're not going.

With all the talk of snow, following weather predictions and patterns for a few days and seeing the probability only worsen, we decided to not go. The chance of getting down there without going through snow/ice is practically none. But worse than that, if we could figure out how to make that work, was the chance of having to come back up here to snow. See, we don't get a ton of snow here and things come to a halt. It gets messy. Sometimes people laugh at us because we don't know how to deal with it. But it's because we don't get it that often - so people are inexperienced *and* when we do get it, it generally also involves freezing rain and layers of ice on the snow. Worse than just snow.

But, oh well.

There was a rental car involved and a hotel room, so we needed to make a decision in order to make the cancellations in order to not be charged. Planes and trains were also considered - but timing, cost, and still the possibility of being stuck due to weather and weather related closures existed.

So - cancellations are done (no fees or charges - yay). Regrets sent to the Night Of Writing Dangerously coordinator and liason (whaa).

And we will be meeting at our other regular nanowriting buddy this weekend for a long, most of a day writing session. That will be fun. We had a blast on Veteran's Day and we'll do it again this weekend. I was really looking forward to San Francisco and it was going to be awesome. But I'd rather not take the risks, be safe, stay near home, rather than pushing something that might not be a good idea. True, the weather may not materialize - but, again, it may.

I will make a different plan for next year. I will plan to fly. And I won't box in my travel so closely to work (I had it squeezed on either side of the drive). But this year I need to say, sorry.

And I raised a bunch of money for OLL and that is great. NaNoWriMo is awesome and the Young Writers Program is, too. Every dollar I raised is already in the hands of the non-profit organization. And maybe there is someone on the other side of the mountains who can go in my place.
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