When a Columbian employee — grasping shovel and hat — walked by my office Wednesday morning, he had only one question:
“Is anyone going to apologize?”
He had been clearing the walkways of snow in front of our building and didn’t much like the idea that neither we — nor any of the TV weathermen — had predicted snow Tuesday evening.
It snarled traffic, caused accidents and generally made life less than ideal.
I kindly sent him on his way, knowing when someone figures out how to do such things, that someone could afford to have someone else shovel the messy stuff.
So we ain’t too good at predicting the weather. But we went after covering it as quickly as we could.
When the first snowflakes began to fall, we figured it to be fleeting. We dispatched a photographer to get one of those cute snow photos.
Mission accomplished. At least we thought so.
But the dang stuff wouldn’t stop. It was no longer just a cute story but a story that would create some havoc. Let’s face it, for an area that gets less than 7 inches of snow — all year — 4 inches in a few hours is a real challenge.
We regrouped, asked for a “newsier” photo and put an edge on our weather story.
Advance planning
A few days earlier — with no idea this storm was brewing — we decided to develop a story dealing with how differently Washington and Oregon treat snow on roads.
Why — we asked ourselves — does Interstate 84 in Oregon often close during bad winter weather when state Highway 14 in Washington stays open?
Both roads traverse the Columbia River Gorge, with the only real difference being one is on the Oregon side of the Columbia River and the other is on our side.
We wrapped up that story and decided to wait to run it until the next time we had snow. That wait was short-lived. Both ran in Wednesday’s Columbian.
Cute
Now, I didn’t mean to disparage cute snow photos earlier. Even in a serious snowstorm there are cute photo opportunities.
We take them and we know you take them. So we asked you to send us some of your snow photos and you did. We posted them on the Web. Down the road we hope to get many more.
I even took one myself! I stuck it in this column. My daughter, Danni — home on Christmas break from Northwestern University — helped build a snowman in our backyard.
Both are already gone.
Shout out
Before we put Christmas in the rearview mirror, I have to tell you this story.
I do my Christmas shopping at Walgreens. I like Walgreens because you can get great chocolate and temporary tattoos there.
With my shopping over, I threw the booty into my car trunk.
But something had gone terribly wrong.
Gifts were missing.
What the heck happened? Does the Grinch like chocolate, or maybe tattoos? Could I have left some gifts at the store?
The day after Christmas, I drove back to Walgreens.
“Do you have a lost and found?”
“What are you missing?” the cashier asked.
I told her.
She looked down on the floor behind the counter and there was a bag. Written on it was a message:
“Customer left bag. It’s paid for.”
She smiled. She handed it to me.
I smiled. And said thank you.
So my wife and daughter had their full complement of gifts even if it was one day late. And Walgreens deserves a shout out for that!
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
