Mojo, who had stayed in with Little Miss Can't-Be-Wrong while big brother Peep and his buddy Rush the Short Bus Kid and I played in the snow, was completely bughouse stircrazy by early afternoon.
So despite the change from lovely large drifting snow to nasty mizzling rain we all suited up and went for a walk outside. Peeper pushed his dump truck while Missy toddled ferociously through the slush holding my hand, or our hands.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor puddles nearly as deep as she is tall deterred this terra-cotta warrior. I think she was inspired by her big brother, who is apparently weatherproof, running ahead with his toy. By the time we got home her little feet were soaked with cold slush. Brrrr! But she seemed to enjoy her first real snow, and we'll have a toddler-size snowsuit for her by next time.
Weird fact: I think that only the very far St. John's tip of North Portland got more than a handful of flakes of snow. Mojo and I went out for dinner last night. We drove Bob the Subaru out of a slushey snowy street but by the time we got across Portsmouth there was no more than a jot and tittle; Kelli's Overlook neighborhood had no visible snow at all, and a friend of ours who lives in Southeast told us that they had nothing but rain all day.
Portland weather ! Go figure...
So we enjoyed our snowy day. But across the Pacific there's snow that's not so much fun.
Don't take my word for it: here's CNN on the winter storms hammering central, eastern and southern China. From the sound of the news stories it's looking like a Katrina-style meterological disaster, and there's more on the way.
And as we learned from Katrina...wait, I'll let Jenny Bowen from "Half the Sky" tell us what we learned from Katrina:
" The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the US taught us that no matter how wealthy a country might be, its vulnerable citizens (old, poor, ill, and orphaned children) are the ones who suffer most when disaster strikes."
Ahem. I'm sorry, Jenny, this cynical old sergeant would say that these most vulnerable people are, rather, the ones thrown under the bus by the wealthy and powerful who make polite decisions in quiet green silk rooms that determine who lives and who dies. Who worry most about the other rich, and powerful, and those whose votes or actions may affect those in power. Who spare only afterthoughts for the little girls and boys unable to do more than 吃冤苦...eat the bitterness of suffering.
We can help these little people. And - also as we learned here from Katrina - often the only help that the poor, weak and orphaned can truly depend on comes not from armies and governments but from the rest of us; small families, friends, neighbors, prospective parents and parents already.
Here's the link to the "Little Mouse" emergency fund to send things like quilts, diapers, formula and warm clothes to the little peeps who need them.
A portly, fiftyish urban daddy isn't much of a spokesmodel for charity. But you could close your eyes and picture me a sylph-like anorexic with a surgically-augmented bust, click the link and help you some poor orphans, couldn't you?
Nobody'd have to know but us.
1 comment:
I think you are a very compelling spokeperson for the children of China!! It worked. Di
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