PORTLAND, Ore. -- For the guys at Heiberg Garbage & Recycling, the term "snow day," just meant they had to work in the snow on Wednesday.

"That's part of the job," said truck operator Brandon Clevenger, as he picked up garbage in Sellwood. "We do a service for the city, people have stinky stuff in their yard and they don't want it to stay there," he said.

To make sure it didn't, Heiberg employees left the recycling and yard debris cans full this week, in order to keep all hands on the garbage cans. Neighbors like Eric Norberg didn't seem to mind.

"The recycling cans are bigger now, so you can fit two-weeks worth of recycling in them," he said.

Clevenger said they'd take every break they could get, with a job that's tougher to do in snow and ice.

"The heavy cans make you lose your balance and almost fall down, the traction's pretty bad and we also have to keep an eye on our truck's snow chains to make sure they don't break on us," said Clevenger.

And through rain sleet and snow, there's more than garbage that must go -- like the day's mail. Letter carrier Karen Lorts has spent the last 22-years delivering mail in Portland. She's found just one thing might stop her from completing a rout.

"It's usually an icy street that's almost vertical," she said.

Lorts' "Yak Trax" shoe chains take care of most icy terrain and she wears a fleece-lined hat with ear covers to keep her warm.

"I know I look like someone out of 'Fargo,'" she said, "But I'm warm and that's why they issue these hats to us."

Whatever it takes to help Lorts deliver the mail, she said. "I have a building with 55-and-older residents who live and breath by their mail," she said. "Their checks come and every day they're looking for their Mother's Day cards, their birthday cards... they watch for me every day."

Postal officials said so far, less than 2-tenths of a percent of all mail deliveries had been delayed because of this week's weather.