Seattle Snow

Last week Seattle got hit with a pretty big snowstorm for our area, as sometimes happens about once a year.  I had to work from home the last half of the week because I couldn’t get my 2 wheel drive vehicles out of my neighborhood and I didn’t want to hike uphill a mile in the snow to catch a bus that would likely take forever to get me home after work.  Yeah, I know if you are reading this from parts of our country where snow is normal most of the year, you think we are pretty wimpy about snow.  But just think what it’s like for those of us who never have snow except maybe a few days a year.  We just aren’t used to it and are definitely not prepared for it.  Many people lost power during that week and some are still not back up and running, which is also pretty tough.  One year we had to go without power for three days and it was not fun.  It was cold and miserable.  So it is interesting here when it snows as it is mostly not received very well and causes a lot more trouble for the area than you might think it should.  Anyhow, we survived it well this year.  It was kind of nice avoiding the normal commute and just going to my couch and opening my laptop to work.  Not to mention avoiding all the usual after work errands of meetings or school or sports events.  It was a nice break and where snow is a bit of a novelty, it is kind of fun for a while.  Let’s be clear though.  I live in Seattle because of the milder climate and because I didn’t enjoy living in a place where it snowed all winter and I had to unbury my car every day before going to work and hope I didn’t crash during my commute (even with 4 wheel drive).  So, happy it is pretty much gone now and probably not coming back the rest of the winter.  And those who like snow don’t have to drive very far into the mountains to find it.  I’ll just be back at home if anyone needs me.

Winter has arrived in Seattle

Wow, what a day yesterday was.  It started out typical.  I got up early.  I took the bus into downtown Seattle (south) where I work.  It was cold, but the streets were clear and so I proceeded to give my coworkers, who chose not to come in or come in late, a hard time about their wimpiness.  The day went fine and then I started to see the snow come down a bit heavier as the day went on.  By early afternoon, people were starting to get the idea that they might want to leave a bit earlier than usual to beat the rush and maybe get home at a reasonable time.  I didn’t end up leaving until 4 PM, which was a mistake.  I went out to the nearest bus stop with some of my coworkers and we waited out there for a while until we realized that no bus was coming anytime soon and that we might need to think about an alternate route home.  The traffic on 1st was already backing up as well, so it didn’t look good.  Luckily just a short walk away was a light rail option, so we went to that area and picked up the train into downtown where we were hoping we could grab our respective buses and get home sooner than later.  The light rail got us there quickly, but then a coworker who lives near me and I went to a bus stop to wait for our ride home.  One of our buses came by in about 1/2 an hour but it was standing room only by the time it got to us, so we opted to wait for the next one.  We already knew we were in for a long ride, so we figured that we should have a seat for that experience.  In the meantime, I saw a friend or two.  One who was able to head home on a different bus that arrived and left well before mine did.  Another friend was heading home on my bus.  So we waited and waited for a 1/2 hour more and another bus finally came.  My toes were pretty cold by this time.  We all got seats but we proceeded to sit in the bus for a while since the traffic was not moving by this time.  We got on the bus around 5:40 and by the time we finally pulled into our stop, it was 10:15.  That was a long time to be stuck on the freeway on a bus.  The riders were pretty good about it however.  We chatted and napped and texted our families and did our best to keep our cool while we watched the storm rage outside our bus and as we crawled our way home.  Conversations of how we might be able to handle going the bathroom either outside or inside the bus were starting to float around, but luckily we didn’t end up having to resort to any of those options.  We also wondered how much gas the bus had.  Well, we finally made it and the park and ride was covered in snow.  I had to scrape my car so I could drive and then lend my scraper to my coworker since he didn’t have one in his car.  Getting home in my car, which is not ready for snow, was a little precarious, but I made it home safely and was able to even get it parked in my driveway.  By that time I got the email from work that it would be closed just like the schools so that we could safely work from home rather than trying to trek it in.  Our city must look pretty desolate today after last night.  I doubt many people ventured out if they could help it.

my backyard