Snow Storm Smothers Seattle!

Being a city that hardly sees snow, we still don't seem to know how to deal with it even though we got more snow these past few years that we ever normally get. And, because it was believed that sanding the roads was better environmentally for the salmon instead of salting them, the snow got compacted on the roads, and turned into treads and runnels of ice. The roads became horribly bumby, and worse than driving on just snow or ice, because it would yank you in a particular direction. Or, you'd try to drive around them and you'd be driving on the strips of foot high snow that runs down the middle of the road, which isn't that great on your car. In fact, it tore off my skid plate. I called a VW mechanic about getting it replaced, and he said, don't bother.

But it sure was pretty for a while.






Before the roads became frozen mud. And it sure messed up transportation.


It was now four days before Christmas, and Jason was becoming a frantic mess because he had done barely any of his Christmas shopping. The roads weren't drivable, so we caught a bus to University Village to do some shopping and just see it in all the snow.

However, the bus we ended up catching had lost its chains earlier in the day and made the sorry mistake of stopping just before the crest of the hill we were on to let a woman off. Needless to say, he lost his momentum and we were stuck on the hill. He tried reversing back and forth to catch some traction and keep going, but every time we just got closer to the fence of a property we were next to. Eventually the owner of the house came out to inform our driver that if he kept doing that, he was going to break the water main we were over, and he was sure Metro wouldn't want to pay for that. Our driver cracked me up though with his response. "Oh yeah? Oh yeah? We'll I'll be the judge of that!" and he shut the doors on the guy and kept trying. Eventually he stopped and we all (there were maybe 8 people total on the bus) waited for the next 75 to pass by so we could transfer. I think we waited about a half hour before the next bus came by and our driver hurried us out on to the street so we could flag it down. It was really funny, because all of us hurrying out behind him to the street reminded me of a mother duck and all her ducklings waddling as fast as they can behind her. But we all got on that bus and left our former driver behind with his as he waited for somebody to deliver him some chains. I think it was going to be another hour before they got there.


Then we finally got to U-Village and the only thing we had to worry about then was finding a resturant that was open so that we could have lunch. Most of the places were closed because no one could make it in to work. But we had lunch at the Ram, and it was delicious.





Normally these frogs shoot water out of their mouths. Perhaps they stopped because they could not see where they were shooting.


And you can't really tell in this picture, but the cow is actually bending down to sniff at a turtle hidden in the snow.




By the time we decided to go home, it was almost 7:30. We found our exiting bus stop, and the people that were waiting there. One chick had been waiting two hours, and the bus had not shown yet. We made a friend and waited with them for a half hour (that chick had now been there two and a half hours) before deciding that if it's going to take us two hours to get home, we'd rather be warm doing it, and we started walking. Apparently it's 5 miles from our bus stop home, and it took us about two and a half hours.


But at least we were warm, and we had a good time.








The next morning was Monday, and I decided that I wasn't going to be able to make it in to work. While I had "valiantly," as my HR manager put it, made it in to work on both Thursday and Friday of the last week (there really wasn't that much snow on my streets and the freeway to make any sort of excuse for staying home), I couldn't get my car out of my parking spot, and I couldn't trust the buses because the one from the night before failed us, and there were three that got stuck on the street outside of our apartment building.



The second bus in those pictures seemed to be stuck earlier, but when I came out to check my email again, it seemed to have been able to back up and then get out of there.

Since I didn't have to go to work, I went back to bed and Jason and I got up later and decided to walk to the mall because we still hadn't done any shopping.


Two hours later, and that bus was still sitting there. Not only that, but there was another just up the street on where it was trying to turn. But the mail trucks could still get around.



On our way back home, we passed a Budweiser truck that was stuck in a parking lot. It kept trying to move but all it was doing was spinning its wheels.


While Jason and I were out tromping in the snow, a couple of my coworkers made it in and used the slow day to make a construction worker snowman!


It's hard to see, but he is actually wearing safety glasses. Safety first!