Snowwwwwww!!
The Seattle area got its first snow last week, starting Sunday. At first it was fine, even nice. A half inch to an inch isn't going to screw anything up except to the really moronic drivers Seattle seems to breed (OMGSNOWWHATDOIDOIKNOWI'LLDRIVEATFIVEMPGONTHEHIGHWAY!!) but it will make the scenery look awesome great.
But that was just a preview. Starting early Wednesday morning, it snowed some more. And more. And more. Down here at the south end of the lake, we got six inches over the course of the day. That's enough to cause real problems, not least to traffic.
No, my parents knew about the coming weather. They'd called me Tuesday night and offered me a bed at their place, which is significantly closer to work than my actual home. But I decided not to take them up on the offer Wednesday morning. At the time, there was only about an inch, maybe less, on the ground in Redmond, and I can handle that just fine. More, I didn't have enough supplies to make it through the next few days at work if I didn't stop at home. I needed more reading material, among other things.
Driving home wasn't bad, for the most part, except for the one guy I got stuck behind just before a ramp I needed to take (so I couldn't switch lanes) who insisted on going about 20 on the highway when I was doing just fine at 45-50. He was more of a hazard than any speeder, just by being an obstacle in the road when people can't slow down easily! But I made it down to Renton, and tried to get up the big hill my house is atop. I barely made it up; it had snowed a lot more in the south, and was already at about three inches by then. But I did make it.
Wednesday, I decided I may just take my parents up on their offer. That hill had been problematic already, and the roads outside looked ghastly. I wasn't looking forward to trying again with even more snow, and having to walk two or three miles, through cold and snow, in order to get home Thursday. Between that, the shorter commute, and the offer of a free meal, I decided that unless the promised rain washed away a lot of snow, I'd be sleeping at my parents come Thursday morning.
That didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I wake up on Thursday, at my folks', and find that the morning's ice storm had knocked power out. So, no TV. I couldn't use or even charge my laptop, which I'd thoughtfully brought so I'd have something to do. I could basically go back to be, or I could read — something I could do plenty of at work. Sigh. I did as much of the former as I could before resigning myself to the latter. Which wasn't easy as the sun started to go down. Worse, the rain hadn't come, and it was starting to snow some more instead.
The meal went fine, but getting out of their driveway turned out to be a bitch. My father had advised me to back out of the driveway and up the street, then do a K-turn into someone else's driveway to go the rest of the way forwards. This is because they live at the end of a street that's on a slope. A rather gentle slope, really, but it can be a problem in the snow. But as before, there wasn't as much snow in Redmond as there was in Renton, and I thought I could do a K-turn at the end of the driveway and go up the entire hill forwards. Maybe I would have made it that way, maybe not. But as I exited their driveway, I made my turn — and hit a snowbank. My parents had left half the driveway entrance unshoveled, expecting people to back out and go up the street backwards. I didn't, and I got stuck on the unshoveled part. All in all, it was about 45 minutes of digging, swearing, shouting, pushing, and spinning wheels before we got to anything that could be called "driving." I was late to work.
Coming home, I went home. It was my last work day of the week, after all. But when I finally got home (by then that hill was not much of a problem) I found the power was out there, as well. No heat, and because Fox said he'd smelled gas the hot water was off to boot. I mean, really? I put a bunch of blankets on the bed and went to sleep.
Power came back around 10:30 AM Friday, and things got back to normal. Mostly. There's a lot of trees down in the neighborhood thanks to the ice, including a few branches in our own yard. No damage to the house, the fence, and while we haven't looked closely yet, it doesn't look like there's damage to the landscaping. Other than having some wood to chop up, we came out fine.
But it was an irritating week. I really missed living across the street from work.
The Seattle area got its first snow last week, starting Sunday. At first it was fine, even nice. A half inch to an inch isn't going to screw anything up except to the really moronic drivers Seattle seems to breed (OMGSNOWWHATDOIDOIKNOWI'LLDRIVEATFIVEMPGONTHEHIGHWAY!!) but it will make the scenery look awesome great.
But that was just a preview. Starting early Wednesday morning, it snowed some more. And more. And more. Down here at the south end of the lake, we got six inches over the course of the day. That's enough to cause real problems, not least to traffic.
No, my parents knew about the coming weather. They'd called me Tuesday night and offered me a bed at their place, which is significantly closer to work than my actual home. But I decided not to take them up on the offer Wednesday morning. At the time, there was only about an inch, maybe less, on the ground in Redmond, and I can handle that just fine. More, I didn't have enough supplies to make it through the next few days at work if I didn't stop at home. I needed more reading material, among other things.
Driving home wasn't bad, for the most part, except for the one guy I got stuck behind just before a ramp I needed to take (so I couldn't switch lanes) who insisted on going about 20 on the highway when I was doing just fine at 45-50. He was more of a hazard than any speeder, just by being an obstacle in the road when people can't slow down easily! But I made it down to Renton, and tried to get up the big hill my house is atop. I barely made it up; it had snowed a lot more in the south, and was already at about three inches by then. But I did make it.
Wednesday, I decided I may just take my parents up on their offer. That hill had been problematic already, and the roads outside looked ghastly. I wasn't looking forward to trying again with even more snow, and having to walk two or three miles, through cold and snow, in order to get home Thursday. Between that, the shorter commute, and the offer of a free meal, I decided that unless the promised rain washed away a lot of snow, I'd be sleeping at my parents come Thursday morning.
That didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I wake up on Thursday, at my folks', and find that the morning's ice storm had knocked power out. So, no TV. I couldn't use or even charge my laptop, which I'd thoughtfully brought so I'd have something to do. I could basically go back to be, or I could read — something I could do plenty of at work. Sigh. I did as much of the former as I could before resigning myself to the latter. Which wasn't easy as the sun started to go down. Worse, the rain hadn't come, and it was starting to snow some more instead.
The meal went fine, but getting out of their driveway turned out to be a bitch. My father had advised me to back out of the driveway and up the street, then do a K-turn into someone else's driveway to go the rest of the way forwards. This is because they live at the end of a street that's on a slope. A rather gentle slope, really, but it can be a problem in the snow. But as before, there wasn't as much snow in Redmond as there was in Renton, and I thought I could do a K-turn at the end of the driveway and go up the entire hill forwards. Maybe I would have made it that way, maybe not. But as I exited their driveway, I made my turn — and hit a snowbank. My parents had left half the driveway entrance unshoveled, expecting people to back out and go up the street backwards. I didn't, and I got stuck on the unshoveled part. All in all, it was about 45 minutes of digging, swearing, shouting, pushing, and spinning wheels before we got to anything that could be called "driving." I was late to work.
Coming home, I went home. It was my last work day of the week, after all. But when I finally got home (by then that hill was not much of a problem) I found the power was out there, as well. No heat, and because Fox said he'd smelled gas the hot water was off to boot. I mean, really? I put a bunch of blankets on the bed and went to sleep.
Power came back around 10:30 AM Friday, and things got back to normal. Mostly. There's a lot of trees down in the neighborhood thanks to the ice, including a few branches in our own yard. No damage to the house, the fence, and while we haven't looked closely yet, it doesn't look like there's damage to the landscaping. Other than having some wood to chop up, we came out fine.
But it was an irritating week. I really missed living across the street from work.