Photoessay #1928 - Wimp snow town

Seattle is a wimp snow town. When it snows, the whole place goes into a panic, things get cancelled, nobody goes anywhere. You ALWAYS carry chains. But, when I talk to family members who live in snow climates (my sister in Indiana, Ilana in Michigan), I find that they don't carry chains, nobody has chains, things carry on, it's just no big deal.

Ilana goes into this funny comedy routine for her Michigan people in a mock alarmed voice "Look, guys, there's snow, uh oh, that changes everything, hey we can't go out, we can't go anywhere, oh oh do we have enough eggs?"

But it's not widespread group paranoia. In Seattle, during a snow event, most streets don't get plowed, there's very little sanding or salting. The temperature hovers around freezing so part of the snow melts and then refreezes. Several times. So the roads get covered in glare ice almost immediately. I unwisely went out yesterday evening to meet a friend at a Starbucks to talk about writing. Not a wise decision. I got there and home mostly ok. But the roads were covered with black ice, I could see the glare from the lights.

What do I mean mostly ok? Dennis suggested taking the van rather than the Prius. The Starbucks parking lot was treacherous to walk on (nobody does anything to parking lots). When I got back in, I mistakenly hit the power door button and the van side door tried to open but it was frozen shut. I couldn't get it open or closed. When I put the car in gear, it buzzed. I didn't want to slip and fall in the parking lot covered in snow and ice. I thought I would drive with the buzz and figure out the door when I got home. The cross street NE 120th to get out of Starbucks ends at Lake City Way in a hill. Not plowed or sanded. Cars slipping down hill into busy street. But I couldn't turn left. So I turned right looking for a way to turn around. Tried a u turn over snow and ice, lost traction, gambled that the forward slide would put me back on the wed pavement of Lake City Way, that worked. Carefully made the way home seeing reflection of ice everywhere. See what I mean?

Dennis did go to work this morning. He doesn't work far, less than 5 miles away. He usually goes surface streets but today he decided to go hwy 99. He reported that past the Snohomish County line, Hwy 99 was mostly covered with ice. And that's a main highway. He thought that King County people had sanded.

So it's just below freezing and more snow expected today and through Wednesday. Really there's not much snow on the ground but Seattle grinds to a halt. My appts for today and Tuesday are cancelled. We're already talking about cancelling Parent Group on Wednesday. Looks like Inner Circle on Wednesday morning might also get cancelled. I'm pretty sure they would close the schools if it wasn't MLK day.

Picture of my street this morning. Not much snow, right? Why would you cancel school over such a small amount....that's why.