11/23/2010

Seattle 148, or And It's Beginning to...



When it snows in Seattle, the collective head comes off and the proverbial (and actual) chickens start running around. Or, rather, people turn into idiots. Real idiots. Idiots who would try to gun it up a hill that's covered in ice with cars close in front of them. Idiots who don't know how to control a skid. Idiots who don't have chains for their tires, don't own snowboots, and seem to think sledding is best done when wildly intoxicated.

The roads are closed. There are no snowplows. There is no salt or sand, or that disgusting organic molasses byproduct that got really popular in Massachusetts one year. In any self-respecting temperate climate, this would be a non-issue. The snow stopped around 2am - it could've been cleared by 5. But it wasn't. Because there are no g-ddamn plows.

I worked a 14 hour emergency shift, because I could walk to work instead of relying on the buses. It took one of my cowokers six hours to make her 20 minute commute. A new client was dropped off at 2am because the highway turned into a parking lot. The school expects at least two, maybe three snowdays from this.

I'm not leaving the house until I have to. I've got my nice cozy fire going, and promises of rice pudding, and I will leave the insanity where it is, thank you.

But I will say this: there is something wonderful about a pink sky over snowy evergreens, and the companionable silence that comes from empty roads.



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