I am "R and A" today, my little abbreviation for RESTLESS and AGITATED. I'm looking out on the day and wondering if I'll be able to get my parents down to the clinic for their much needed doctor's appointments. One is at 10:45 AM and the other 2 PM. Two trips and snow is in the forecast although right now all we have is overcast skies.
I remember when snow was just that....snow. When I lived in upstate New York during college I had a car my senior year. Unless we had blizzard like conditions, people were out on the road driving, doing errands and moving forward with their day. It's nothing like that here where we have lots of hills and snow loves to turn into ice quickly. Add to that the fact that the city of Seattle behaves in a reactive rather than proactive manner; they never sand or salt the streets in our neighborhood ever and get out there on the more traveled roads only when there's trouble. Sigh. Paralysis reigns when we get any accumulation of snow/ice. Schools are closed today for example.
I don't have snow tires but I do have a sturdy, heavy, road hugging Honda CRV. Should I venture out today for those appointments? Guess I'll decide at the last minute. I know both Mom and Dad want to get out of the house; they are so stir-crazy sitting in that small room for days on end with the dark descending at 4:30 PM and not lifting until after 8 AM. There's nothing for them to do and a trip "out" is mollifying to say the least. However, I don't want to get stranded somewhere or spin out on the ice. Dang it.
So, I sit restless and agitated and stew. I'm convinced I have an ulcer brewing by the burn in my stomach right now. Of course two cups of coffee didn't help that much. Where's the prilosec?
Good luck today - be safe!
ReplyDeleteThose in-between weather moments are the worst. To go or not to go? I've tempted fate for the last two winters and decided last week to get studded snow tires. It was just in time - for an ice storm over the week-end and what looks to be a storm every 2-3 days for the foreseeable future. Now we have one car to use when we have to go ~ Hope you were able to take your parents out and about.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I know how you feel. We just had a blizzard come through this past Sunday, dropping 22 inches on us...The don't salt the roads, and only sand the main roads which I don't believe really helps...everyone slipping, skidding, and sliding through turns and traffic lights, it's nuts, and the kicker? they let 14-year olds drive up here!
ReplyDeleteReading your posts backwards, so read also about the article you found about snow care in Seattle. That has to be terribly frustrating, having lived in other places where they deal with it well. I grew up in Chicago and they had the streets clear before it got a chance to accumulate and as a kid I was always pissed off because I WANTED to be stuck for a few days.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this has to do with being "environmentally" safe or something? Maybe it's because you don't get much snow so this is something they never prepared or budgeted for (not jsut salt, but the right kind of trucks to spead them, plows, etc)? What do you think?
Otherwise it's like they are inventing a wheel that's been running smoothly in many other places for decades. Interesting.