A Sheet of Ice and Blowing Snow

I never left the house yesterday owing to weather....actually I did but only to the local grocery store in the window of time when there were clear roadways. Despite my hibernation indoors with the comforts of electricity, water, and heat I got little rest for the worry about my two children, both braving the elements to get home from a day's work.

Chris had a nightmare commute; got on his bus in downtown Seattle before 4 PM, an earlier bus than usual to hopefully stay ahead of the rush. Not. He finally made it home at 12:40 AM; can you imagine 8 plus hours on a bus? No bathroom, literally stalled out on I-5 which was a parking lot, especially leaving the Seattle metro area. Seems every time we received a text from him he was still near Boeing Field, miles and miles and miles from home.At least he had his good buddy, Skiff, with him. I was curled up in bed, in and out of sleep, with an open ear for the text messages flowing in.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the state, Laura battled blizzard conditions in Spokane. The city is smaller and better prepared for assaults of cold, icy weather but still....she awoke to heavy snowfall yesterday morning with a commute to work, an admonishment to "not be late under any circumstances", and no decent clothing for this cold snap. She was planning on picking up her heavy winter jacket, gloves, and scarves when home for Thanksgiving. Awakened by a phone call yesterday morning at 6 AM, my dearest daughter described scraping her car of snow with a kitchen spatula (!) and traipsing through a ten minute walk from the parking lot to work with slippery conditions and no proper footwear. Sigh.

She made it home last evening and put my mind to rest for a brief time when her call came through near 7 PM. "I drove slow, Mom; really, really slow."  Good for you, I thought. As Dad once told me when I started to drive in snowy conditions, "You'll learn everything you need to know in 10 minutes because everything that can happen will likely happen...." Rather true. You learn quickly not to hit the brake and to drive S L O W in all that snow and ice.

I slept from near 1 AM last night until around 5:45 AM when Laura called to report that she'd made it (again) to work, through what Spokane is calling "blizzard conditions".  She said the wind was so loud it drowned out all other sounds. Blowing snow and slick roads. Poor visibility. She's dedicated to her job; not sure I'd be so determined to make it to work on time under these conditions.  Just heard from her again...."I'm selling lots of extra coverage today; no one wants to play around with this weather."  She's in the car rental business. I'm sure that folks don't want to worry about wrecks while driving their rental vehicle.

So, here I sit in my warm house. The sun is shining but it's bitter cold outside. We are so unprepared for this in the Northwest. The East coast folks are likely laughing....they've the snow plows,  sand trucks, de-icing fluid and salt that for some reason we in the NW can't seem to mobilize in a timely way. Sigh.

Who knows what will happen over the coming days?  Whatever it is will be interesting.

our backyard

Boo has the right idea on a winter-y day.