Anyone out there in the snow?

That's a joke for us in Puget Sound. Mr. East Hill and I made it into work this past evening, and are seriously wondering how we are going to get back home! We had some fellow employees end tour at 2300 last night and they came back after spending 6 hours getting as far south as 277th (from SeaTac Airport). Wow!

I don't think I will be going anywhere on the bikes today. It looks as if we may even have to walk the 7 and a half miles home from the airport. It would probably be safer walking than mixing it up with the car traffic. At least we have the car at home when we think about coming back to work tonight:D .

It's mimitabby's birthday! Enjoy your birthday MT, just don't wish for snow again. 3 inches of snow on the East Hill by 2200 last night on the 27th, how about everyone else?

East Hill

I'm here up on the plateau in Sammamish. I decided not to take my dog to agility class last night down near Southcenter. Wise decision. But then my daughter called. She and her husband work at the UW and had been waiting over an hour for their bus to come. They decided to get on any bus that woud get them to Issaquah. Foolishly I said I would pick them up in Issaquah. Our side street wasn't bad and usually the main road with more traffic is a lot better. It was 4 hours before I made it back home and I never got the 3 miles to E. Lk. Sammamish at the bottom of the hill. I ended up turning around and my daughter and her husband walked from Issaquah and caught up to me as I was going back up the hill. Drivers go crazy around here when they see one flake of snow. The hill looked like a parking lot. At least most of the people abandoned their cars at the side of the road instead of in the middle.

I don't hear much traffic going down the street this morning. After last night I guess everyone has decided to stay home.

my husband rode his bike home last night all the way from Lynnwood. (he usually takes a bus partway but didn't want to get stuck in the Seahawks mess downtown)
This morning he took his bike again but i drove him to within 4 blocks of the 4th and Spokane bus stop so he will only have to ride a couple miles total.
We have a crusty icy inch of snow. Coworker in Carnation is staying home because he has 6" and has his sister in law's triplets at his house together with his three normally spaced apart kids.. (does that sound like a zoo or what?!)

All the bridges are icy, and he would have hAD to cross 4 of them.

It is BEAUTIFUL this morning, more cotton balls are falling from the sky but we have sunlight as well. Just wonderful. Makes me feel like listening to 'What a wonderful world!'. :)

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Originally Posted by Grog

It is BEAUTIFUL this morning, more cotton balls are falling from the sky but we have sunlight as well. Just wonderful. Makes me feel like listening to 'What a wonderful world!'. :)

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Oooh that sounds pretty. You sure are lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of the world. Love Vancouver.:)

Well Mr. East Hill and I did manage to get home. We did chain up at the top of Petrovitsky and Benson. It's those hills, darn it.

Mimitabby, your husband is a trooper if he went out in the cold today. I see from the news reports that I got more snow up here than the rest of you, 6 inches total.

Dakay, you were indeed wise to stay away from the south end. Everyone going home from the Seahawks game decided that they were going to check into the nearest hotel/motel. Every place to stay from at least the airport south to Federal Way was booked solid.

At any rate, my side street has a solid 2 inch layer of ice on it that appears to be going nowhere for the next day or two. There goes my plan to check out a mixte in Woodinville (advertised on Craigslist). Oh well.

East Hill

East Hill- DP is trying to convince me to drive her to work so she can fly out to Vegas tonight for a conference. Hard to convince her there is a solid layer of ice underneath that chains or studs won't perform where there are hills (like here at home).

Dakay- Be glad most people refuse to drive. I will say I'm amazed and pleased how quickly the road crew got out and plowed/sanded last night. I'd be curious to see how they cope in the moutainous areas of Colorado at times like this.

Mimitabby- He is going to bike today? :eek: Does he have knobbies or studs?


Grog- I imagine you have the day off from school? Any XC skis to be found?

Be safe and warm,
Quill

the bus was 40 minutes late and there were abandoned vehicles all over I-5
to the north.
when he got to Lynnwood he decided to WALK his bike because he could not hold it upright, there was 2" of glare ice over everything.

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Originally Posted by Quillfred

Mimitabby- He is going to bike today? :eek: Does he have knobbies or studs?


Be safe and warm,
Quill

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neither.
he walked... He will probably drive home tonight. YESTERDAY was when he rode all the way home from Lynnwood, through, sun, rain, sleet, and wind..

I'm going to go out on the old marin just for the fun of it today - its beautiful and sunny if cold.

I grew up on the east coast so I have to laugh when this kind of thing happens out here. It's not like the weather was really that horrible, its just that the city doesn't have the equipment to take care of it, no one has snow tires or knows how to drive on slippery roads. NO - 4 wheel drive doesn't help you stop!! Heck I see people out who don't even understand how to walk on ice without slipping and sliding all over the place.

exactly, Eden.
There were people driving 20 mph on East Marginal Way, dry flat pavement!
(speed limit 45)

Quillfred--just tell your DP that whilst I was at work, I could look out across from Air Cargo Road at the road leading to the departures/arrivals at SeaTac. For HOURS--not minutes--nobody went anywhere. Does your DP really want to possibly subject you to that tonight? Important reminder: if you haven't been over to SEA in a while, the roads have been rearranged due to the monorail being installed. It's very confusing, especially at night.

Interestingly, all the planes which carried my mail (the registered mail) departed on time. The trucks, on the other hand, did not!

East Hill

For those of you longing for a 'white Christmas'

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...l/IMG_0387.jpg
Taken from the upper level of the house at almost 1.00 pm.

Some of it's melted off, too.

East Hill

Oh yes . . . snow here too!

Looking out my front door . . .

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...er247/snow.jpg

and looking out my back door . . .

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...r247/snow3.jpg

The sunshine is awesome and the blue sky, beautiful!

I made it up our local switch-back hill to take her to the bus with all-WD and front chains. She will bus to airport. No sense in driving any more than necessary.

I wish I lived within walking distance of an open park so I could XC ski. Even the Burke-Gilman looks pretty trampled.

yeah, we have a golf park on beacon hill which is perfect for days like this.

Are we ready for round two? On kiro tv tonight Andy Wappler was saying that there is another system off shore that will pass through Wednesday night Thursday morning bringing at least another 6 inches of snow! :eek:

NOOOOOOOO! I've got a meeting at U.W. tomorrow from 6pm to 8pm!

They're saying it won't get inland until after midnight, Knot, so you should be fine.

Oops. This morning, they're saying snow is more likely to arrive earlier tonight, 7-10 pm, so take care, girls.

My meeting got cancelled, and it's starting to snow again here.

Think I'll grab a book and go cuddle up.

a coworker of mine had to go to the dentist monday. the dentist is in bellevue, his home is in Everett (25 or 30 miles at the most). It took him 8 hours to get home. he sat and didn't move for 5 hours. His wife could not find any info from the news or the online Seattle traffic website until 10 minutes before his car started to move. An articulated bus had jack knifed and blocked all lanes.. for 5 hours..

unfortunately, this is not an unusual seattle snowstorm story.
(we're talking about 2 or 3 inches here!)

"Grab a book and cuddle up"---yeah yeah!

It's 3:55 and looking bleak out there. I'm in the basement after having the construction guys air-compressing and sawing and banging over my head earlier in the day. Finally got stir crazy and went for a walk, being careful not to fall on my ***, since I'm still so thrilled that the broken toe is pretty much healed. Worrying about whether Mr. Salsa will make it home tonight from Bremerton. Going to...grab a book and cuddle up.

In Albany NY, where I grew up, such stories as Mimi's would never happen. But I know it doesn't make good financial sense for Seattle to have a gazillion plows and tons of rock salt for the occasional winter storm. Just glad we're all home and safe...

Unfortunately what they do out here can make it worse too - my husband works over in Issaquah. He said they had a plow out and did Lake Sammamish road, but they didn't drop the blade all of the way down in order to not scrape off the bot-dots (turtles - whatever you like to call them) and reflectors off of the road. What this accomplishes is packing down the snow into a nice hard sheet of ice....

That can be OK when the roads are flat and straight. In Rochester NY where I went to college they only plowed the main streets to the pavement to save on plow blades and left an inch or two of hard pack on all of the side streets, but that city had like one hill in the whole thing, plus they spread salt, which I think the hubby is correct in his thinking that it would never be allowed out here because the run off might damage salmon runs. Don't tell I used some on my sidewalk after spending an hour chipping most of the ice off yesterday.

The hubby rode his bike both ways yesterday and said it was OK for the most part. I took the Marin out, but I chose a baaaaad time of the day. The sun was out and melting a nice sheet of water over all of the ice on the roads here. It was so slick I didn't even make it 2 blocks before falling over so I just headed home. Today the hubby drove, but he packed the bike into the car just in case traffic gets too crazy he figures he'll still be able to get home.

[QUOTE=Quillfred;148287]

Dakay- Be glad most people refuse to drive. I will say I'm amazed and pleased how quickly the road crew got out and plowed/sanded last night. I'd be curious to see how they cope in the moutainous areas of Colorado at times like this.


Sounds like a typical day in the mountains! Yesterday, (it was snowing) we left the condo at 9,700 ft, drove down to 9,100 ft and up to Copper mtn at 9,600 ft. We skied in about 8" of snow. Chains were required on commerical vehicles but not cars. The roads were snow covered but passable. I-70 has been closed 3 times already this winter but it is usually due to blizzard type conditions.

We just had our 4th snowstorm this winter in Denver. There was about 6-10" but very few school closings or delays. Yes, there were traffic delays and accident but most people take a day like this in stride. For example, I just heard on the news that the roads are icy in Denver tonight but employees are getting off work and heading to the malls!

However, I used to live in Cincinnati. If a flake of snow was predicted there were huge lines in the grocery store, schools closed for a couple of inches and everyone thought it was the end of the world!:D

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Originally Posted by Kathi

However, I used to live in Cincinnati. If a flake of snow was predicted there were huge lines in the grocery store, schools closed for a couple of inches and everyone thought it was the end of the world!:D

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Bingo. That would be Seattle. I used to make fun of it until I realized that here, two inches really can be a disaster for the reasons we described above.

If I could say one thing to the people here who didn't have to learn to drive in snow, it would be:

Less is more, guys. Less is more. Less brakes. Less acceleration. Less, um...closeness to the cars around you (okay, had to reach for that last one).

Enough of snow! We have learned our lessons until the next time it snows, so back to bikes.

I took the Nishiki Pro out today to see if I had glued on my tyres correctly:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...l/IMG_0388.jpg

I am just about to get started. I don't yet have on helmet or gloves here. Don't worry, I put them on before I took off.

Unfortunately I got down to my favourite trail and found out that even though the roads are only icy in spots, the trail was not negotiable. But my tyres stayed on and I had a great ride (all three miles of it).

East Hill