January 15th . . . Interurban/Green River Trail

[Susan126]

Ok, enough already! This is my sixth day off from work (I am a Library Media Asst and Building Computer Tech at a local Middle School). I had one day off because of flooding, two days off because of power outage, and now three days off because of "snow" . . . I do not want to work into July. Although I've heard rumors about not having to make up the flood and power outage days. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this!

I want to ride my bikes!!!! Argh!

Will spring and warmer weather ever come to us? Oh please please please I sure hope so. And SOON!

Hang in there girls! We'll get to ride soon, right?

[salsabike]

Ok, enough already! This is my sixth day off from work (I am a Library Media Asst and Building Computer Tech at a local Middle School). I had one day off because of flooding, two days off because of power outage, and now three days off because of "snow" . . . I do not want to work into July. Although I've heard rumors about not having to make up the flood and power outage days. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for this!

I want to ride my bikes!!!! Argh!

Will spring and warmer weather ever come to us? Oh please please please I sure hope so. And SOON!

Hang in there girls! We'll get to ride soon, right?

+1 to all that! I'm getting stir-crazy. Am a school psych and not looking forward to making up all these days--I think we've had five days total, one from the windstorm and four snow days. I'm DONE with this snow stuff. And frankly had been looking forward to going to work today so I wouldn't have to listen to all the construction noise again. Bleah. Took a walk in the snow this morning, but the ice underneath makes it a little precarious. I'm DONE, I say.

[East Hill]

Well, the P.O. never sleeps, and I think it would have been nice to have had one snow day, but I have yet to not make it into work due to snow. However, I'm not a teacher, and I would not want to have to deal with children, their parents, and snow!

So I'll keep going to work even in the snow. I am just glad that Mr. East Hill is very good at driving in the stuff.

But it's getting awfulllllyyyy boring here at home. Can you imagine living in a place like Buffalo?

East Hill

[salsabike]

Yeah, I was born in Buffalo, moved to Albany when I was eight and grew up there. They NEVER--or almost never--have snow days because they have the equipment to clean it up fast. Here, we get an inch and we're all in trouble because of the icy hills and side streets. Bah.

[Eden]

But it's getting awfulllllyyyy boring here at home. Can you imagine living in a place like Buffalo?

East Hill

Grew up in Pittsburgh, went to college in Rochester NY (just up the road about 60 miles from Buffalo). Its just different out east. Everyone knows how to deal with snow so people know how to drive in it and have good snow tires on their cars, the cities knows how to deal with it and have the equipment to do it properly and effieciently. This much snow wouldn't have been even thought about in either of those places.
Due to its proximity to Lake Ontario, Rochester was for sure the worst of the two weather wise. Out here - pffft, this is nothing, though I fail to understand what it is about the climate here or maybe what they make the road surfaces out of that forms so much ice! In Rochester it generally started snowing around Halloween and melted out completely some time in March or April. You could expect at minium one big snowstorm in the winter that would dump up to several feet of snow, perhaps even the lovely blowing kind that is almost impossible to shovel or plow since it just blows right back, several weeks of sub-zero temperatures - we're taking -20 to -60 wind chills here, and maybe top it all off with a nice ice storm right around Easter.
Pittsburgh's weather isn't quite that nasty, but there was definitely still snow and ice. Pittsburgh, unlike Rochester (really flat), and more like Seattle is a city built on a series of hills, but since snow and ice are always a factor there there are plenty of salt trucks out and about to keep the roads clear. I never saw cars with chains or studded tires until I came out here strangely enough. We rarely had days off school because of snow - in fact I think the entire time I was in high school we did not have one snow day.
Our biggest problem here is that this kind of weather doesn't happen enough. Its not worth it for the cities to have a lot of plows or salt trucks (I would bet you wouldn't even be allowed to spread salt here - the runoff would contaminate salmon streams) and many, many people do not have good tires on their cars. Plus it seems like the roads ice over very easily. I'm not making light of it mind you - its definitely not a good idea to get out there and drive- its a real mess, but elsewhere it just would have been taken care of. One thing my husband and I have noticed is how few people shovel/de ice their sidewalks out here.... Out east if you fail to clear your sidewalk and someone slips and falls you will be liable so everyone does it. On the other hand you don't ruin your shoes out here because you are walking in rock salt all day long (it really eats leather shoes!).

[mimitabby]

Eden
I suspected you were from back east. But you do explain it well!
I grew up in New Jersey. We had to WALK in snow like this.
We had to wait until a foot or more fell before we could take a snow day.

[Eden]

Show you how naieve I was - until I saw (and heard) chains on busses and cars out here I never knew that was what made the ching-ching-ching sound of the salt trucks.... I always thought it was the salt spreader making that noise It was always a sign that it was going to snow, no matter what the news weather was saying, if it was going to snow the salt trucks would be out before it happened, no trucks, no snow - they must have had access to better forecasting. It really is nicer to not have the salt though. it kills everything on the sides of the road, eats cars (rusts them out really fast), eats shoes and is probably not really great to be putting into the water system all of the time.

[Susan126]

Oh wow . . . you have to watch this video that was shot this morning in Portland, Oregon. Talk about cars and ice not mixing!!!!

Icy Hill in Portland Oregon this morning