Mukilteo Musings

Snow Day---Day number Three

I have friends and family from Montana who read this blog. This post is for your pure entertainment. Go ahead and laugh at us. I am laughing at us. The entire metropolitan area of Seattle has completely fallen apart. We cannot handle snow and ice. Usually when it snows, it melts within a day and everything returns to normal. Several times in the 27 years we have lived here, the snow has piled up to even a foot. People stay home for the day and play and then it all goes away.

But this time, the two to five inches of snow began to melt and then the temperatures dropped to the twenties so the ice and snow is still here like an unwelcome guest. We seem to have no way to deal with this. School all over is canceled for the third day in a row--unheard of in my memory. The forecast is for more snow this evening during the commute again. Oh my!

The stories in the paper have been disaster-like. People abandon their cars here---they just get out and walk away leaving automobiles strewn all over the roads including the freeways. One couple on TV looked like they were a couple off of "The Bachelor". You know what I mean. Really good looking thirtysomethings with nice clothes and the woman was all blonde and everything. She was clinging to her handsome husband as they trudged through the snow on the freeway. King5 interviewed them. "Oh, my Porsche started sliding around like I was in a sled. I was so scared. I called my husband and he came to my rescue. (Giggle, giggle) He's got the Hummer up over there." They just left their Porsche on the freeway and clambered with great difficulty in their fancy shoes to the Hummer.


Steve Ringman/Seattle Times

Another man was trying to drive from Bellevue to Mill Creek on I-405 on Monday evening. He kind of slid to the side of the road. Rather than leave, he sat there for 18 hours! Until the next morning! In his Mustang convertible. Folks, we are not talking about the middle of no-where in Montana some place in a white-out blizzard. This is in the middle of a major American city with less than 6 inches of snow.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003452620_snowstories29m_.html


Every other time our city has come to a standstill because of the shocking weather called SNOW, I give the excuse to my Montana relatives that we just have so many steep hills. But no---people simply cannot drive in any amount of snow. Perfectly level streets have cars willy nilly in the surrounding ditches.


Mike Siegel/Seattle Times

The above photo just cracks me up. Look at the snow man and the paltry amount of snow on a residential street. And yet, this car just.....oh, if my brother sees this.....! Supposedly, Seattle is the highest educated and most literate city in the nation but often times, we are the stupidest people on the entire earth. Actually, this letter to the editor in the Seattle Times today just summed it all up perfectly:

Icing on the cake

You forgot the salt


Right about now, all Midwesterners and East Coasters who live in Seattle are shaking their heads at the panic-stricken coverage of "THE BIG STORM" ["Weather forces city, traffic to a halt," page one, Nov. 28]. Newscasters Tuesday morning pleaded, practically hysterically, with the viewers to stay home and not leave their houses!

The solution is so very simple, for any major city, or Department of Transportation that wants a solution. Guess what! Salt and sand get rid of ice on roads! Snow plows and road crews actually help clear interstates and prevent accidents, when you use them!

As a former Minnesotan, it is unthinkable to me that several inches of snow and ice would bring a city to a standstill and produce such panic. Plan, prepare, and decide if you want to be a city that properly handles this type of weather! It is not rocket science, folks.

— Janet Engel, Seattle
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003451874_wedlets29.html

Speaking of stupid, my less than brilliant Apolo has enjoyed himself so much that a Mukilteo policeman stopped me yesterday. Apolo delightedly bounced from one ice patch to another. He loves to dig at it. And snow patches cause him to roll and slide like an otter. He pounces on snowballs and eats them like an apple. A Mukilteo policeman observed Apolo's behavior and pulled up next to me as I walked. "You sure have a happy dog! At least he likes the snow."


photo taken yesterday after the policeman saw him

Yes, he does love the snow and ice!