Mukilteo Musings

Not Cool

Last Saturday, we had a lovely warm day. As you can see from my post below, we were even able to eat our dinner outside. But last night.....ah yes, last night. Montana is subject to extremes in weather with 80 degrees one day and snow the next but we are not. Our seasons change so gradually under normal circumstances from 30's and 40's with chance of rain in the winter to 60's with chance of rain in the summer, that you hardly notice.

All day yesterday, it snowed and rained on and off. At one point, everything was covered with ice pellets. Between squalls, I took Apolo for his walk but by the end of it, Apolo's furry curly head was covered with snow flakes but nothing was sticking to my grass or my street. My house is at sea level so it is difficult for me to know what is going on 500 feet up at my grocery store.

Often it will be raining down here and blizzarding up there which is exactly what happened at 5 PM. We had a wine tasting get together scheduled in Seattle for later in the evening and I decided to putter up to the store to buy an appetizer to take along. Normally, the entire trip would take me maybe 10 minutes. As I reached the top of the hill, there was a blizzard and the roads were beginning to slush up and get slippery. My car thermometer said 31 degrees. My snow anxiety kicked in but I kept going. I mean, seriously, how bad could it be in the middle of April?

Within one minute, I left green grass, rhodie blooms, cherry blossoms and tulips to a world of white giant snowflakes. Was this the twilight zone? Was I going to see Christmas lights? I inched slowly to the store. Mukilteo Speedway was clogged up. The QFC parking lot was covered in snow and people were rushing in as if it was last minute shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. My ten minute errand took me 50 minutes.

When I got home, Dave called me from his bus and wanted to know what the hell was going on. Seattle was sunny when he left the University but as they approached Lynnwood, he too felt like he had traveled through a time warp. The real name for it is CONVERGENCE ZONE. He had driven Lukie's jeep to the bus stop and it took him two or three scrapings to clear it off in order to drive down the hill home.

Needless to say, rather than attempt a hazardous and slow drive back into the city, we stayed home and watched the snow flakes. I had nothing on hand for dinner since we usually snack at the wine tasting. Our friends up the hill who we were planning to car pool with into Seattle called and they came down here with a pot of soup---their light pre-wine tasting supper. I found some scruffy looking lettuce and tomatoes for a salad and we ate our olives, hummus, and crackers purchased at QFC an hour previously.

And we watched it snow......on April 18. Unbelievable.


Near Kamiak High School at the top of the hill taken this morning.


Snow still on Lukie's Jeep this morning (with no snow at our house).


Tulips in somebody's yard up the hill this morning.