John Hendow

It seems certain “the weather” is the #1 local blog topic this week. Generally speaking, I’m not fond of cold weather, and really don’t enjoy snow all that much. It’s lovely to look at and can be briefly fun to romp in, but it is miserable for driving / walking / living. This Seattle snow storm is described as the worst we’ve had in 20 years, and I would concur.

Yesterday’s adventure: I tried to drive to work. I ordinarily take the bus, but our annual holiday potluck was scheduled for this day and I had items to take. I managed to make it to Hwy 509 and got stuck in a massive backup. The radio weatherman was saying the roads were very bad and things were expected to get worse with falling snow. After an hour I had progressed about three miles, so I exited and returned home to work from my home office all day. And THEN it snowed another four inches.

Today’s adventure: I made it to the local transit center and found a large crowd of commuters waiting for a bus. Apparently many of them had already been there for a long time. The buses were running at about 50% total route capacity, and all of the articulated (double length) buses are garaged due to poor handling in the snow. So the buses currently running are smaller and less frequent. My morning commute involved 45 minutes of waiting at the station and scrambling to cram onto a bus that was already over capacity – we left a number of disappointed people behind and at all subsequent stops the driver told waiting commuters the bus had no room. The trip usually takes about 25 minutes. This morning it took over 90 and I wound up standing the whole time, shouldering a heavy laptop and somewhat heavy commuter bag.
The good news is that downtown Seattle is really pretty clear. The roads have been ploughed and sanded, and surprisingly we seem to have managed this unusual storm without the usual apocalyptic “close everything down” reaction. My office is very quiet today, and I may seize the opportunity to do a bit of “surprise redecorating” for selected individuals… I wonder if anyone around here has a good stock of “my little pony” merchandise…