Rants from the Burgh

So, I want to blog about something. Something incredible, improbable, and, simply crazy. In fact, I want to blog about something that has created such a visible spectacle that (almost) needs to be seen to believed.

Yet I cannot.

I cannot blog. Why? Because I have many photos of this amazing spectacle on my camera, but I cannot upload those photos anywhere, because my camera cable is at work, and I have not been able to get to work for 6 days now. 6 days.

Seattle has been shut down for 6 days. Due to snow. Snow is never supposed to arrive in Seattle. Let alone something like 6 inches of snowfall that does not let up for over 6 days. Seattle and Seattleites are completely unprepared for such an event. By 3 days into the storm, most streets were barely plowed, salted, or sanded, and the city was in complete lockdown. By now, most main streets are mostly clear, but most side streets are still impassable. Of course, I live on a slightly hilly side street, so my streets are basically sheets of ice. So I cannot get my car into or out of my apartment (I tried a few times, but will not be doing so again until the snow has cleared). Even though almost all the main streets are clear, the buses around my house that go to work haven't been running for 6 days.

This snow would have been a non-event in almost any other city in the country. Seattle, however, has been shut down, because it's been like 11 years since it's gotten any snow.

The ramifications are sort of cute:

1) Stores are closing, businesses are closing, etc. Pizza places have even stopped delivering to many locations! Buses have stopped running, or, at the best, have been significantly rerouted away from any vaguely hilly route.

2) Even with a dusting of snow, everybody in Seattle puts chains on their tires. I didn't need chains even when I was driving over Donner pass in the middle of a massive snowstorm, with winding, mountainous roads, freezing rain, 2-3 inches of wet slush on the roads, and 2-3 feet of snow on the side of the road. In fact, the "Do not drive this road without chains" signs weren't even turned on. I saw it as daintily cute. I even laughed out loud the first couple of chains I saw. As I've learned, however, chains seem to be essential in Seattle when it snows.

2) Any vaguely hilly side street has been closed off. Little signs are out, suggesting that people do not drive them. Instead, people are going sledding down the streets!

3) Snowmen abound. Strange, and bizzare snowmen, with lipstick and god knows what else. Terrifying, really. But I forgive the makers, since they are clearly inexperienced. It is the effort that counts.

4) Everything is pretty. The snow is amazingly beautiful. I am so grateful to have gotten so much snow after I moved here. It reminds me of Pittsburgh :)

The snow is a huge inconvenience --- It has kept me from being productive for like a week, canceled scores of events, closed stores, and so forth --- But its prettiness is a reward of its own. Hopefully I'll post some photos when I finally get into work.