Snow M G!
I managed to make it nearly eleven months without taking a sick/personal day, but the weather did me in. I made it home Monday night and vowed to not set foot outside untiI I could see the ground again. So I puttered around Tuesday, whiling away the hours, reflecting on how if I didn't live on a hill, I might at least have a crack at driving. I was able to drive in the inclement weather before, but didn't trust other people to do it.
How is it that two inches of snow can paralyze a region, and even more locally the city of Seattle? The major streets of Kent were sanded and driveable on Wednesday; I have no idea how long it took for the salt and chemicals to come out up north? The midwest and eastern states must be laughing at us, because whenever we get a little bit of precipitation, apparently everyone forgets how to drive. And that's how you get huge horking backups on freeways, because people abandon their cars and decide to hitchhike home.
I also question the snow plan of Mayor McGinn, who said to "take public transit." I did that for years and years before I undertook driving, and I won't ever go back. You can find a story a week about something terrible happening on a Metro bus or in a bus stop. Make the busses safe, inexpensive and no longer retaining the stench of bum urine, and maybe people will start taking them; but not until busses adhere to our lives, and not the other way around. So that doesn't fly with me. If you look at the winter blast from 2008 as a practice round (where Mayor Nickels infamously awarded his city the grade of B-plus for their response to the weather), then that means the city shouldn't foul up. They should put to use all of those snowplows which were supposed to be bought after the last one. What about the next time? When does Seattle run out of mulligans?
You get what you pay for. If you elect a car-hating militant bicyclist or various other idealogues at the county and state level, they're not going to put "make the roads safe after bad weather" at the top of the list. But that doesn't abrogate the fault of the people to learn what to do on icy roads. How to handle a skid, or stopping distance. To pack blankets and extra clothes, and to not run out of gas where you can't move to the side. We're lucky that Pugetopia seems to get a winter blast like this once every other year. States like North Dakota probably won't see ground until May, and you can't just take six months worth of personal time and show up when the sun finally comes out.
if you're prepared for the worst, anything better than that is a boon. Driving on slush and patches of ice is a huge step up from where we were just days ago.
How is it that two inches of snow can paralyze a region, and even more locally the city of Seattle? The major streets of Kent were sanded and driveable on Wednesday; I have no idea how long it took for the salt and chemicals to come out up north? The midwest and eastern states must be laughing at us, because whenever we get a little bit of precipitation, apparently everyone forgets how to drive. And that's how you get huge horking backups on freeways, because people abandon their cars and decide to hitchhike home.
I also question the snow plan of Mayor McGinn, who said to "take public transit." I did that for years and years before I undertook driving, and I won't ever go back. You can find a story a week about something terrible happening on a Metro bus or in a bus stop. Make the busses safe, inexpensive and no longer retaining the stench of bum urine, and maybe people will start taking them; but not until busses adhere to our lives, and not the other way around. So that doesn't fly with me. If you look at the winter blast from 2008 as a practice round (where Mayor Nickels infamously awarded his city the grade of B-plus for their response to the weather), then that means the city shouldn't foul up. They should put to use all of those snowplows which were supposed to be bought after the last one. What about the next time? When does Seattle run out of mulligans?
You get what you pay for. If you elect a car-hating militant bicyclist or various other idealogues at the county and state level, they're not going to put "make the roads safe after bad weather" at the top of the list. But that doesn't abrogate the fault of the people to learn what to do on icy roads. How to handle a skid, or stopping distance. To pack blankets and extra clothes, and to not run out of gas where you can't move to the side. We're lucky that Pugetopia seems to get a winter blast like this once every other year. States like North Dakota probably won't see ground until May, and you can't just take six months worth of personal time and show up when the sun finally comes out.
if you're prepared for the worst, anything better than that is a boon. Driving on slush and patches of ice is a huge step up from where we were just days ago.