Sara Ford's WebLog

Exclude me, please.  Snow is great. Snow is fun. This kind of weather is NORMAL for almost billion people around the world where life goes on NORMALLY when snow begins to fall. I don't get why snow is a disaster in Redmond (as is light wind). The problem is that city keeps ignoring need to get enough snowplows ans Puget Sound Energy doesn't give a squat about burying cables in the ground. It seems like no one in Seattle is aware that snow is NORMAL on planet Earth.

Get real. Now, make sure your city council is real too.

You're welcome here in Texas, Sara.  It was a balmy 65 in Houston today (61 in Dallas) with sun as far as the eye can see.  Please see if you can get that snow stuff cleared out before the MVP Summit in March.  :-)

And here was me thinking you only did karate so you could look like some kind of Snow Ninja.  

Another illusion shattered.

As a native Clevelander, I'll say:  this is not real snow.  If you were in Cleveland, you'd be at work right now and not even talking about the white stuff... :)

i feel the same way sara, snow is good only once in a big while.  after the first inch forget the rest for the next 10 years.

I agree with Clevelander.  I'm from upstate NYS and nothing would have been cancelled for that puny dusting. :)  We'd just go on with life normally, because snow isn't that abnormal.

I totally love snow. I’ve lived in northern Maine and the upper peninsula of Michigan where entire houses are routinely covered. But Seattle snow is very difficult to deal with because its icy and thin, with dry patches just to trick you up. Its not the consistent, nice snow + dirt mixtures that are so easy to deal with elsewhere. The usual protocol driving in snow in the Seattle area is: 1. everything’s cool 2. ooops now were sliding 3. crank the steering wheel hard to no avail 4. hit dry spot an flip 5. Get 4WD vehicle 6. flip even more:)

My name is Amy, and I guess by the name it tells you I’m a girl. I live in Central Vermont, and went to school in Michigan so I had my share of winter driving and got stuck way too many times. I work in a rather professional office so I wear a lot of skirts and dresses. I have a 2003 Mustang with manual transmission and a 2006 Mustang with automatic transmission. On this particular night I had my 2006 Mustang, it has summer tires on it, and this was the first time in the snow with it. I had left work about 7pm, we had a 3 inch mixture of snow and ice on the roads and cars, it was still snowing lightly. Actually due to my being somewhat of an air head I had to let the car warm up about 15 minutes because I neglected to put a snow brush and ice scraper in the car. So after warming the car up, I struggled to get the car our of my parking space and out of the parking lot, and managed to make my way to the entrance ramp to the interstate, a normal 10 minute drive which this night took about 30 minutes. The entrance ramp was clogged with cars trying to make it up, so I thought that I would drive to my tennis club to burn a little time and use the ladies room because by now I had to go sooooo badly. The club is located in a part of an industrial complex, I turned onto the road leading to the club, and was not picky as to where to park which was a parallel parking space in front of the building, only to find the place closed. The area where my club is, is not widely traveled and you somewhat have to go out of your way to find it, and also in a bad area as my cell phone could not get a signal. Once back in the car I found myself stuck so badly, spinning my wheels helplessly. Not that I mind being stuck, because for me I feel sexy and helpless spinning my wheels in my Mustangs, and you often meet some real cute hunks who are more than gladly to rescue the “damsel in distress”, however I was really not going anywhere, and I was getting super frantic because of my need to use the ladies room at this time and I was rather desperate by now. I think I was there for a total of two hours to 2 and ½ hours and must have been on a lot of ice also because I was not going anywhere, wheels just spinning and spinning, when a plow operator who plows the club parking lot came by and helped me out of my situation. I finally made it home about two hours or so later. My old Mustang is a manual transmission, with all season. I usually was able to get around most of the time, got stuck a many times, and was usually able to rock it out, occasionally I would need a push, and this is the first year though with an automatic. Of course having to use the ladies room as badly and desperately as I had to and not being very picky about finding a better parking location and I think being as frantic as I was because of the need to go I believe did not help, because I am sure that I nailed it at first trying to get out to find somewhere else to go, and I just dug into the snow and ice pretty deep creating myself some ruts of my own. My poor skirt though.

The first few times getting stuck, and most of the time, I was the only one stuck it was pretty embarrassing, being the only one in a flat parking lot spinning your wheels, however over the years I have come to enjoy being stuck in the snow and ice, and that seems to happen every time it snows because there is an advantage to being an attractive female and that is a lot of cute guys show up to help you out, seems to be a nice way of meeting guys, so in almost every snowfall I get stuck and sometimes on purpose just to meet someone. I cannot afford snow tires so I drive right now with the all seasons with me 2003 Mustang and summer tires on the 2006 Mustang that came with the car and you really are stuck with those.

Although I do get stuck at time deliberately to meet guys, this time was a real predicament I got into you might say. I was really not thinking straight by then seeing the club closed and having to desperately use the ladies room. You must know how you get frantic and panic, when in that situation and I was really not in the mood to meet anyone just looking for relief.

What most non Pacific Northwest folk don't understand about snow in this part of the country is that it is not the nice cold snow that people from Colorado, Vermont and Minnesota usually experience.  It's wet, almost frozen, but not quite all the way snow.  The problem we have out here is that it snows, but then the temp hovers right around freezing.  So it snows over night when it's say, 28 degrees.  Then it warms up during the day to about 33'ish, and things start to thaw a little bit.  Then overnight the whole thing turns into a god awful ice skating rink.  So don't be too smug about knowing how to drive in snow until you've experienced driving on a sheet of ice with a thin layer of water on it which is what we often deal with out here.

getting stuck to meet guys what the