Wow! We got snow early this year...and bitter cold. Hello! Is it supposed to be 18 degrees around here? I don't think so! It wasn't even the cold and snow but a wind storm on top of it! Talk about starting winter (unofficially) with a bang.
I braved the snow Monday morning, maybe 1/2 an inch and no ice. I worked all day and watched the snow fall and saw 3 kids. I was so bored. Then during my last kid of the day, the snow apparently decided to dump with huge golf ball sized flakes. I kicked the kid out early and told his dad to drive safe home that I was outta there.
I actually liked driving home in the snow. I liked to hear the crunch, it was fresh and I couldn't feel the ice and I was essentially alone on River Road heading towards Tacoma. Everyone else was stuck in a line waiting because 512 and Meridian were crazy and no one could get up the hill. (Just another reason I don't live in South Hill). While in the valley I watched transformers blowing in the hills and lighting up the sky. It was spooky and beautiful at the same time. Then I got onto I-5.
I-5 was scary. There were people that were trying to drive quickly and merging in and out of lanes and tailgating. There were semis in the fast lane stopped to chain up because of the ice. There were cars on the side of the road filling up with gas. There were 3-4 4X4s in an accident together where one of them lost their canopy. It looked dangerous to have so many people standing on the side of the road with crazy drivers thinking they were invincible driving around. Sadly, minutes after I got off the freeway, a man was killed by another car after he got out of his car on the side of the road. So sad.
I was fine and almost home when, right off the exit, there was a sheet of ice. I was trying to stop slowly (I had a red light) and the cross traffic miraculously had a red light as well. My car wouldn't stop and started sliding down the hill on the ice just as the cross traffic light's turned green. I layed on the horn and slid my car carefully around the corner where there was traction to right my car and continue on. I was feeling pretty lucky that the light had taken so long to turn for them but I also felt like I was done driving and wanted to walk the rest of the way home. I continued on, though, since it was only about 19 degrees and blowing pretty hard. I was fine but shaken. I know I'm a weenie. I don't try to deny it.
It was hard to sleep that night because we were both up watching the news and talking to friends stuck in the traffic that was monopolizing the news. Our friends took 10 or more hours to get to their homes because Seattle was a virtual parking lot. Then a friend on facebook had fallen down the stairs and couldn't get to the phone so she had posted on facebook for someone to call 911. She and her daughter were home alone and her husband, who, ironically, works for 911, had just left for work. It took him hours to get to the hospital. They were really proud of Shannon, their daughter, who let the paramedics help dress her and rode in the ambulance with her mother. Her mother broke her femur and is stuck at home until her doctor in Seattle could make it in. After that, she'll have an ambulance take her to him in Seattle. The drama of the evening kept us up and worried and we didn't fall asleep until right before it became Tuesday.
All night the wind blew hard and our lights flickered a bit but stayed on. In the morning we looked and found lots of fresh snow, but we were amazed that there weren't branches all over our yard since the gusts were around 50 miles an hour and sounded like it was pounding our house.
Bruce shoveled and swept our driveway so we could get out. My dad had a surgery schduled for really early in the morning so we were up at 4am checking road conditions. He was stuck in Port Orchard without electricity and didn't know what the roads were like. They made it to the hospital around 6am and started surgery by 8am. We went to visit in the afternoon when the roads were clearer and he was out of surgery and recovery. He looked good, but complained of pain. I can't blame him. I think I would be miserable if my entire knee was just redone.
Other than that, we stayed in the house all day. The conditions around the area were so cold and so trecherous in some places, Bruce's work cancelled everything for the day. He got the week off! A second mini-honeymoon for us :)
It was a little staticy with the cold, dry air :)
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