Yeah sure, I know Puget Sound weather is weird, and can vary greatly from one backyard to the next, but it’s hard to get excited about today’s snow “emergency” down here in my South Seattle neighborhood where there’s barely a dusting on the ground and the roads are dry and bare. As a result, my daughter is confronted with a sad reality I never faced as a child: a snow day from school when she can’t even scrape up a snowball, let alone go sledding.
But then what should I expect from a city where the rain falls nine months a year, yet still makes headlines?
It’s the ice goldy. After last night’s horrific traffic (people still on the road as of 6am from their 5pm commute).
Do you think any responsible school super would NOT close school today? (Don’t answer that question re: Seattle School Dist.).
Anyways, you’re so right. Snow freaks us out here (and so does the rain).
Well Goldy, is Philly built on seven hills, like Seattle? Or connected by half a dozen bridges?
Fughgheddaboutit!!
Goldy you need to get out of your hood and into some other parts of town. I’ll buy you beer in West Seattle whenever you like. It’s got lots of elevation. We can get high together!
Looks like the twin Bush whores are being booted out of every place they go. Must make their papa proud. Also note, the new RNC chair has an Abramhoff problem. Corruption follows the GOP-even in utter defeat.
Why did this fail to make national news? Librul bias? Nah…
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.....BUSINESS07
5 Because it’s local news, dumbass!
It’s the hills and ice, Goldy. Municipalities around here don’t invest heavily in plowing and sanding equipment because it’s needed so rarely, and many drivers don’t have chains or studded tires — then, when they get stuck, they block the arterials and no one can get through.
More east coast attitude, Goldy?
Redneck,
I came across that story in the national news, and in at least a couple of sources. As you only read “news” sources that confirm the conclusions you came to a long time ago, you are hardly a reliable observer concerning what the national media may or may not cover. By the way, why were the initiative results (920, 933, 937) in our fair state not covered in the national news? Because of conservative bias in the media?
Biggest problem are the folks who have no idea how to drive under these conditions. They always seem to think pushing hard on the gas pedal will somehow resolve the lack of traction.
Roger Rabbit @ 7
You have a good point. I am sure SOMEONE around here has really crappy ice/snow covered roads. I am 400 feet above sea level in east Bellevue, where we usually get more snow (and more snow that sticks) than downtown Bellevue or downtown Seattle. We are bare and dry over here. But I get up at 5:30, happen to read the Seattle Times on-line, then look at the school closure list — to see what OTHER school districts are closed today. And I’ll be — Bellevue School District is listed as CLOSED. Confirmed this on the district website and their automated information line.
So maybe SOMEWHERE in Bellevue the roads are hard to navigate. And there may be concern for school EMPLOYEES having the ability to get to work. Many of them live in other areas — not so many places in Bellevue with affordable housing.
On the other hand, my heart is where Goldy’s is on this matter. Fortunately, I checked the school closing info. Otherwise, I would have figured the schools were open, and stood outside in the cold weather (at least it is COLD!) with my daughter for quite a while waiting for a school bus that never would have come.
more liberal whining… ‘i can’t see it so it must not exist.’ my kid can’t play in the snow i can’t see.
Grow up.
It’s the Moonbat! libtard morons in King County that can’t drive. City living, Moonbat! morality, no experience in the real world.
Waaaahh, waaaahhh, I can’t drive in this!
HI MWS – YOU LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER!!!
GO JOIN THE IDF – DON’T YOUR FORGET YOUR PIZZA COUPONS!
MWS
The only facet of living at which you have any true ability is whining. You have a Ph.D. in whining. The only means by which you survive in a progressive, responsible blue state is by whining, and, I suppose, through denial. Close your eyes, plug your ears, and hum loudly, you pathetic imbecile. Pretend that what’s happening around you is happening to someone else. I’d feel sorry for you if you weren’t so loud in your opinions.
It took me two hours to drive the 10 miles home yesterday on solid ice from about 85th northward. Compacted snow and ice on the roads around here, Goldy, and yes, I wish I could afford to live closer to work, wanna help me buy a house in Montlake?
Goldy, why don’t you bring your daughter on up to Shoreline – she’ll be able to make snowmen up here.
I am so thankful to have an SUV!
put it 4low, point and drive! wooo-hoo.
lots of cars stuck at lights spinning their tires unable to move or sliding backwards……..stuck on the slightest grade. Think about all the air pollution all of those weenie cars created sitting for hours unable to move…..while most 4wheel drivers were home, SUV’s parked, preserving gas and the environment…..Ha-ha.
11 Richard, the effects seem to have been pretty uneven. I left work at about 5:20 last night, and the area around 140th & NE 24th was a real skating rink-about an inch of new snow on top of a layer of ice. But it was already well below freezing there, so the day’s melt had already refrozen. I headed west on Northup, and by the time I got to 124th it was snowing like mad but we were on wet pavement. Before I left, I checked some of the WSDOT traffic cams, and east of you in Redmond it looked like somewhere in Siberia.
But yeah, we’re big wusses about snow. It’s about like what happens in Los Angeles when it really rains.
I guess it also didn’t help to have 60,000 people leaving Quest field all full of beer and adrenaline…
We folk over here on the East Side of the Mountains just fire up are pickemup trucks, slap dem babies in 4 wheeled drive and run right over you fancy pants westsiders…
But heck, I’d take a snowday anytime…
Yes, yes, yes–Puget Sounders are wussies about driving in the snow, even the skiers from what I’ve observed up at the pass. They’re just not used to it, and getting prepared for a two or three day dusting is just not worth the effort.
But look at the Gulf Coast. Hurricanes are not something out of the blue, and they still have fatalities, shut downs, horrific property damage, and don’t get proper insurance.
Why am I not suprised?
I dont know if there is a protocol for determining school closure. I know I saw a school closure list that had one district not closing, but instead moving to Snow Transportation. My understanding is that Seattle basically has no plan for keeping schools open in snow or ice storm weather because it isn’t worth the investment for an average of 1 day a year. Like, what do you do if half your teachers can’t get to school?
Looking at what was going on on the roads last night at 9 pm with all forecasts saying the temperature was going to stay ice-low through the day, if a district factored in number of teachers absent, potential for bus accidents, and other transportation problems, it may have seemed the best course. I know I was surprised to see the snow closure already announced when I looked on line at midnight. But, with no new precipitation I also fully expected all the snow and ice to be melted by midday in my Seattle neighborhood.
Just some thoughts. I’m home here with my 11 yo son and a friend of his whose parents are at work. He just complained, “The snow isn’t making good snow balls anymore.” Wish it was a real snow day, with sledding on the streets and everything.
just some comments
With you all the way on this one, Goldy.
It’s unbelievable to me that these Seattle wusses close down everything because there was a bit of wet snow yesterday afternoon. It was all done by about 7pm, and the roads were clean and dry soon thereafter.
I was supposed to have a doctor’s appointment at 3pm today, but I got a call mid-morning from PacMed telling me that they’d cancelled all of today’s appointments. I’ll have to call tomorrow morning to try to make a new one … it’ll probably turn out to be some time next week, at the earliest.
I made the appointment because of a problem that might be trivial, or might be fairly serious. Evaluation by my doctor, and accompanying tests, are the only way to find out which it is. If it’s serious, I’ll be all the more pissed off that the appropriate therapeutic regimen will be significantly delayed, that whatever damage may be happening will have been allowed to continue that much longer.
All because of a non-problem, a non-event. It was something to be concerned about yesterday, while it was happening, but not today. Not when the sky is blue, the sun is out, and the roads are perfectly clear.
******
And I won’t breathe a word about all those days back in New Hampshire when one would wake up to 6-8 inches of snow and then go about one’s daily business.
My luxury SUV handles just fine in all this. I sure felt sorry for all those people with their hybrids in the ditch.
Why do I have no problem with imagining Mark Welcher in the gayest of SUVs, the Cadillac Escalade? Nothing says “I’m secretly worried I spend too much time watching young men in my health club” like an Escalade.
Bring her out to Rural King county, of course you would probably never get here since they don’t have any sanding or plowing out here, where they actually do get snow. But you could maybe get a permit to sled on your own property out here if King County didn’t sit on your request until the blizzard was over.
Be careful what you say about Escalades. They’ll be calling you a racist.
If you hate our weather, go back to California. We like our snow any way, any day we can get it. You want snow? Come up to Whidbey Island, where we have 8 inches, hazardous driving conditions, lost our power for a whole day (again), and it looks like Montana out there.
Redneck’s “luxury SUV” is a 1983 Ford Bronco that he bought at a trustee’s sale for a bankrupt meth addict.
26
ROFLMAO!!!!
If Mark the weasel had a sense of humor, he would be laughing too.
Talking about wussies . . . gee, wonder why king county/wa state transp/city don’t have snow accommodations just waiting for that once a year opportunity to use them sitting outside each of your addresses. . .
Oh darn! That’s right. Then you’d complain about government waste.
Sorry. I forgot.
And Seattle is a big school district. Just because one area could be open doesn’t mean all schools are accessible. Of course, again, if it were your kids sitting on buses stuck in ice, you’d then be upset about that.
Kind of the way it works for you “it is all about me” superior types. Why aren’t you mensa candidates out there finding a cure for autism or something.
Goldy,
As a midwestern transplant (Chicago/Mpls) I would be the first to agree that the local drivers are complete pathetic weather wimps about snow. Just watch KING 5 News. That being said, the big differences between those big bad cities and the progressive paradise of Seattle is the effort of government agencies to mitigate the problem. I spent 5 hours standing on a Sound Transit bus trying to get from Qwest Field to Tacoma last night and I did not see one DOT truck ANYWHERE on I-5 beween Seattle and Tacoma during the entire time that the driver of the 594 bus (kudos) did a great job of avoiding the hundreds of abandoned cars and stalled semi-trucks. Considering that the snow was predicted and the post-game traffic was not a surpise, why was it so hard for the DOT to run a sand truck or two down the freeway when the snow started? Just had to rant a bit! And where the hell is Al Gore when you need a blast of global warming?
Sunday we had six inches of snow in Everett. We had some friends over for dinner, after which we drew up chairs in front of our front window and watched the “show” put on by people trying to drive up the hill in front of my house. The guy who got the most applause was the compact which got stuck twenty feet from the top, and stayed their for a over an hour spinning his tires, blocking others who COULD have made it, before he finally turned around and went back down the hill. Turned out he was a pizza delivery man.
I got up early at 4:00 a.m. so I could beat most of the drivers on the road. I usually don’t have problems, but its the other guys around me that I’m afraid of. I was in Bellevue in 40 minutes, no problem – the freeeway was wet but clear.
I had a business dinner in Bellevue last night (Monday night), which we finished a bit early at 7:30 p.m. There’s a dusting of snow on the local streets, so I’m not that concerned when I get on I-405, heading north. I didn’t bother to check the traffice reports, I’m listening to the Seahawk game instead. So when traffic bunches up just south of Totem Lake, I figure its a collission or something ahead, and we will work our way around it. I miss my chance to get off at the Totem Lake exit.
So between 8:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., I am trying to get to the next exit, at 160th. The radio (KOMO AM 1000, the only ones really giving any decent reports on the traffic), says the problem is a bus and a tanker truck blocking northbound I-405 at Hwy 522. I finally get off at 160th N.E. at Bothell, to get more gas and find a bathroom. At 3:00 a.m. I’m back on the freeway. The hill north from 160th NE to 522, and beyond, is a sheet of black ice, with no sand at all on the road. I put my Explorer in low gear and go VERY slow down the hill, keeping distance with those in front of me, and I don’t have a problem. Once past Canyon Park there’s sand on the road, so we get up to 25 MPH and its no problem. I’m finally home at 4:00 A.M.
I saw LOTS of abandoned cars on the road, sometime right in the middle of the freeway. Some just ran out of gas, I suppose. I went through a third of a tank myself before I filled up in Bothell. A couple appeared to have ovrheated. Some just hit a sspot of ice and couldn’t go up the hill any further. But a lot of people didn’t realize that some cars use up more electricity when idling than they create, especially if the lights, heater fan, interior dome lights, DVD player, rear defroster, and dehumidier (run by the air conditioner) are all on full blast. Their battery just died. I kept my appliances to a minimum, and turned off my headlights and only used my parking lights while sitting still idling.
So yes, Goldy, we only have driving conditions like this once every five years or so. When that happens we have lots of new drivers to the area who have no idea how to drive in the snow or ice. Unfortunately, by the time they learn, it will be five years before they need it again.
One major complication: bus drivers aren’t trained and tested in the snow or ice. Trying to drive an articulated bus down an icy road is a bit like trying to push a strand of wet spagetti. It would help a lot if they could be trained better, but there is a lot of turnover among new drivers.
Well folks this is one for Al Goreaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa suing the EPA just to convince the Chicken Little’s of the world we are not doing are fair share to save the planet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11.....38;emc=rss
The Bush administration has been on a six-year campaign to expand its powers, often beyond what the Constitution allows. So it is odd to hear it claim that it lacks the power to slow global warming by limiting the emission of harmful gases. But that is just what it will argue to the Supreme Court tomorrow, in what may be the most important environmental case in many years.
A group of 12 states, including New York and Massachusetts, is suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to properly do its job. These states, backed by environmental groups and scientists, say that the Clean Air Act requires the E.P.A. to impose limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by new cars. These gases are a major contributor to the “greenhouse effect” that is dangerously heating up the planet.
The Bush administration insists that the E.P.A. does not have the power to limit these gases. It argues that they are not “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act. Alternatively, it contends that the court should dismiss the case because the states do not have “standing,” since they cannot show that they will be specifically harmed by the agency’s failure to regulate greenhouse gases.
Hey Portia, I’m on the island too.
Goldy, your spam filter is broken, see #35.
fakey klakey: “The Bush administration has been on a six-year campaign to expand its powers, often beyond what the Constitution allows.”
So explain to us why you repeatedly defend these jerks? The following repostes are not allowed due to intellectual shallowness:
1. “Because what the Dems offer is worse”.
2. “Because they are not REAL conservatives”.
Proceed.
24 I REMEMBER THE DRIFTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE SO HI AND 12-14 INCHES OF SNOW WE WOULD WALK IN THE STREET TO GET TO SCHOOL,I LAUGH MY ASS OFF WATCHING THESE IDIOTS DRIVE IN THIS STUFF AND THE PRICE TO DO IT IS NO CHARGE.IN FACT I SAW THIS ONE IDIOT DRIVE RIGHT INTO A PATROL CAR.HERE IS A TIP FOR ALL YOU SEATTLE FOLK.DONT BE DOING 25MPH AND HIT YOUR BRAKES 5 FEET BEFORE THE STOP SIGN.IT WONT WORK.NO CHARGE
goldy,
You need a big government program to educate the populace, fix this problem
a) some non critical testing of drivers on snow (no hard tests like wasl)
b) free tire chains for low income drivers
c) blah blah (you get the idea, all other government programs)
And by the way, where was the government when people were suffering? We need an investigation
“Pussies”?
For fuck’s sake, Goldy. “Pussy” is NOT an acceptable synonym for “weak” or “babyish” or “wimpy”. It just ISN’T.
I’d hoped you’d be the one male liberal blogger that wouldn’t disappoint me by eventually indulging in misogyny.
Alas. You’ve just lost a reader.
#40 – Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Regardless of an individual’s ideology, I think we can all agree on two things in here:
A. The vast majority of drivers in this area ARE pussies when it comes to the snow.
B. Since when has this place EVER been PC?
Strap on your chains for the next day or so, and deal with it, you castrating loser. If you can’t handle the word ‘pussy’ (used in a pretty proper context here, if I may say so) while dropping an f-bomb in the same post, not only are you an idiot, but a hypocrite as well.
Mee-yow!
In real ice and snow conditions the 4 wheel drive SUV’s are worthless.
I drive a 2 wheel drive Van with no positraction (essentially one-wheel drive) and can go where the
Simply a matter of lots of experience and a few tricks.
owlafaye
In real ice and snow conditions the 4 wheel drive SUV’s are worthless.
I drive a 2 wheel drive Van with no positraction (essentially one-wheel drive) and can go where the SUVs go.
Simply a matter of lots of experience and a few tricks.
owlafaye