The snow that fell on Thursday a week ago took 9 days to melt off the roads.  This morning was the first time either of us drove our vehicles since last week.  Only this morning did any snow plows even touch the side streets near us, and then only to clear the slush at the base of the hill right before the arterial.

At most we had about a foot of snow.  I saw one person cross country skiing along the side of the road and one mother and son pulling their groceries home on a sled.  Those who chose to (attempt to) drive provided amusement as they did mostly all the wrong things to get themselves unstuck.

We had our last (outdoor) homegrown tomato, picked mostly green and brought inside a few weeks ago, on Christmas.  The indoor red robins look fairly happy but have not bloomed yet.  There are a couple of small and completely green tomatoes on the poor, gangly early girls.

We made it back to Seattle a day before the storm, which left 7″ of snow at our place.  It’s stayed below freezing since Thursday morning, and more snow and wind is forecast for this weekend.

Though my bus routes were not among those suspended, my previous experience of trying to catch them when the roads were slick have kept me working from home. Of course no plowing or de-icing has been done on the side streets.  The nearest arterial is packed snow and ice, with perhaps a little bit of sand.  I’ve read several news stories complaining about the continued bad travel conditions, but what do Seattleites expect from 30-ish trucks already working around the clock in 12 hour shifts against 3,745 lane miles in a city nearly as hilly as San Francisco.  Just stay home.