Snowing in Seattle

If you've been watching the news lately, you may have seen the footage of people playing bumper cars in the snow in Portland, Oregon.

Well, we've had a few days like that too. As a matter of fact, today (Jan. 16th) was a snow day, but Finnegan's school was open. Despite the snow I was determined to get Finn to class, so that he can socialize. We've had so many snow days lately that he has only been to school for 1.5 days in the past two weeks.

It was a struggle to get going. The truck had to be defrosted and all the windows scraped of the two inches of accumulated snow. Then the car seat had to be removed from the car and put into the truck. These tasks would not normally be a big deal, but I'm almost 34 weeks pregnant and I can barely walk let alone do all these things.

After about 40 minutes we were on our way through the snow trying to avoid sliding into any cars in the neighborhood. Fortunately, there weren't many people on the road so the roads were pretty clear, except for snow.

With the assistance of four-wheel drive we made it within a couple of blocks from Finn's school. The hills in the Queen Anne neighborhood are too steep to take any changes trying to turn into the school parking lot. So, we walked a few blocks to school. Finn thought slipping along in the snow was the greatest thing and he laughed and played the whole way.

It was a good thing that we persevered because Finn immediately ran to his friends and began playing. Since he was in good hands I made the trek back to the truck and began my sojourn to work.

Leaving was not as easy as I had anticipated. With four-wheel drive I attempted to drive up the hill as usual, but I only made it up halfway before the truck began sliding backwards down the hill. This was not good, because if I couldn't get control within one block I would slide down a very steep road and crash into some cars below.
I managed to steer the truck toward the sidewalk and the curb guided me away from any parked cars. Once I got some traction from the curb I managed to swing around and point the truck downhill and then made a very quick right turn onto a level side street.

Whew! I didn't panic because I knew that Finn was safe at school, but as I drove down the road a rather scared woman was watching me with very wide eyes. She had seen the whole thing. As I approached the next intersection to proceed up the hill again I contemplated parking the truck and spending a few hours at Starbucks. To my surprise the scared neighbor lady appoached me as I surveyed the road and she told me which way to go with the least amount of grade. Her tips were good and I made it out of the snowy neighborhood on to more navigable roads.

As I drove to the studio it dawned on me that I should not have taken the risk to drive in those road conditions for two reasons: one - Doug would have been really upset if I had wrecked his truck and two - Doug would have been really upset if I had wrecked his truck while being very pregnant!

Later in the day the weather changed and warm rains melted all the snow away. We don't get snow that often in Seattle, but when we do, it's and adventure.