"Snowmageddon" (Seattle WA Storm)

These past few days every time I turn on the National new I've heard about the terrible weather in Seattle. It's always the first place mentioned, so I asked my blog buddy Kim to write about it, and this was her response.

This is my 1st guest post so please help me to welcome her by visit Kim at http://asthepumpturns.com

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"Here's the thing about native Northern Californians, there are two breeds. The first being the kind that get snow and the others that don't.

I am from the land of No Snow. It's a nice place filled with grapevines and mild temperature winters. Basically, heaven.

Then I moved to Seattle, Washington.

Now, maybe I am blowing this out of proportion, this Seattle Winter Snow Storm. People in Chicago and other mid-west states are getting it far worse then I am, but this is my blog post and I can whine if I want too. Not to mention on twitter it has it's own hash tag, so it must be important, right? Agree with me people.

So here's the lowdown on the Seattle Snow Storm or for my twitter peeps #seatst, yes it's snowing, in Seattle. So far, by my estimates about a foot overall, however, I am not a meteorologist, so don't quote me. The way that downtown Seattle is laid out, is that, well, there are a lot of hills, like First Hill, Beacon Hill and Capital Hill, and the hills are, well, steep. Imagine, if you will, San Francisco, then add a foot of snow with a nice layer of ice underneath that. You have SNOWMAGEDDON. Yes, I named it Snowmageddon, it's catchy, huh?

Snowmageddon as struck and caused chaos in my city, meaning, people don't know how to drive in the snow/ice. I drive a Jeep Grande Cherokee with 4 wheel drive and believe me 4 wheel drive doesn't work on ice, don't kid yourself. Driving slow and in control does, which is what I have been doing, while also avoiding the crazy idiots who think it's okay to change lanes just as they would if it was overcast outside and also trying to drive 80 miles an hour with chains on, yeah it doesn‘t work. Also, if you see an ambulance sliding down a frozen over hill, I would suggest you and your Dodge Neon not attempt it, just sayin'. There is also the small little fact that the roads aren't very well maintained so driving down the main arterial streets is similar to four wheeling in the backcountry, I'm not exaggerating.

If you can't drive in it you might as well grab your skis and ski down the hill, right? Yeah, I've heard reports of it, haven't seen it yet, but heard about it, I have seen people taking plastic dinner trays and sliding down on them. Also, if you live in the ghetto, a freezer door works well too, interestingly enough.

Seattle was so not prepared for Snowmageddon 08, side streets are stuck in feet of snow, the main streets are filled with divots and almost impassable surfaces, yes, I know only a foot and a half of snow. Silly, right? Not to us, Seattleites, we have not gotten this much snow in many, many years. Some say the last big storm was five years ago, some say it was nothing close to this, who knows, really.

The amazing part of this whole ordeal is the sense of community one feels, we are not alone in this crazy snow. As I drove to work this morning, I see groups of people helping each other dig cars out of snow banks. I see people helping each other walk on icy sidewalks and laughing and throwing snowballs. It's an amazing sight among all the havoc. I guess this is what makes this place so special, to me, anyway."

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Thank you Kim! You did a great job!

Sledding down Denny on Capitol Hill