My Snow buddy and me happy in the snow
The winter season hit Seattle hard this past week and the city was in utter chaos. The city is not prepared for much of anything beyond rain. They definitely have that weather phenomenon figured out. Snow on the other hand is like giving a full apple to a baby. Without the proper experience and teeth the baby has no idea what to do with the round object. It knows that the apple would be wonderful if only it knew what to do with it. It may try to gnaw on it for a bit but doesn’t get very far so it just gives up. The same with snow in Seattle. The city has a panic attack with a snow over two inches and they lack the necessary trucks, plows, shovels and sleds to deal with it. When they do try to continue going on with life, things happen such as buses sliding down hills and cars doing donuts in the middle of the freeway. The response then becomes closing down anything and everything in the city. I figured I would share some examples of my observations and experiences of the Seattle chaos than end by telling you what I did to enjoy the Winter Wonderland.
Last Thursday the festivities got kicked off with two charter buses carrying kids from the eastern part of the state deciding that sledding with sleds or toboggans wasn’t thrilling enough. They decided that instead they would go bus sledding. The buses lined up at one of the steepest hills in Seattle on top of Capital Hill and then turned downhill. The first bus’s wheels locked up and away they slid. After seeing what happened to the first bus, the second bus decided almost five minutes later that they would give the hill a try for themselves. The bus turned the corner and instantly began swerving down the hill out of control. The bus slammed into the guardrail at the bottom sending a quarter of the bus dangling over the ledge. Any shift in weight would lead the bus to a 40ft drop onto the busy I-5 Freeway below.
On Friday and Saturday the snow continued to fall and the streets were not being plowed. People used ski poles to keep their balance while trudging down the streets. Major roads and highways looked as though they had never seen a plow as well. Since the environment is too precious than risking lives Seattle doesn’t believe in the use of salt for major snows such as these either. It was like the childhood water game Crocodile Mile. You know, the one with the theme song “you slip, you slide you hit the croc and take a dive.” Not really what you want happening while driving on the road.
The Starbucks even closed its doors at 4pm on Saturday leaving me with a little less trust in the corporate giant praising itself on an always dependable and reliable cup of coffee. Come Saturday night even the local police forces decided they were bailing. Cop cars were parked all along streets abandoned and piling up with snow. My guess is that criminals probably loved it but on the other hand maybe they weren’t smart enough to realize that the law didn’t win in this case, the weather did.
Even those that thought they could get away from the weather were caught in their steps. The airport was unprepared and ran out of deicer. As a result, the airport became a virtual homeless shelter as all flights were canceled due to ice and snow. Some people were stuck there for three days. I guess on the positive side it will give them all story to tell and will make them more resilient for future circumstances. As I found out later when it was my turn at the airport, my positive insight may be a little far fetched from reality.
While Seattleites were preparing to hibernate, I on the other hand was preparing to go outside. I decided that Seattle needed to meet our good ole friend Frosty. The Frosty that I know is active and loves sports. Recently, he decided to take up the sport of tennis. Although, he is a little slow to the ball and sometimes seems paralyzed to react, Frosty made sure to get the best apparel and equipment from K Swiss. Frosty loves K Swiss!
Following the production of Frosty, I slipped and slid around on the ice and snow on a 4-mile run. To my surprise there were quite a few people out Nordic skiing along the Burk Gilmon trail. Some were even skiing in the streets. I will say I have to give props to some who made due with what they had and were using things like kitchen Woks, baking sheets and other household items to sled down hills. I stopped and chatted to a few of them along the way. Since it’s the off-season right now I have the luxury of goofing around on some of my workouts. I also picked up snow as I was running and made snowballs so I could throw at signs. I don’t really see the signs until about five feet away so it wasn’t too much of an accuracy contest but it was difficult enough for me.
Following the run I hung out with Ruth Ann (Ben’s mom) and Tiesha (Ben’s dog) for a while. This consisted of having a tasty cup of Joe and some rolled oats. Then I laid down to watch some Sportscenter and passed out. Out the window, Frosty had not moved from his tennis stance and still had a huge smile across his face. That is where this story ends. Happy holidays to all of you and I hope you all rin+-g in the New Year with fireworks (you can take this any way you wish) and drive to make 2009 the best year ever.
This past week marked the final week before my Physical Therapy National Licensure exam scheduled for Friday Dec 19th.
