channonyarrow | HEY GUESS WHAT?

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HEY GUESS WHAT?

Okay. I am SO FUCKING TIRED OF FUCKING SNOW that I cannot even use enough fucking caps. SERIOUSLY. I hate snow, I hate ice, and I have not been out of my fucking neighbourhood for a WEEK I am going CRAZY.

SO GUESS WHAT THE FORECAST IS?

That's right! More Christ-fucking snow. Also, hello 90 mph winds! And just so you know? 90 mph winds are a Category I HURRICANE.

In case that's not enough fun? Up to twelve inches of snow in the lowlands, and two feet in the foothills.

Oh, and the likelihood of power outages. AGAIN. I can't keep doing this, I really, really cannot.

Now. Guess where I live.

That's right! I live in an area that (1) gets lake-effect snow; (2) has insane hills on all sides, except for, you know, the sides that run into the water, and even there I have fucking hills; (3) has reportedly been characterised as the hardest-hit area in Metro Seattle in this last go-round. Now. I am approximately 260 feet above sea level; in my opinion, it should not be this way. But it is. Because God hates me.

So basically, I'm really depressed and really unhappy, and there is not a whole fuck of a lot I can do about any of this because I am TIRED of entertaining myself; I have been doing that for a week, with some success, and now I'm just out. I have nothing left. I am out of happy, and positivism is in very short supply.

And making EIGHTY cookies isn't going to fucking help, even though I'm going to do it, on the off-chance that I can go participate in this cookie exchange tomorrow, but I HAVE TO PACK AN OVERNIGHT BAG to do this because I may not make it home because the weather is going to start shitting on us again about the time that we are supposed to be coming home. Yay!

And also? Sorry to be selfish, but everyone who's getting whacked in the Midwest and the Northeast? Y'all have resources to deal with this. We don't. My understanding is that the City of Seattle has thirteen snowplows and deicing trucks - that is not enough. No one here can drive in snow, I refuse to drive in snow, and Metro Transit isn't able to hack this one, folks, given that their system is at least half shut down, and particularly the routes that run to West Seattle. So. I realise that right now unless you are in Phoenix it's bad all over but trust me when I say: I have it worse.

ETA: THIS is why I don't drive in snow. Because I never want to see a charter bus crashing through the guardrail above I5 and hanging there - barely while I'm driving, and I never, ever want to see a second one join it.

Also, it's 26 degrees out. WHY?

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Aw, *hugs*

I hate snow myself -- IMO, it's nice to look at IF it is white, and pristine, and undisturbed ... and most of all regarded from inside a cozy, warm room. Also, the proper time for snow if it absolutely HAS to fall is from December 22 to January 6. Outside this window, let people who like snow go after it and leave the rest of us ~~sane people~~ alone!

(I hardly dare tell you that the weather forecast for the weekend predicts some rain at worst ... and rising temperatures, up to 11°C (~50F) tomorrow and Monday. *hides*)

Yes, see, that's part of it - right now, this snow has no aesthetic value, and the ice has even less. I like to look at it, and then I like it to melt and go away forever.

I've already suggested to another friend that he and I should move to Borneo, but if that fails, man, I'm comin' to Germany. I want rising temperatures, and I want them before Wednesday, when we might hit 39F. WOO HOO.

Borneo sounds good, but right now I personally favor Australia -- more civilization, and SUMMER!

As for coming here, if past patterns hold true you could have temps above freezing (with drizzle) in the cities, but take a one-hour drive and you'd be in the mountains (Um, less than 2,800ft at its "highest") and have the picture-postcard snow. :) (To be honest, if I can't have a proper, NICE White Christmas, I prefer it to be at least dry and cold; this kind of in-between dampness doesn't really feel right, yanno. :))

Dortmund sounds similar to Seattle, actually - we're right between two mountain ranges, so I look out across the sound and see the (gorgeous) Olympics, now all covered in snow, or I can drive less than an hour east (and I am at the extreme west of Metro Seattle) and be in the Cascades, which cap out at Mt Rainier, 14,114 ft. I'd really rather go visit the snow than have it come visit me.

We have actually had an amazingly dry winter. I'm not sure we're not gonna have a drought next year - I think we got your dry and cold. I will give it back. With snow. *g*

Actually, the area here is more or less flat; I may have baby mountains in one direction (and parts of the city that way can get a little hilly; just enough to make riding a bike WORK instead of fun. Guess where I live?), but about the same distance the other way are the Netherlands. Which are (notoriously) so flat, if you look out your kitchen window at breakfast, you'll see who'll be at the house for dinner. THAT flat.

Last weather report I heard predicted temperatures just below 50F and more rain for next week. In other words, thoroughly miserable.

I'll take the dry & cold, but keep the snow, please?

No, seriously, it's blowing into my house. Really, you can have some. We've gotten about, oh, two inches of EXTREMELY dry snow with teeny flakes in the last few hours. I am placing bets on when the power will go out.

That is the most awesome description of the Netherlands ever. One of the things I really envy Europe for is how easy it is to get to another country - I mean, yeah, there are parts of America that might as well BE other countries, like the South (and I ♥ it for that) but it just totally blew me away the time I went on holiday on the Continent and went through Brussels, France, and Spain, and would have gone on to Italy (I was also shooting for Morocco) if I'd done better planning. Not that I stayed anywhere really long, since I wound up only being gone a week, but it was nice to just get some teeny taste of what each of those places was like. Here, you go across country and the chances are good you can get the exact same food, language, and various things as you can at home, even without going to the chains.

Thanks, but I think I'll pass. :) Luckily, we don't have to deal with power outages; most lines are underground here (especially in the cities), so they're rarely affected by weather conditions. (IIRC, the last couple of times whole areas was powerless was when a ship crashed into a bridge and somehow damaged a major power station or when sudden massive snowfalls, combined with an unexpected steep drop in temperatures, resulting in shock ice, broke older surface power lines that serviced rural areas and small towns.

I really like living pretty much in the center of Europe; I can't say that I've visited all eight countries we share borders with, but going abroad on vacation is pretty much SOP here. So far, I've either passed through or gone on vacation in 17 countries in Europe alone, plus Canada, the US, Egypt and Tunisia. :) But there's still all of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to explore -- and of course Asia and Australia. When I'll have the time and money!

I was watching footage of that earlier, and while bus through the guardrail is so not funny (bus full of teenagers, even less funny), the people driving under the thing on I-5 were kind of cracking me up with their total lack of reaction. I mean. Yeah, there was no real danger the bus would topple and land upside down across several lanes of freeway or anything, but from down there it might be a little hard to judge. But no one was really getting over to the left or anything, other than the blocked-off far right lane. ?!

They were probably all on their cellphones. I'm totally serious, I've totalled one car in snow, I'm not giving anyone a chance to help me fuck up a second one, so I'm not moving, but I have heard so many freakin' reports that people are talking on their phones and driving on ice that I really, really want to get a 2x4 and start patching up genetic damage.

I think my niece just texted me from the road, actually, and if I find out that she did, I am going to kill her. There's a time and a place for blase, and snow in Seattle is not it. How is it down there? You're getting the same things we are, basically, right?

Yeah, pretty much, though it melted today. But is now freezing again. At this point the weather reports have been so off kilter as far as which days it will be above or below freezing or with or without snowing I've concluded I ought to expect the weather will be somewhere between sub-arctic and sub-tropical, and either wet or dry. *nods*

You forgot between extremely windy and dead calm, though. But I know what you mean - it's been kind of like that here, and everyone's going "Oh, it'll be fine Saturday - except not! Wait, did we say Saturday? We meant Tuesday. And that snow that we promised you on Wednesday? Yeah, we meant Thursday. Pay no attention to the weather man behind the curtain."

my sympathies. truly. because we're in the Midwest- and we aren't getting half as much snow as you are, which makes no sense whatsoever. and yes, we're used to this; we have resources coming out our ears. my PT forbade me to go outside, because (heaven forbid!) there's no one to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. this is a major catastrophe where i live. everything else is fine. meanwhile, i'm wondering how the fuck the rest of the country is surviving.

it's the apocalpyse. and it's cold.

Snowpocalypse '08, as far as I'm concerned. It's everything they ever tell you about in disaster flicks. But if you want your snow, we can express it to you - we've got lots. *g*

it is not my snow. i do not want my snow! KEEP MY SNOW AWAY FROM ME! O_O_O_O_O

i grew up in California, for heaven's sake. the temperature dropped to maybe 50 degrees every so often- and my mother would put us in snowsuits. THIS SNOW, IT IS NOT MINE.

send it to Alaska (i can give you an address?)

Nah, I have lots of addresses in AK, my brother lives there. But if you want it to go to someone special, I'll even put a big bow on the train car.

I didn't realise you were from CA - how'd you wind up in Chicago? Your family move there before you left, or did you move there on your own after you left?

my family moved here, with me, and now i'm trapped *cries* i wanna go home, i wanna go HOME.

oh, also:

Gov. Sarah Palin
1140 W Parks Hwy
Wasilla, AK 9965

God, every road in AK is called Parks Highway, I swear. I used to live on a completely different Parks Highway. FUCK YOU GEORGE PARKS, AND FUCK YOUR HIGHWAYS, TOO.

I suppose it's out of the question that you guys are going to move back, especially now that you have a house, but I hope you do someday!

Parks? George Parks? *knows nothing* and no, you don't have to tell me.

we don't actually have a house; we have a rental. and i would dearly love to move back (to experience the USUALLY VERY NICE WEATHER, with a nice side benefit of leaving our respective families in the ~~dust~~ ~~smog~~ slush), but it would like some enormous psychological leverage to budge Al. *cries some more*

I actually have no idea who George Parks was either. Someone famous, I guess. Famous in Alaska.

I thought, for some reason, you'd bought, but that means you're free! If you get that leverage, don't let the door hit you on the way out, get back to the coast and away from the lovely Midwest weather. *g*

i'm more concerned with Al's mom hitting me on the way out :-p maybe i should just figure out a way to finance the damn house and fed-ex Al west, as a surprise? he likes enclosed spaces.

I have spent, and I'm not fucking exaggerating, 4.5 hours shoveling snow today. SO FUCKING FAR. I need to go outside and do more. And then do more when the avalanche comes off the roof and onto the driveway. All while a friend I haven't seen in almost ten years drives into town to see me.

I am on the verge of giving up. Completely.

Your friend should park elsewhere and hike in. It's good for the soul, or so I hear. I wouldn't know, I just had to walk home yesterday because Metro stopped running.

I want to move to Borneo. Wanna go with me?

At this point, my plan is to have him park at the head of the driveway, and hope like hell we can dig him out of the plow's inevitable passing wrath tomorrow. As for me, I may not, in all seriousness, be able to drive anywhere until spring. Yes, it's that bad.

What's Borneo like? I know jack shit about it. Were it not for my 3 cats, I would be willing to abandon everything and start over just about anywhere at this point. I'm really at the end of my rope.

No idea, but it's a jungle island in Indonesia that seems to not have as much strife as, say, Java or Bali. On the other hand, it's also partially Brunei and Malaysia, so maybe Papua would be a better choice. That island's far from Jakarta and the natives are really dark-skinned, so it's treated about how we treat the Ozarks. So, you know. I'd trade snow for cyclones and monsoons, no problem. I'd even take having to be Christian on my ID and having to learn Bahasa Indonesia. And we could get awesome tattoos if we could find someone to do them (that, of course, is banned in Indonesia).

At this point, I am not totally sure I'll be able to go over to my parents' house for Christmas, frankly. It's gonna depend on when and if all this ice fucking melts. I slid walking out of the driveway; god knows if the car'll make it.

It's been colder than usual in the SF Bay Area, but not nearly as miserable as it is elsewhere. We've had some showers, but that helps warm us up a bit.

As for shitty drivers...I watched an SUV rear-end another SUV last night. Then the car that was in front of me rear-ended the wreck because they were following too closely. I changed lanes and went around the mess because I know people drive like idiots, and tail-gating is just asking for trouble. People will stop for no apparent reason around here. Ooooh, shiny!

It wasn't even wet, and these knuckleheads still managed to fuck up each other's cars. o.O

I really like regional quirks in driving. When I was in Jersey, I spent a lot of time pissing myself laughing; there are NO RULES there except for the instances where there are, and everyone drives really, really slow. It was awesome. Even when people blatantly ignored a four-way stop because I couldn't see that it WAS one and thought it was only a two-way.

I have not yet witnessed any accidents, but there are certainly plenty of busses and cars strewn about the streets here. I can't even get my death machine out of the driveway because I am convinced I will hit the patch of ice at the top of the very, very shallow hill in my driveway and slide out into Fauntleroy (an arterial) and get t-boned. Since I fell on my ass walking down the driveway yesterday, that seems to be a crime clue.

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HEY GUESS WHAT?

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shoveling misery

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