As my wife has taken to calling it, Snowpocalypse 2008 is destroying Seattle. Looks like I am not going to make it into work tomorrow unless I walk from Capitol Hill to downtown...through 8 inches of snow. Then when I am off, walk that same route, UPHILL, through even MORE snow. Yeah, I don't think thats a good idea. Seems Seattle sold most of their plows a few years back and have no requirements about de-icing sidewalks, so travel of any kind is treacherous as it could possibly be. Sure sucks for the paycheck, but its rather nice to have the time off. I had to work on Saturday to make up for the shop being closed last Thursday, though, so theres a good chance of working Christmas to make up for tomorrow if enough people call in. Stupid Seattle just can not handle snow!

That sucks.

We got like 9"-12" near me the other day, but we're better equipped to handle it. Although the plowing was very bad here too. Apparently they decided not to pay plow drivers over time, and supposedly the weekend counts as overtime?. Anyway, so when the storm hit Friday night no attempt was made to clear ANYTHING except the busiest roads. I ended up having to help push 4 cars. I have no idea if they even intend to try and clear the side streets. But the people on my block with snowblowers just went ahead and did our street too, so I don't have to hope the city does.

I've been told that the taxpayers refused to pay the overtime. But as a person who always votes I can attest that such an issue was not on the ballet and was never on talked about on the tv commercials.

We are getting destroyed on Vancouver Island. It's chaos.

An 18 inch dump. Wait five days. A 24 inch dump. Pause. It's still snowing now.

It's not so bad back on the prairies...they have sanding trucks and plows galore. Here there are very few plows and the magnitude of the task has overwhelmed the inexperienced operators. Plowing a street properly is an art, really, and these guys do not get much practice in a normal winter, so it's hard to blame them. It took two days before our street was done for the first time!

Drivers do not get experience either, I have lost count of cars off the road, abandoned, flipped in the ditch, spinning out of control. My "snow legs" take about an hour of driving to kick in once the snow starts, then I'm good.

To top it all off we are in great danger of power being cut. Due to the nature of the ground you cannot do underground power lines...they are all up on poles. Around these poles are 80 foot trees with thousands of pounds of snow in the branches....weighing heavily on the lines....

Finally the wild animals are starving, cannot find food under 3 feet of snow. "Our" deer has been eating our bird seed and digging shelter at the bottom of the garden. He is probably out there right now.

That's all everyone got was snow!!!!! Well I live due south of LD and he got lucky with just snow, we got 6-8 inches of snow along with a nice layer of ice about a 1/2 inch of the lovely stuff. I can deal with the snow no problems, but the ice is a whole different cup of joe!!!! Its the same thing across the us, plow drivers hours are cut to save money and the tax payers expense

Ohh ya, LD, side streets are not part of normal plowing now!!!!! I know, its really dumb but Michigan and Ohio are in the same boat with the plow service's. So side streets wont be done anytime soon or at all!!!

I hope everyone stocked up on cardstock and ink before the storms hit! At least this way, you'll have something to keep you busy while you're snowed in.

You all should try living in Plymouth UK for a truly apocalyptic winter experience.

So far this year we have had one night where a thin layer of black ice was deposited on the roads in time for the morning rush hour. It was armageddon out there. People crashing into each other because they have no idea what to do when it's slippery. Cracked windshields as we pour boiling water over them to defrost them. People ringing work because there is absolutely no way they can make it in if the pavement is a little slippery. Council officials getting death threats for not salting and gritting the roads.

You should see what it's like when it actually snows, it's awesome. We get half an inch of mushy stuff at most and the supermarket shelves get stripped as people stock up against this 'ice age' The eveyone drives home smashing into each other on the way. You DO NOT want to be a Plymouth pedestrian under these 'extreme' conditions.

If we got the quantity of snow you guys get, without considering the Canadian permafrost etc, it would truly be the end of the world. You'd hear about Plymouth on the news, mass book and council-official burning to keep warm, martial law, looting, appeals for world aid and the wildlife enthusiasts on 'Mamoth Watch' as it must be a new ice age!!

Have a good Christmas you guys.

We get more snow here tomorrow but on Christmas Eve its going to be rain. So depending on the temp and wind chill it'll either melt some snow or cover it in ice. But either way driving is going to be horrible.

Luckily I've got relatives driving up from Florida right now, so they arrive in good time to get caught in the storm.

It's gonna be 77 degrees on the 25th here in Florida, sorry guys.

I prefer my weather. Christmas is supposed to have snow. And I like the cold. I'm a bit pissed about the Christmas Eve rain though, I hate rain.

Where i live, never snow...sometimes rain but we have sunny time always....I like the rain. To us a cold weather is 10ºc ....we are always in 25º-30ºc ...i want have white Chrismas...

I only like rain when 'm at home at night ! But mostly I hate rain..I don't care for sun or cold but rain..no way of do anything !! - Snow... that's one of the things that is hard to see here (not as sunny as glorial Insland but us is sunner than the rest of the mainland) ...but after two weeks of rain...and rain...and rain...I keep saying that I hate rain !!! seems that the sun is here again but !

You west coasters are funny about snow. A little foot or two and it's the end of the world. Come over here to north New Jersey for some real fun!

-Steve

Heh, New England was not hit as hard, but we did have about a foot and a half of snow - I was living La Vida Cliché - Christmas caroling in Victorian garb, including a couple of solos (less impressive than it sounds - I was the only person there who knew Cherry Tree Carol and Wife of Usher's Well - my voice has volume, and is on key (mostly) but does not have much else going for it).

Later that evening I was stumping through a foot of snow with a pack full of presents on my back, including some brightly painted toy soldiers (albeit much, much, much smaller than those typically poking their heads out of St. Nick's pack).

Needless to say, I am one of those strange people who actually like snow....

The Auld Grump, now sitting down with some hot cocoa....

Well, it rained most of the day. The snow is now slush and things are slowly returning to normal here in Seattle. Could almost hear the city breathing a collective sigh.

We got rain too. Not a ton but enough that I predict black ice for tomorrow's drive.

OK.. I got a story for you!

My step mother comes from South Africa. For her first few years, there was no snow in Victoria, but when we moved to Prince George... it snowed.

She was all excited... She got all dressed up. Parka, gloves, scarf, you name it. "Goody! I get to shovel snow!"

Then she got all perplexed.. "Where do you put the snow?"

And without missing a beat, my dad said, "Well, you bought the orange garbage bags didn't you?"