jenk

KOMO is suggesting tomorrow's storm will be like the storm on Dec 14, 2006. I remember that - nearly got marooned in my office, power out for days, etc.

Stay safe, folks.

... is not where you expect to wake up to a light dusting of snow, with a forecast of "possibly more snow" in the evening.

What do you wear for possible snow / possible spring weather? Layers! In my case, black lycra/spandex leggings under black cotton slacks; purple 3/4-sleeve jewel-neck top; big acrylic long-sleeve v-neck sweater; green and blue plaid polar fleece coat. At the moment the coat is in the car, the sweater is on my desk, and I am comfortably sipping "Lemon Lift" tea.

We have a rubbermaid green bucket that's been sitting outside for months. It's acted partly as a bit of a rain gauge and partly as a very small "collect rainwater to water plants with" water barrel.

But mostly I've been too lazy to put it away, and it's not hurting anything, so why bother?

Last week it turned cold. The average December temps here range from 36F to 46F; this week it's been in the teens and twenties. Saturday Jesse noticed the bucket had frozen over. He broke the ice, dumped out the water and ice on the yard, and put the bucket away in the garage. The ice was roughly 2 half-circles, a bit less than an inch thick.

They're still in my yard. I don't think they've melted at all. This ain't right.

The all-time high temperature of 100 degrees in Seattle was set July 20, 1994. I don't remember the summer of 1994 being all that hot. Mostly I remember being in my air-conditioned office at Microsoft for 9 or 12 hours a day & that my then-basement apartment tended to stay pretty cool.

Now, well, no basement apartment. No ground-floor bedroom. And Seattle officially recorded a high of 103 yesterday.

As the local paper notes,

With prolonged exposure to high temperatures, the body becomes more efficient at it. But when folks accustomed to Western Washington's mild weather are suddenly thrust into the oven, their bodies sputter like poorly tuned engines.

"It can really knock you silly," said University of Washington biologist Ray Huey, who has studied lizards and other denizens of the Kalahari Desert.

I do realize that sitting in my AC office all day means I'm not acclimating. I'm having a hard time caring, though.

In other news, the University Bridge, a fairly low drawbridge over one of the canals that lets boats go between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, was expanding so much in the heat that they decided not to open it yesterday.

• 15:33 Snow this morning. Rain shower about 2. Hailing now. Variety FTW.

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• 21:54 They PLOWED our street! skydancer broke down the berm between our driveway and the street so we could drive to see friends today.
• 21:55 Everything was fine until we got to the friends' unplowed street. Batterymobile was skimming the snowpack as we slid through the slush.
• 22:16 See also tinyurl.com/7pzhja

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• 09:04 It's snowing again in Redmond. Looks like there's at least another inch or two on the cars.
• 09:44 I think I'm ... bored. With snow. This is odd.
• 12:13 From the Boston Globe: How to Make an Igloo. tinyurl.com/ysvzxv
• 17:44 Would it be mean to place an Amazon Fresh order?

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Replies to the Amazon Fresh question were "Yes, very" and that tithonium tried for a delivery last Sunday and it was canceled due to snow.

The NY Times blog "Bitten" is syndicated at bittenblog_nyt.

Slate's Explainer tackles Iraqis & shoes.

More locally, The Stranger's Erica Barnett provides this illuminating interview with Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond on what the hell's been up with Metro the last 2 days. In a nutshell: Thursday their snow plan, which is about a 20% reduction in service, basically failed. So Friday they decided to "pull in and focus our service in places where we have confidence the buses can run" - mostly not in places like West Seattle and Redmond, mostly not with articulated buses, and realizing that the trolley buses (that use electrical wires above the street) can't usually change their routes to avoid a problematic hill. It ended up being about 50% of normal service. Communicating this is a problem, too.

Desmond did say they plan to run mostly normal schedules on Saturday & Sunday, assuming no more snow. Um....

As for us, well, 'nother storm is expected, a windstorm this time, which frequently means falling trees, downed power lines, and so on. Does look like a fairly normal windstorm for us - lights will probably flicker, may even go out, but hopefully not for a week this time please?

We have done prep: We have food that doesn't need much prep. Since our old downstairs flashlight died we got a new one last night. Also batteries. We also have loads of candles, including candles in glass jars (thanks k_crow for that tip.) I ran the roomba downstairs last night; dishwasher running now, and I'm off to vacuum upstairs & do a last load of laundry.

jw1776 spotted this on the way home from our little jaunt. A truck appeared to have started falling into the ravine behind the apartment complex on the corner of 166th & 95th. (Yes that ravine is also behind dianthus' "Hobbit Hole" apartment.) It appeared empty and stable, but, um, kinda wonder if maybe they'll be installing a railing back there?

(You can click on any photo to get to Flickr with more photos & such...)

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