wiredfool

Snow by morning, Snow by midday…

There was an inch or so on the ground this morning when I drove Rose into town. The roads were covered, but not too bad as there was sand down and no ice. Now there’s more like 4 inches, and it’s still coming down. The neighborhood kids are all out sledding at a little hill at the high school.

There are a suprising number of people out and walking about — more than any other time I can remember. Perhaps it takes a snow storm to make a village.

We’ve had a good week of snow here, some sticking into the afternoons even. But late last night there was a dusting, and by the morning we had black ice.

The Ballard Bridge was pretty badly blocked – bumper to bumper all the way up to Market Street with oncoming traffic creeping at 20mph. A quick manual check of the ground confirmed just how slick it was. (The ground is never that far away when you’re in a Miata)

So on the round trip downtown this morning, we got caught in one major backup that looked like the best possible outcome of semi vs. honda, saw one fully outfitted motorcyclist walking across a bridge (motorcycle parked on the far side), one abandoned SUV crunched on a telephone pole, and unidentified accidents on the Galer and Dravus street bridges.

And that’s on a day that’s pretty light commuting.