You know what I find strange about Seattle? In every place I've lived or traveled to people have said "oh you know what they say about (location we are now) - 'if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes'" It's as if there is something unique about highly variable weather. On the other hand, Seattle is the only place I've been where it's exactly the opposite. It's a place of weather inertia - it gets sunny and stays sunny for weeks, it gets cloudy and stays cloudy for several days, or it rains and rains and rains (it mostly rains). This is a place for people with really great weather attention spans.
Now it's snowy, and it feels like it has never not been snowy and will never not be snowy. Which is great - I love the snow. Because I got so little snow as a kid, snow is like the most highly prized weather possible. It's white gold. So, Sam and I got to take a couple walks today outside and did a bit of sledding. Here's the photo log of our afternoon journey in the snow:
We departed from the backdoor. Here's some of our patio furniture for a sense of the snowfall accumulation of the last couple of days:
We then made our way to the front yard to get the sled from our sled stable (the front porch). Here's Sam surveying the snow damage in the front yard. Keen eyes this kid has:
We made our way to the park across the street which was packed with kids, parents, and doggies. Sam attempts dog sledding - but has forgotten a crucial piece: the dogs.
So to continue our journey, Sam has to content himself to "Dad Sledding," since that's all that's available to him. Dad's rules are only sitting on the sled:
Sam continues his survey of the snow damage at the parks. He declares it a "once in a lifetime winter event." He's starting to get recruiting letters from The Weather Channel for his hyperbolic weather related observations.
Dad says: "slide forward, son. We're sledding this hill together." Sam looks up and says, "You can't be serious old man."
Here's the view from the top of the hill near the park. We're heading down the street, hanging a left and riding it down to the creek:
Success! The ride was about 3 short blocks and we made it together. The sled proved very maneuverable at the speeds we were at. Here's the creek in winter wonderland form:
And beginning of the return journey home...back to dadsledding
We made it back to the top. Here's the picture of our VW. Sara scrapped off the snow this morning so this is new accumulation of the last 9 hours. Not a lot, but enough for Seattle to be continue to be shut down:
So, realizing that we may be nearing the breaking point, Dad decides we should do another co-sled down the hill. We take a different path this time and run out of gas midway down on a flatter spot which prompts Sam to react with finger (or rather mitten) pointing. I was a bit embarrassed about what the snowman would think about our public arguing.
The gloves literally came off at this point and I couldn't put them back on so we headed home for a snack.
