It's snowing in Seattle

I'ts snowing in Seattle this morning. It happens on occassion.

And then we shut down the schools and everybody is happy.

Rain

Rain is loud.

That is all.

If Hell freezes over...

It will look like Seattle yesterday.

I've searched YouTube this morning already. During my six and a half hour bus ride home from work yesterday - got on the downtown bus at 5:17 p.m., got off the bus at the Park and Ride at 11:48 p.m. - the bus driver asked for volunteers to push the bus to get us up a slight incline so we could get on the parkway (oh, I mean freeway). "Anybody wanna push?" We all laughed with the bus driver. Then he said, "I'm serious." and opened the back door. About 15 or 20 young men unloaded from the bus and went around back to push. It was making a difference - believe it or not. (Twenty young men pushing a massive articulated bus, this still blows my mind.) But not enough of a difference.

The driver then said, "Anyone wanna move to the back of the bus? We need some weight over the back tires." I left my seat, I had felt so lucky to actually have a seat, and stood over the rear tires with so many others on the bus. I watched a young man put his hat under the rear tire to give some traction. It actually helped. Out the other side of the bus I saw two young men standing in the sideways sleeting snow filming the event on their phones.

I'll keep searching YouTube. It's got to show up eventually.

(Yes, I got my seat back. Yes, we got going and the young men had to run up to the ever slow moving bus to jump back on board. Yes, I am staying home today. I had enough yesterday.)

Washington Speak

"Rain changing over to showers by afternoon."

I just find this interesting...

Lincoln Park

Running Lincoln Park this Saturday morning. I little chillier than last weekend. I little windier too. No, that's not me in the photo...I'm the one taking the photo. We must be getting better, this route had hills...long ever loving hills. I'm ready for a nap. ":)

Sunrise/Sunset

Pink clouds, pink skies and little bits of blue skies just to make a show - the baby shades of those two colors. That's what the sky looks like as I drive into work and as I drive home these days. The sun is just rising as I go in, and just setting as I come home. (I'll be back on the bus tomorrow. In the meantime,) The sky here is pink, a salmoney pink, the whole sky it seems. It's not unnatural, yet I don't know that I've ever seen this phenomenon for so many days anywhere else.

The sky, the sunrise, reflects on the mirrored exteriors of downtown buildings. At the right angle one can see the rising sun and Cascade Mountains and pink sky all reflected on the eastern side of the building - little boxes of mirrored moment making a canvassed building. I'm driving. It's wonderfully distracting.

And it does it again in the evening when I go home. This time the sun plays in the Olympic Mountains and bursts pink onto the skies. It's so easy to smile here.

Outwitting the Weather AND Metro!

There is construction blocking my favorite bus stop downtown. I will have to walk either two blocks north or three blocks south in order to catch my usual bus. I am so adept at bus riding now, what with knowing the Metro System AND the Sound System I am Bi-metro. (When I figure out Pierce and Kitsap Counties I will be Tri- and eventually so advanced as to be considered Quad-Metro. In the meantime...) I can now pick my bus and my bus-stop to best suit my requirements for either proper Downtown Seattle sight-seeing or immediate pick-up and getting home the absolute quickest way possible. Am I becoming a bus-snob? I never would have thought that possible. Not moi....To most of you I am sure the above scene looks like any bus or transit platform in any metropolitan area you care to name. (Okay, so it is) I would like to point out, dear readers, that this transit platform...pause...wait for it...is dry. Yes, my dear readers. This is a non-wet, dry platform.
So is this one....
And this shiny one is dry too.
And the final transit platform before we come out of the downtown tunnel system - yes, this too is dry.

I get comfort, speed and a veritable plethora of options (okay, just four) for dry platforms throughout this fine city.

Maybe tomorrow I will post the story of the Friday downpour, the speeding bus, the curbside tidal wave and how spontaneous crowd reactions are still available among the commuter crowd.

Until then, please stay dry.

Seattle - 7 a.m.

3rd & Pine at 7 a.m.

Bus ride through Seattle yesterday and today is a tad bit chilly these days. This morning it was 21F/-6C. Thank goodness there was no wind to speak of. Yesterday I wore a skirt and a long coat. The long coat did me very well. Today I wore slacks and a short coat. Oh baby, those bus seats are COLD! Gloves are now a necessary evil. I love my scarf. I wear a big, wide, colorful scarf to wrap around my neck and stuff into the front of my coat. It's wide across the back of my neck. It's not even winter yet. I'm wondering about hat hair. I don't wear a hat. That will change. I don't know when, but soon.

Jackson and Main (?) at 5 p.m.

The buses this time of year keep on their interior lights only on the drivers side. The seats on the other side of the bus do not have the overhead lighting on. I find this interesting. I lot more people are getting on the buses and shutting their eyes, either relaxing before the day begins (for the morning crowd) or decompressing at the end of the day (for the evening crowd). Yesterday I was on the decompress side of the bus. Today I sat on the luminated side and got some reading done.

Alleyway from Howell and 8th

I'm so glad to have someone else do the driving. I leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and don't get home until 6:22 p.m. and that is fine with me. I start my car at 6:15 in the morning - two reasons. One is to make sure it will start, I'm having battery issues. If it doesn't start I still have time to walk to a bus stop and, with a couple adjustments, still get to work on time. Two is the car is reasonably warm to drive after 15 minutes of chugging away in my driveway to get me to the Park & Ride for the easiest bus to work.

This contract is only until the end of January or so, the coldest months of the year probably. I may be investing in warmer socks, or boots, or parka. Update will follow, I'm sure.

Seattle Tourist - Ferry Rides

The sun was shining, actually shining this morning. I understand this is a strange and rare occassion this time of year here in the great north wet. I took my coffee and croissant down to Edmonds Beach. I love Edmonds Beach, and Richmond Beach and Gateway Beach...okay I love the beaches. While I watched the single gull on the beach lurking for a piece of my croissant the ferry came in. Oh, this ferry is one I've wanted to ride from the first time I watched them going in and out this last summer.
I am feeling this morning a bit defeated (read disposal issues) and just unsettled which I won't share here. I drove the three minutes back home, bundled up, grabbed a notebook for writing (okay, so that part didn't work) and headed back to Edmonds. Three hour parking is all I needed.

The view from inside the walkway. All I'm thinking is that it is about time I took this trip.

From the deck the view of the Puget Sound is spectacular, but the pilings are in focus.

206 cars fit on the ferry. At Edmonds/Kingston ferry there are two boats that crisscross the sound - the Spokane and the Puyallup

Coming into Kingston. Is this a sunny, wonderful, perfect day or what?!

Both Edmonds and Kingston have a lovely marina. I love dark hulled sailboats.

In the shadows - long tall sally.

The Puyallup is a nicer boat. Maybe it's newer. The breeze had picked up by the time I was on the return trip. The wind was whipping by so strong around the bow I could feel my glasses move on my face. I walked the decks on the sunny side both coming and going. Soaking it in.

Kingston is a lovely, small, sedate town. Just what I needed today. The view of the houses on the slopes nearby was provincial and inviting. There is a quilt shop on the Kingston side that garnered most of my time, though none of my money. Maybe next time. But, next time I want to bring my bike over to the island and bike through the neighborhoods and wooded areas I could see from the ferry. Best thing, pay one way, the way home is free. A bike is only a $1 premium. An excellent three hours for all of $7. Tourism on a shoestring.

Kate's Quilt

The other thing I picked up yesterday was a table...okay a card table, but a table nonetheless. When I find a dining table I like this one will be relegated to the study. So, on this lovely, sunshining, lightly breezy, perfect day I have been indoors. This has been a perfectly lovely day; Kate's quilt is out of moving boxes and back in working mode. I cranked up the tunes and the machine. I know...I live such an exciting life. Whoohoo!

I must be feeling guilty for not getting outdoors. Yesterday I enjoyed my book at the beach (so, what was the deal with all the screaming kids? I hadn't heard that all summer. The children were there all summer, every time I went to the beach, just not all the screaming...definate shift yesterday). My book and the sunset were the best parts of the beach - okay, the smell, the sound of light surf, the reflecting light off the water....I'm a sucker for water. Do I get another weekend like this one?

Full and complete stop

Full and complete stop here...

to get to the full and complete stop here.

Have a great weekend!

Call Me....Irresponsible

*a wet little soft-shoe shuffle here* 

Never again will I believe the meteoroligists (yeah right).  I don't care what any of them say.  I can no longer even believe what I witness for myself.  I swear it was a sunny, lovely, warm wonderful morning.  I can only hope from here on out I will always, always, always have a jacket.  It didn't help this afternoon that all three umbrellas were left at home.  I know better.  Arrggh.

And yes, Doug, thanks for the perspective.  Every bus driver out there is my chaffeur.