Snow Days

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M~: "Let me tell you about last night. I was the happiest I've been in months just walking in the snow by myself. I had this smile that wouldn't come off my face, and it was painted there for hours. I think seeing everything so different reminded me about this thing I have for accidental beauty."

Grandpa: "Ah the joy of retirement. Just sit back and view the majestic scene. No hurry to go anywhere or do anything. Sit back and enjoy the children romping in the snow. I suppose that soon the orphaned school children will be arriving.

Just got a jolt of reality. Mom tells me the walks have to be shoveled. So much for the damn snow."

J~: "I just have to say that I love snow. I just don't understand people who grow up and then lose the wonder of snow. It holds all the same pleasures it did when I was a kid. Some of my best memories are of waking up and seeing snow, then sitting by the TV and waiting, breathe held, to hear our school...would it be closed or delayed? YES, closed!! S~ would call me, or I would call her and we'd get all dressed and run the 600 feet or so between our houses and meet somewhere in the middle of the road and start a massive snowfight. Fantastic stuff!

I think its the closest thing we'll ever have to time travel...no really, stay with me here. Snow forces the world back 40-60 years. It forces everyone to slow down, for kids to stay home and play with other neighbor kids (how else are you going to get enough snow to make that snowman)...they miss their private "whatever" lessons. People come out to play and the sense of community goes up. It's as close to the 1950s as we are ever going to get.

Then there's the wonderful effect of the way it makes the whole world get a little quieter...its like you want to speak more softly as you walk through it. That gentle sweet silence of the world covered in white. I love snow. Just love it. I get instantly happier when I see it, I'm just sitting here entranced watching it fall...slowly curling towards the earth...ahhh its very relaxing.

You should really cozy up next to your fireplace. Its what I'd be doing if I had one..and you have one...so you really should.

I'm going to go watch the snow some more, make a cup of cocoa, grab a book and read.

Have a good night
-J"

So there's the stuff people say about snow, that I totally agree with, and would add that I love how snow makes everyone so helpful and kind to each other. You'll see people pushing cars, helping to shovel snow, and giving way much more often. It's very nice to see people come together to handle the inconvenience of snow. But then there is what I heard at the bus stop the next morning.

Everyone's fondness for snow goes way down when the next day rolls around and you have to get to work. The freezing stuff is getting into your shoes, your car crunches along uncertainly; ready to slide at any point. Thirty yards from my front door, a bus was stranded in the middle of the road. Three blocks later, at the Park and Ride, three more busses were stranded, two practically hitting each other. I would have loved to see that slide. At the top of the hill, right at the stoplight, a fifth bus was stuck. Why did it stop at the top of the hill? You would think it would know better.

So I finally, carefully, harrowingly, drive my way to my bus stop. Once you got on Highway 99, the road was significantly better, but still not excitingly good. Should we drive to work, or still take a bus in? Being the good corporate citizen, I elected for the bus. My bus was loading people in the middle of the road. That made good sense. Stick with the established tracks.

I slid my car into the parking lot and left it all askew somewhere in the general vicinity of a parking spot. Clean parking skills are the first to go in the snow. By the time I'm done with my parking, everyone is unloading from the bus, and trudging across the snow towards me, no doubt getting it all in their feet, soaking their socks and the bottom six inches of their pants, and so on.

I was a bit surprised for a second at the reception. Why would they all be coming over except to carry me to the bus stop and save me the hassle and discomfort of stepping through the snow? I was touched. Had the world suddenly realized overnight what a swell fellow I was? Were there special bulletins repeating every half hour on TV? Is this what I am missing by not watching TV?

Meanwhile, in a faraway land called Reality, it turned out that everyone was getting off the bus because, surprise!, it was stranded. Both 301 busses at the park and ride were stranded. Apparently they each had broken chains. I wondered if the two bus drivers had thought to see if they might not assemble one set of working chains out of their two broken sets, but never got a chance to find out. And I wasn't going to walk a hundred yards through the snow just to get the answer to the curiosity question.

So then you have something like thirty people crammed into the bus shelter, freezing cold, completely uncertain whether or not a bus will ever come for us. Every bus on the road becomes a precious thing. People are straining their eyes trying to see bus route numbers from a block away.

Everyone becomes a bus expert. Such and such a bus goes up Meridian, so and so's bus goes to First Hill and then you can catch a shuttle downtown, this other bus's snow route will pick you up at the top of the hill. I have nothing to contribute. It snows in Seattle once every five years. I know nothing about our snow routes, and I can't keep the times straight on the two busses I do usually take. Most of all, no one is happy.

When busses start turning up a hill right before they get to us, I'm afraid there is going to be a riot. We have no idea why they would go up a steep side street instead of coming straight up the less hilly, less snowy Hwy 99. But that didn't stop everyone from having an opinion. Maybe the snow route was to get off Hwy 99 and take Meridian (you know, 'cause there's less traffic and more hills on Meridian). I finally realized that I had the answer, and maybe I wasn't proud to inform everyone that there was a bus stuck at 200th and Hwy 99, so they had to use an alternate route to get to the park and ride.

Anyway, finally got an alternate bus on a completely different route, the stand-in bus finally got me to work, and my forty-minute trip only took two hours. That's what snow comes down to once you get past the prettiness, and the refreshing of your perception of beauty, and the sweet kindness of strangers. Nothing but an element of danger added to your life and a whole lot of disruption to your schedule.