draggonlaady

Just thought you all should know.
I believe I will be leaving a "keep your dumb damn dogs out of the damn road you damn moron" letter to some folks tonight. 2 mornings in a row now their 2 dogs have tried desperately to throw themselves under my tires. Snow and ice will not improve my dodge. Hmm. Wonder if the Sheriff would do anything about the traffic hazard they're creating, being on a corner at the top of a steep hill in the snow...hmmmmmmmm....

Deadline for getting your studded tires off was last night. Yesterday on the radio, a patrol man was interviewed, who said something to the effect of "Looking at the weather forecasts, there's no reason to extend the deadline. Get your tires changed, or we will ticket you, and it's not a hard one to do--all we have to do is roll the window down and listen."

So today I took a glance at weather.com, as it's the time of year I need to start watching for thunderstorms to know when to drug the hell out of my hound dog, and this is what I see:

http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/USWA0074?phenomena=WS&significance=A&areaid=WAZ037&office=KOTX&etn=0007&from=36hr_none_golf

"VALLEY LOCATIONS CAN EXPECT A GENERAL 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW FROM 11 PM THIS EVENING THROUGH 5 PM THURSDAY... WITH LOCATIONS ABOVE 3000 FEET RECEIVING ON THE ORDER OF 6 TO 12 INCHES."

Yup. No reason whatsoever for me to not worry about taking my snow tires off. 'Cuz my little car will do just great in 6 - 12 inches of snow without snow tires. Gah.

Okay. So, I remember as a kid getting light snow in early October, heavy by November. The past couple years, we've had nothing until December. And then it freezes hard as hell.

So last week, we had the fun and exciting 5-6" on top of freezing rain.

Yesterday, it was snowing sideways. Got another about 6" before I got home, hard to tell because it was drifting. Snowed all night. Still snowing today.

Some news from Spokaloo (which is 50 miles south and several thousand feet lower than my house).
http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-121508-winterwatch.66e9126f.html
http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2-121708-roads.71771550.html

Police have requested that nobody drive unless they have 4-wheel drive AND snow tires/chains. And then only if you absolutely have to.
Now, this is NOT Seattle or Portland. This is a city that is used to and equipped for dealing with snow. They have had plows out and running. We do NOT shut down for an inch and a half of fluffy.

But when I left for work this morning, the road I live on had not been plowed yet (not terribly surprising, the county has a lot of roads, and lesser-used/dirt roads get short shrift on plowing when they can't even keep up on the highways). And it was deep enough that I was plowing snow out with the front of my car, and flinging it up over the windshield. Makes for some fun driving that; trying to keep a straight line when you can't see well through the snow on your window, and there's no distinct edge to the road anyway--the snow just covers right over from the road across the ditch. Happily, there is only a short run on that road, and the rest of the way to town was plowed out.

We had 4 appointments total booked for today. For 2 doctors. And we've already had one cancellation. I suspect that I will be going home early, as will at least half the staff.

ETA: There's another cancellation. 8:28am and half of our appointments have canceled.