Today is a normal telecommuting day for me. Currently, 18ºF.
Oh my!
Hubby worked yesterday from 6:00 AM to 6:00 AM today, however, he called at 5:30 AM to say he was holding over because the ice was keeping people from making it in.
Then at 8:30 AM he called to say they have a power outage and a big gas leak on property, so he is there indefinitely.
He just called again. They got the gas turned off and they have emergency power.
They are sending the other employees home, but they need the fire dept to keep an eye on things.
Our house is is 70 years old. The garage door is the old spring type. We leave it open, because the 70 year old springs could break and kill someone. The snow and ice have coated the leading edge of the door and closed it about half way. I’m staying out of the bedroom in case one of the springs let go and comes through the wall.
We have a metal and plastic, permanent awning over our patio. It’s bowing. I’m not going out to check it any closer, since it could collapse.
We had freezing rain from sometime in the night until about 8:00 AM. Now, it’s snowing again. The temp outside my window is 23°F, down from 28°F when I got up at 7:30 AM.
I thought it was suposed to warm up and rain, washing all this crap away? Can’t trust the damn weather people.
We’re in the midst of a winter weather shitfit, too, but ours is just bitter cold, and we’re all prepared for that - a city that isn’t used to cold and heavy snow has my sympathies.
NWCN is showing a long carport that collapsed under 14" of snow. It’s made of metal and a corrugated material.
This reminds me of our patio in Lancaster. Dad salvaged wood from the local DMV that was torn down. He made 4x4s by putting two 2x4s together. I don’t remember if he had the shingled plywood roof on it then, or if it was still corrugated. In '78 or ‘79 we had a heavy snowfall. (Yes, it does snow in the Mojave Desert! Sometimes.) Neighbours’ metal-and-corrugated plastic patios were collapsing under the weight. Dad’s patio was rather overbuilt, and weathered the storm nicely.
sigh The Jeep won’t start.
After spending so much to get it drivable, I figured all was good. I guess the temperatures were not kind to the new Die-Hard. The remote lock worked fine (always a good sign). I got the beep-beep-beep when I put the key in (with the door open). I turned the key, and… click Part of the maintenance was a cooling system flush and fresh anti-freeze. I checked the cap, and there was green liquid there. (I thought maybe the battery was fine but the engine was frozen.)
AAA should be here within an hour to give me a jump-start.
Where the heck are you going? Remember, 4wd doesn’t help much in ice. Be careful!
Yeah, that’s the one they want to move the Special Commitment* inmates to. Guess the feeling at DoC is that either Pierce County deserves the dregs, or is used to them by now.
That puts you southeast of me, too: I live just north of Allenmore in Tacoma, if that makes any sense.
But I digress . . .
'Bout 6:00 this morning I watched someone in a 4x4 trying to get up the not-very-steep hill in front of the house. Ended up sliding sideways/backwards into a couple of parked cars. The wrecker showed up two hours later, and in spite of being chained front & rear it crept backwards down the street at about a furlong per fortnight. That more than the 4x4 told me that it’s best to stay put till later. Fortunately, not only can I telecommute, but the word was passed at 7:00 that all Olympia offices (including mine) are closed again today.
*Sex offenders who have completed their sentences but are kept in custody because they have either refused or not satisfactorily completed remedial therapy. Currently housed on McNeil Island, but since the regular prison closed the cost per inmate has become prohibitive.
Oh I forgot to say, Hubby is working in Fredrickson (kinda Puyallup).
He’s being held over for an extra 12 hours. That is, if things go as planned. If not, he may be there until morning.
Yup, I know your area too, Otto.
picu, it’s slick as snot out this way. Nothing is really melting. All is still white with a very thick coat of ice on top of it. Projected high is only 35.
We are snow wimps but today is an ice storm.
We are one of the hilliest cities in the US, having grown up in Wyoming I know how to drive on snow, none of that applies to ice.
Should I assume you don’t have a block heater then?
In Western Washington? Pshaw!
The L.A. Times called Seattleites ‘snow wimps’. As a former Los Angeleno, I can tell you L.A. has no room to talk. They are almost as bad in the rain as Seattleites are, and I doubt they’d be able to handle snow.
And of course, this is an ice storm now.
So AAA gets here. I tell the guy, ‘Come over here and I’ll show you what happens.’
I put the key in and the Jeep starts beeping. ‘It’s beeping, so you know it’s getting power. And the engine bay light is on. But when I turn the switch…’ RRRR-room! :smack:
He said my starter might be going out, and I should have it checked. Also, if it happens again I can have someone crank it while I whack the starter with a hammer.
We have block heaters on both of our cars. We don’t have to use them often, but they are live savers when its necessary.
Yeah, if you want to bring LA to its knees, throw a glass of water on the freeway! 
Yeah, they’re like $50, dude. My motto in life is, “It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.” 
I got out of the scalding shower and dried off. I went to the kitchen to pack some leftover kung pao chicken for the drive into work. (Yes, I’m going to try to make it!) What’s that sound? 
Yes, ladies and gennelmen… The cold water started running in the tub! After a couple of minutes I was able to coax the cold tap in the bathroom sink to emit its liquid coolness. The toilet intake is still inop, as is the deep sink in the laundry room. The cold taps in the tub and the sink are on a trickle.
But it’s up to 21º out, and we’re starting to thaw out. The only thing is I don’t remember which direction is on in the deep sink. I’d rather not have them come on while I’m not here (SO went to bed around 02:30) in case the drain is frozen. Maybe I’ll dump a bucket of water in it to see if it’s clear.
Yep. The drain is frozen. i’d better work from home.
Well, Wednesday’s snow turned into freezing rain. We now have an inch of ice over top of everything. Twelve miles (roughly) South of Seattle, we lost power Wednesday night and haven’t seen it since. I’m typing this from work - the roads were actually passable this morning, as it’s finally above freezing and starting to melt.
It looks like the apocalypse hit my neighborhood. The trees are shattered. My husband and I considered going out for a walk yesterday. We got to the base of the driveway and in less than five minutes watched three trees lose major branches - two of them right onto the power lines!. We decided to go back in. One of the huge pine trees on the property has lost all of its large branches, it may not survive it. Thank heavens there are no trees close enough to fall on our house! And we have gas heat, so we’re staying warm. The contents of the freezer are out on the back porch in a cooler, though.
There’s massive power outages, and most people probably won’t get power back until everything’s melted off in the next day or two. We took an alternate route down the hill this morning because of power lines that were either on the ground or low enough that the car wouldn’t go under them. The worst of the storm passed South of Seattle and North of the Oregon border and dropped a ridiculous amount of snow, so I suspect we’re not hearing from those people because they’ve got it even worse. Yuck.
Try turning on a light. You may be able to find it then. 
I’ve never been in an ‘exploding tree’ situation. I’ve seen a couple/few limbs come down from high winds as I was driving on the freeway, but never the ice thing. SO has been in a couple of ice storms (in Hoquiam and Tennessee) and has heard and seen the snapping.
There was a wild cherry tree in the back yard. In 2006/2007 (while I was back in L.A.) a 30-foot branch snapped off in those 80 mph winds we had up here. There was a nice bit of firewood for the following Winter! The tops of a couple of cedars came down, and one landed on a neighbour’s roof. Last year one of the twin trunks of the cherry tree snapped. Last Autumn I had the tree cut down and chunked up. I have two triangular stacks of 16-inch logs, about seven or eight feet wide and five feet high for next year.