Redmond/Sammamish Blog

January 12, 2007

FRI 12 JAN 2007

THIS TIME I WAS HERE FOR THE SNOW STORM!! By Carmen

Wow, what a storm! I hope you are all doing okay and that you made it home safely on Wednesday night and yesterday. Wednesday evening, about 4:30 pm, I was in my office at John L. Scott Realty in Redmond when my son called me and said, "hey, mom have you looked outside? It's snowing, you better leave soon". So I looked outside and it was coming down hard. I quickly gathered my things and left the office. I am not very comfortable driving in the snow because my car does not perform well in the snow. I know now that I need to get new snow tires or at least put chains around the existing tires. Anyway, I got in my car, said a little prayer, and started to drive to the Bear Creek bus stop, where I was picking up my son who was coming back from University of Washington. He takes the bus to and from there. It took about an hour to drive from my office in Redmond on Cleveland street to the bus stop. I was so glad to see my son there because I quickly turned the wheel over to him.

The ride from the the Bear Creek bus stop to my house in any normal day takes me about 5 minutes but on Wednesday night, the cars were inching their wayaround. When I got to my neighborhood, there were already cars parked at the bottom of the hill. We did not even attempt to go up our steep hill. We knew that the Mercedes would not make it so my son parked my car on a road used only by the road construction workers on 202. I know my car was safe from people who tried going up the hill and ended up sliding back down. I walked up the hill to my house, put on my snow boots, grabbed my dog and my camera and went down the hill again. By this time there were plenty of cars parked there already. My neighbor's new mercedes was hit twice while she stood there not knowing what to do but just wait for the inevitable. Lucklily, people are more understading under these circumstances and work things out with their insurances.

I saw that only the big monster trucks were making it up the hill but the small cars did not.

Look at these pictures:







I know when we have a snow storm it is very incovenient for everyone. We can't get to our jobs, can't get to the stores or can't do our regular activities, but I can't help to admire the beauty of nature. The evergreens, the rooftops and the grounds look so beautiful all covered in white. The air was crisp and cold. My kids and I all bundled up in our snow gear and went out to play. We had a great snowball fight, made snow angels on the ground and sleded too. I also went for a walk with my neighbor and we all enjoyed the beautiful scenery of our neigborhood. That night we slept soundly after all that play.

The next morning, I braced myself to walk down the steep hill to see if my car was lucky not to have been hit by other cars. When I got there I saw that my car was in great company of many other cars that were not able to make it up the hill. Everything was frozen! Since my car was parked on a great spot, I decided to wait for a few hours in hope that the snow would melt as it got warmer during the day.

Look at this pictures of early morning:







and some ventured out on their bikes



the neighborhood kids having fun on the snow





As I said before, I know the snow is incovenient for everyone but the few times that we have it, go out for a long walk and marvel the beauty of the snow, take your sled out and and go down a hill. Put work aside at least for a few hours and enjoy yourself with your families. The snow doesn't last too long. So my friends, have a wonderful day and be careful!