Well, at least as far as work goes. (I look around this house and don't feel that way, what with lots of Christmas wrapping to do, plus because it really did snow today, no cleaning lady. Eh.) So once again it was a telecommute day, but I spent a good hour-and-a-half on the phone with our company's IT guy this morning and finally was able to get my work laptop connected to the internet/VPN. Whew! It took some doing! So, I did accomplish quite a lot (certainly compared to 
yesterday) and it felt good. And it was really quite enjoyable to sit here at the dining table and watch the snow fall all day long. Saw a few interesting things, such as a cop car spin out and come *this close* to doing a 180. I also saw a big flash out of the corner of my eye, but peered out and didn't see anything telling (I wondered if a transformer had blown somewhere), but got back to work and forgot about it. Later, I learned that we'd had "thundersnow!" We had this last year (I 
think it was), and I'd never heard of it or experienced it before! Two years in a row! Has to do with the upper atmosphere being even colder than the lower atmosphere, and conditions (like colliding winds) cause the lower air to rise and when it mixes with the uber-cold air, it causes thunder and lightning! I didn't hear any thunder, but I guess they sure did in Seattle. (Plus, it sounds much louder because of the density of the cold air). Weird. And quite rare around here, according to my favorite meteorologist.
What was also unusual about this day was that 1) it snowed during the DAY—normally we get snow at night when it's colder and wake up to it, and 2) it really did snow all day long. That's another rarity, because it just tends to warm up enough with all the bodies of water around here that we don't get hours upon hours of snowfall at any given time. Many areas north of us have GOBS of snow (from 6 inches to nearly 2 feet!) Here in our little town-by-the-water, we maybe have 2-1/2 inches. But it doesn't seem to matter too much how much you have because regardless it's a headache to drive in. Those of us on the west side of Washington are often given a lot of grief for our panic (and stupidity...) about driving in the snow. But there are some valid reasons (well, maybe not for the utter stupidity, such as going too slow up a hill or too fast if you've got 4-wheel-drive...) First, we don't get a lot of it and so it's true we don't have the built-in experience to react sensibly. Second, this is one extremely hilly area! Everywhere! There are hills of every size imaginable, and many of them are combined with killer curves! The city of Seattle is a nightmare with a stick shift on a sunny summer day, let alone with ice-covered hills! The third thing is that because we don't get a whole lot of snow, western Washington just doesn't put a whole heckuva lot of revenue into snow plows, de-icer, sand, etc. What gets attention are the main freeways/highways/arterials, but the grief occurs on the residential (hills!) to get to those main roadways, and they don't receive the "love". Pretty much on your own to navigate down that steep slick-as-snot hill to that (red) traffic light and just try to STOP. Brakes? In ice? Right.
I have a hunch tomorrow will be a telecommute day, too, unless the roads are SUPREMELY improved (and gee, I doubt it — freezing temperatures will prevail). My commute is 23 miles of major hills and valleys each way, so if I don't have to risk it, I WON'T. Because I'm a Snow Chicken. (Mostly an Ice Chicken...)
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P.S. No, those aren't our weenie dogs in that picture with the picnic table. I grabbed that photo from our local news website from folks who had sent in their weather pictures. (Just thought it was pretty cute!)
