Monday, January 23, 2012

The Great Storm of 2012 (Cue dramatic organ music)



On January the 19th, our State Governor declared a "State of Emergency".  Was Washington State being attacked by space Aliens, you might reasonably ask, or did a Tsunami wipe out the Starbucks Headquarters? Non of these my friends. Seattle received a few more inches of snow than we normally do at this time of year causing traffic and interstate commerce to grind to a halt. People were unable to get to work (Boo Hoo). People were unable to shop (Boo Hoo Hoo), and to top it all, deliveries of milk would be disrupted and ..... wait a minute....A state of emergency was declared because the milk industry and private business stood to lose a few dollars? How inconvenient.

I knew it was going to be bad when I read about Seattle's pending plight on the BBC news. There must have been a serious lull in global strife and republican back stabbing for this to hit the news back in Blighty, so I rushed out to the shop to buy some more beer emergency supplies before the storm had us locked in for the rest of the winter. In case the firewood ran out, I made an inventory of which pieces of furniture we could burn without leaving us beds to sleep on. The chairs could go first, as we could always take turns sitting on each other, and I never liked that Ikea book case in the living room. With all of the essentials either purchased or planned, we waited for the end of the world as we knew it.

On Wednesday morning, I looked out of the bedroom window onto an eerily silent white landscape. There must have been, oh at least 6 inches of snow.

This is it? The storm of the century? 6 inches of f***ing snow? No houses collapsed, none washed away, no riots and no deaths to report, just an excess of milk to deliver. God forbid if you can't get a triple grand mocha decaf when you want it. How will we all survive.


Quite well, as it turns out. We took our cross country skis out of the garage and went for a wonderful tour of the neighborhood. Our chickens had breakfast in bed on account of them not wanting to get their feet cold. Legend Jr built enough snowmen to occupy Wall Street, while Mrs legend and yours truly sat in front of the fire with mugs full of rum hot chocolate.


How would you cope?



19 comments:

  1. Same, Legend, would cope the same way. I know just the Ikea bookshelves I'd burn too.
    Laughing so thanks for that. We've had pitiful snow, a mere 6" last week but did our cross-country skiing best we could. Really we're getting a raw deal on winter here in Canada, where we expect it and don't need to call in the Army!

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    1. We lose power for a few days and the National Guard is called in:)

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  2. I had to read this out loud to my husband so we could BOTH laugh. Very witty little rant. We had a pretty serious storm up here last week, actually, and our stores very nearly ran out of milk.

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    1. Our cheese supplies have dramativally increased, so if you ned any, come on down

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  3. Hello Wally:
    This was such fun! However, we have to say that in England it takes far, far less than 6" of snow to bring the country to a halt and initiate panic buying. The wrong leaves on the line paralyses the railways and the Army is virtually called to assist if ice lingers on the roads for more than a day.

    You would be the perfect person to give everyone a lesson in getting 'back to basics', we certainly feel that it is time we took a long hard look at what is really important in life.

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    1. Jane and Lance,
      Having each other is the most important thing in life. I don't think you two need any lessons.

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  4. Dear Legend, really enjoyed this post about the emergency that did not quite happen - though still worried about constitutionally protected right to get a Starbucks at all times and your plan to sit on family members - I have tried it with Boys 1 and 2 when I am on the phone to shut them up but they are very uncomfortable and wriggly..Vashon sounds a lovely place to live, how nice to go out on your skis Bxx

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    1. Blighty, I have to tie Legend Jr up before I sit on him otherwise he bites my ankles. Vashon is lovely, in many ways. There is always a welcome here for anyone brave enough to visit

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  5. Maybe you should like in Texas. We had 2 days of freezing, now it's in the 60's with bright sunshine. Of course, we have NO mountains or ocean to overlook...just miles and miles of urban-ness, Oak & Pine trees, and fashionably dressed women...plus OIL.
    Thank you for visiting me, Wally. Say hello to Mrs. Legend !!

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    1. I could do with a bit of sunshine right now:)

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  6. I am SO relieved to hear it's not just the UK that grinds to a halt or starts a state of emergency for a bit of snow or rain or perhaps a bit of wind...glad everyone survived!

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    1. The only problem we have right now is the possibility of drowning, and we live at the top of a hill. Roll on summer.

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  7. Wally, this happened here in SLC last year. The black clouds gathered over the Great Salt Lake; the wind began to howl; the university cancelled afternoon classes; I had to activate our phone tree to cancel night school for 110 students and about 50 volunteers; I rushed home like a bat out of hell and...uh...we got two inches.

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    1. I liked all of the disaster preparedness at our local store. Folks were hunkering down for the big one. It's nice to see you on these pages Kate. Thank you

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  8. I heard about your impending doom on the radio too........we just suffer from a surfeit of cloud and excessive gray gloom here....and it's still only January!! My friend says she heard on the news all Siberia's snow was coming our way so am now busy spreading that rumour!! Stay warm.......

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  9. Smiling. I live on the prairie. It is common for us to have back to back snowstorms of a foot apiece.

    When we vacationed in New Orleans last year, one of Bing's aunts asked me how I lived in such a "frozen wasteland" and I burst out laughing...

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  10. We Scottish are gobsmacked to see that London is getting both snow and weather warnings - it's usually us that have to cope with it!

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  11. Weirdly,despite last years deluge we seem to managed to escape the snowfalls over here.All in the South!

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