Someone Lied
When deciding whether to accept the job and move to Seattle last February, I had many conversations with the recruiter and my manager about, well, everything. Including the weather, which I was told “is great. Mild weather, and while it rains, it’s really more of a mist and the once a year if it snows, its flurries and gone within a few hours.� Considering the few months of winter thus far, somebody lied to me, big time.
I have yet to witness what the Seattle natives call "mist"; it rains just like in the Bay Area, big buckets of rain. The Seattle snow flurry that looked so charming became a nightmarish few days of snow, ice and bitter cold in the 20s and the low 30s. The Bay Area girl in me had a hard time – I’m not a cold weather person, I don’t know how to drive in the snow (in fact, snow driving scares me), and the heat in my apartment kind of sort but not quite works. Campus was shut down for two days, although I didn’t know about the shut down the first day, but did wonder why the gym was empty and only discovered when I sat in an empty conference room for 20 minutes and finally read the e-mail announcement. The roads were icy and slick. Luckily, Lolita is fundamentally a German car, so did quite well on the icy roads. Regardless, it was a crazy few days. By Thursday, life - the weather - settled back to normal.
And then this week happened. My week has been bizarre, for many reasons – lost cars, showers that didn’t take, odd meetings, two sleepless nights in a row, issues with the holidays, important items (such as wallets and cell phones) left at home, and a power outage Wednesday morning that caused me to oversleep by two hours (figures, that was the night I took a sleeping pill). By Thursday afternoon, I felt like things had sort of returned to normal. But alas, a giant rain and wind storm and flooded streets turned my commute into 1 ½ hours of hell (Lolita does well in floods, too). I got back to Seattle in time to meet Asra for the end of happy hour at Sun Liquor, and when I finally made it back home at 10:30, the power was out. I slept to the sound of fierce winds and it turns out that the storm was one of the most powerful on record.
Two days later, I still have no power. Luckily, not all of Capitol Hill is affected; the areas with restaurants/cafes still work, and thankfully, the gym still has power, so at least I’m able to take a hot shower (I couldn’t help but notice that many others had the same idea this morning).
Joe Bar has now become my second home. I’ve made new friends, bonding with other refugees using the café for sustenance and warmth and the Internet connection. As someone noted, it could be worse. At least I live in an urban area and can walk to the grocery store or café or whatever, unlike those that live in the middle of nowhere, or what I refer to as “the eastside� (snicker). I don’t think that we’re being neglected – according to their website, Seattle Power and Light is doing the best that they can:
“Emergency shelters open as City Light crews restore power to more than 10,000 customers on Saturday. Currently, the Utility has approximately 39,974 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 on Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 37 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each.
City Light crews are working continuously on rotational shifts throughout the weekend, day and night (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. However, after the weekend, a small number of miscellaneous outages will remain, or trickle in, due to the severity of the wind damage. Unfortunately, some customers may be without power for 48-72 hours, and others could experience extended outages of up to four (4) days. They should plan accordingly. The utility estimates those continued outages will be scattered throughout the city in isolated areas.�
Almost everyone I talk to tells me that this winter weather is highly unusual. It never rains buckets and buckets. Wind storms are rarely occurring instances. Blackouts don’t ever happen in the city. The weather is really wonderful and mild. Right. I’ll keep that in mind when I go back to my cold and dark apartment tonight.