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Snow is unusual in Seattle. Snow before Thanksgiving apparently hasn't happened in 25 years. And Seattle generally isn't well-equipped to deal with snow, because it generally doesn't need to be. But also, Seattle is built on a group of large, often steep-sided hills. So even a small amount of snow and icy weather is enough to bring everything to a screeching halt and shut the city down.
My cat Nimiel hasn't been feeling well. This will become relevant in a bit. On Thursday evening I noticed that she had a weird strong chemical smell on her left side, as though she'd got her fur soaked in some kind of cleanser, but then the smell went away after a while. I didn't know what to make of it and she didn't seem unhappy, so I let it go. Friday night when i got home late, she started running around and cry-meowing in obvious distress about something, and I saw that she'd scattered a lot of litter around on the floor, a sure sign that she'd been in and out of the litter box a lot. That meant she was having some discomfort when trying to urinate, a problem we've dealt with before, most recently in June. At that time, the vet diagnosed it as an inflammation or irritation caused simply from stress, as there was no sign of infection, and simply prescribed some painkiller medicine to help her feel comfortable while the irritation went away.
So I called the vet on Saturday, explained the situation, and they prescribed the same painkiller along with some antibiotics just in case it was an infection; they also asked me to bring in a urine sample. I had to scramble a bit to get a ride over to the vet's office before it closed, but fortunately one of my neighbors was home and able to help. Although her litter box wasn't due to be cleaned for another week, on Sunday I washed it out as usual and also rinsed it with bleach as the vet instructed, and added just the small amount of sterile plastic litter they provided so that she'd have something to paw at. Nimiel seemed unhappy that there wasn't a normal amount of litter in the box, but after several hours she eventually peed and I was able to get the sample and put regular litter back in the box.
That meant on Monday I had to get back to the vet's office to deliver the urine sample. Well, Monday morning it started snowing. Early on it was fairly light flurries, nothing too serious-looking, and when I left my house around noon to catch a bus, I had no trouble getting there. I have to take two buses to do so, one to get me from the Fremont Bridge down to Denny Way—the 17, 26, or 28 are all available—and the other, the 8, to get from Dexter Ave and Denny Way up Capitol Hill to 15th Avenue E and E Republican Street, where Capitol Hill Animal Clinic is. This trip should take about 45 minutes. Although there didn't yet seem to be any snow sticking to the roads, Metro Transit had already decided to put the entire system onto the snow re-routes, anticipating that things would get worse. Even with the re-routes already in effect, the trip still took a normal amount of time, so, no problem. I was able to get there, drop off the sample, and wait only a few minutes before catching the 8 bus back down to Dexter and Denny and my scheduled volunteer work at KEXP.
While at KEXP, the vet called back to say their analysis of the urine showed some blood and large crystals, and they recommended putting Nimiel onto a prescription diet to clear up that problem. This was something of a problem for me at that point; I knew I had paid contract work to do that afternoon once my volunteer work was done, as well as calling a client about a new project, and I doubted I'd be able to do my work and then get back to the vet's office before they closed. Knowing I definitely had to make the scheduled phone call, I headed over to Top Pot Doughnuts after my KEXP work was done. Once there, I took care of my phone call, but also discovered that their Internet access was glacially slow for no apparent reason, slow enough that I couldn't reasonably download the documents I was supposed to be editing, let alone plan on uploading the edited versions. That meant I couldn't stay, and that made my decision easy: I would have to catch the 8 bus back up to Capitol Hill first, get the prescription food, and then bus home or at least back to Fremont to work at Caffe Ladro.
At this point, though, it was about 4 in the afternoon and the snow had picked up a lot in the past few hours. I hobbled back to the Dexter and Denny bus stop and waited at least a half-hour in the snow and cold wind before a bus finally arrived, long enough that I was seriously wondering whether I should just be heading straight home. But the bus did come, so I got on. Google Maps estimates that the bus trip from Dexter and Denny to 15th and John, the stop closest to the vet's, takes about 10 minutes. That's optimistic even in nice weather, it's probably more like 15 minutes on average. On this day, however, it took about an hour and 15 minutes to make the trip, spending long portions simply sitting on the street stuck in traffic. All of the major arteries were packed with cars trying to head home, many of them trying to get onto I-5, which was also already a parking lot. Still, the bus finally made it up the snowy hill, and I was able to get to the vet's office before they closed and pick up the prescription food.
Then I was faced with the real challenge, of getting back home. I'm glad I had the presence of mind to stop in at the supermarket by the bus stop and use their restroom, before waiting for the bus. I had to wait probably 10 minutes for a bus to show up, which actually was less time than I'd feared. The first bus to arrive was a route 43 bus, which headed downtown rather than back to Dexter and Denny. However, I knew there was no point to waiting for another route 8 bus and that I'd be able to pick up any bus I needed to get home just as easily from downtown, so I got on the 43.
The 43 pulled forward about a block to the next intersection, and stopped. After a minute, I looked out the front and saw that someone had planted an official detour sign in the road, pointing down 14th Avenue and blocking the somewhat steep slope of John Street in front of us. The bus driver obviously had no idea the road would be closed and hadn't been told of any re-routing, so she called the dispatch office, and spent 10 or so minutes trying to get an answer about whether she was supposed to follow her normal route down the hill or take some detour. I was listening to my music, so I didn't really hear the conversation, but apparently it ended with the dispatcher telling her to proceed down the hill.
So carefully, cautiously, very slowly, the bus started creeping down the hill. And then, this happened:
The relevant section begins at about 2:45. In case you can't see the video, you can view it at this link on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg
In short, the bus lost traction, lost control, slid down and across the street to bash and bounce off a telephone poll (coincidentally knocking down the bus stop sign at that location, too), and then slid backwards several more feet before coming to rest against the curb, facing back uphill.
Needless to say, given my own all-too-recent adventure in car crashes, I was rather alarmed when the bus started sliding, and really scared when it started sliding backwards. But once it came to rest, I recovered quickly, and everyone on the bus dutifully filed off, thanking the bus driver for her efforts. That left me, though, standing at 13th and John, with my computer in my backpack weighing down my back, a heavy bag of cat food to hold in my left hand, a crutch to prop me up on the right, and a long way to go home. What could I do? I started hobbling, as carefully as I could.
I realized that there was no point in even attempting to hobble back down Denny Way, the hill was just too steep for me to be safe, so I followed through on the route I was going to take by bus, down to 3rd and Pike downtown. When I got down near Broadway and Pine, I found the traffic all backed up; a route 49 bus was at that stop, headed downtown, but I immediately realized it would be faster and arguably safer, if much colder, to simply keep walking, so I did. I finally got downtown a little after 7, which means I made pretty good time considering the weather conditions and my walking impediment. And then I waited for any bus headed back to Fremont.
And waited, and waited, over a half-hour I'm fairly sure, in a strong and bitterly cold wind and blowing snow. Finally a route 28 bus arrived, and a crowd of us piled on, packing it. The bus set off, making decent time through the first several downtown stops, only to get to Westlake Avenue and become stuck in the same mess of people trying to get to Mercer Street and I-5. We spent probably close to an hour barely crawling along, and a bunch of people gave up and got off the bus rather than wait. Finally when we were within a block of Mercer Street, the bus simply cut into the opposite lane and drove around all the stalled traffic to get across Mercer and continue on to Fremont. The bus still had to drive slowly along Westlake due to the icy conditions but at least it was moving along, and it didn't take much longer to get to Fremont. After that it was easy, just a short stop at PCC to pick up a couple grocery items and then a short but careful walk home. Amusingly, as I was walking home, a driver pulled alongside to ask whether I needed help getting home; with only a couple level blocks to walk, I declined with thanks.
I got home just after 9 pm: over three hours after leaving the vet's office, over five hours since I'd first decided to leave downtown, get the cat food, and head home. My route from downtown to the vet's, back downtown, and then home was about 6.3 miles. That's pretty poor, but not nearly as bad as some people's attempts to commute home on I-5, which reportedly took up to 12 hours for some people. I've remarked before that I do miss the experience of seeing snow fall, and the way that the city sky has a lovely glow at night from the lights reflecting off the snow and clouds. But this was a strong reminder that, as gloomy as the overcast and drizzly Seattle winters can be, I still do prefer them to the bitter cold winds and troublesome icy, snowy conditions of a typical New England winter.
At least I survived another auto accident unscathed, and got home okay.
My cat Nimiel hasn't been feeling well. This will become relevant in a bit. On Thursday evening I noticed that she had a weird strong chemical smell on her left side, as though she'd got her fur soaked in some kind of cleanser, but then the smell went away after a while. I didn't know what to make of it and she didn't seem unhappy, so I let it go. Friday night when i got home late, she started running around and cry-meowing in obvious distress about something, and I saw that she'd scattered a lot of litter around on the floor, a sure sign that she'd been in and out of the litter box a lot. That meant she was having some discomfort when trying to urinate, a problem we've dealt with before, most recently in June. At that time, the vet diagnosed it as an inflammation or irritation caused simply from stress, as there was no sign of infection, and simply prescribed some painkiller medicine to help her feel comfortable while the irritation went away.
So I called the vet on Saturday, explained the situation, and they prescribed the same painkiller along with some antibiotics just in case it was an infection; they also asked me to bring in a urine sample. I had to scramble a bit to get a ride over to the vet's office before it closed, but fortunately one of my neighbors was home and able to help. Although her litter box wasn't due to be cleaned for another week, on Sunday I washed it out as usual and also rinsed it with bleach as the vet instructed, and added just the small amount of sterile plastic litter they provided so that she'd have something to paw at. Nimiel seemed unhappy that there wasn't a normal amount of litter in the box, but after several hours she eventually peed and I was able to get the sample and put regular litter back in the box.
That meant on Monday I had to get back to the vet's office to deliver the urine sample. Well, Monday morning it started snowing. Early on it was fairly light flurries, nothing too serious-looking, and when I left my house around noon to catch a bus, I had no trouble getting there. I have to take two buses to do so, one to get me from the Fremont Bridge down to Denny Way—the 17, 26, or 28 are all available—and the other, the 8, to get from Dexter Ave and Denny Way up Capitol Hill to 15th Avenue E and E Republican Street, where Capitol Hill Animal Clinic is. This trip should take about 45 minutes. Although there didn't yet seem to be any snow sticking to the roads, Metro Transit had already decided to put the entire system onto the snow re-routes, anticipating that things would get worse. Even with the re-routes already in effect, the trip still took a normal amount of time, so, no problem. I was able to get there, drop off the sample, and wait only a few minutes before catching the 8 bus back down to Dexter and Denny and my scheduled volunteer work at KEXP.
While at KEXP, the vet called back to say their analysis of the urine showed some blood and large crystals, and they recommended putting Nimiel onto a prescription diet to clear up that problem. This was something of a problem for me at that point; I knew I had paid contract work to do that afternoon once my volunteer work was done, as well as calling a client about a new project, and I doubted I'd be able to do my work and then get back to the vet's office before they closed. Knowing I definitely had to make the scheduled phone call, I headed over to Top Pot Doughnuts after my KEXP work was done. Once there, I took care of my phone call, but also discovered that their Internet access was glacially slow for no apparent reason, slow enough that I couldn't reasonably download the documents I was supposed to be editing, let alone plan on uploading the edited versions. That meant I couldn't stay, and that made my decision easy: I would have to catch the 8 bus back up to Capitol Hill first, get the prescription food, and then bus home or at least back to Fremont to work at Caffe Ladro.
At this point, though, it was about 4 in the afternoon and the snow had picked up a lot in the past few hours. I hobbled back to the Dexter and Denny bus stop and waited at least a half-hour in the snow and cold wind before a bus finally arrived, long enough that I was seriously wondering whether I should just be heading straight home. But the bus did come, so I got on. Google Maps estimates that the bus trip from Dexter and Denny to 15th and John, the stop closest to the vet's, takes about 10 minutes. That's optimistic even in nice weather, it's probably more like 15 minutes on average. On this day, however, it took about an hour and 15 minutes to make the trip, spending long portions simply sitting on the street stuck in traffic. All of the major arteries were packed with cars trying to head home, many of them trying to get onto I-5, which was also already a parking lot. Still, the bus finally made it up the snowy hill, and I was able to get to the vet's office before they closed and pick up the prescription food.
Then I was faced with the real challenge, of getting back home. I'm glad I had the presence of mind to stop in at the supermarket by the bus stop and use their restroom, before waiting for the bus. I had to wait probably 10 minutes for a bus to show up, which actually was less time than I'd feared. The first bus to arrive was a route 43 bus, which headed downtown rather than back to Dexter and Denny. However, I knew there was no point to waiting for another route 8 bus and that I'd be able to pick up any bus I needed to get home just as easily from downtown, so I got on the 43.
The 43 pulled forward about a block to the next intersection, and stopped. After a minute, I looked out the front and saw that someone had planted an official detour sign in the road, pointing down 14th Avenue and blocking the somewhat steep slope of John Street in front of us. The bus driver obviously had no idea the road would be closed and hadn't been told of any re-routing, so she called the dispatch office, and spent 10 or so minutes trying to get an answer about whether she was supposed to follow her normal route down the hill or take some detour. I was listening to my music, so I didn't really hear the conversation, but apparently it ended with the dispatcher telling her to proceed down the hill.
So carefully, cautiously, very slowly, the bus started creeping down the hill. And then, this happened:
The relevant section begins at about 2:45. In case you can't see the video, you can view it at this link on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg
In short, the bus lost traction, lost control, slid down and across the street to bash and bounce off a telephone poll (coincidentally knocking down the bus stop sign at that location, too), and then slid backwards several more feet before coming to rest against the curb, facing back uphill.
Needless to say, given my own all-too-recent adventure in car crashes, I was rather alarmed when the bus started sliding, and really scared when it started sliding backwards. But once it came to rest, I recovered quickly, and everyone on the bus dutifully filed off, thanking the bus driver for her efforts. That left me, though, standing at 13th and John, with my computer in my backpack weighing down my back, a heavy bag of cat food to hold in my left hand, a crutch to prop me up on the right, and a long way to go home. What could I do? I started hobbling, as carefully as I could.
I realized that there was no point in even attempting to hobble back down Denny Way, the hill was just too steep for me to be safe, so I followed through on the route I was going to take by bus, down to 3rd and Pike downtown. When I got down near Broadway and Pine, I found the traffic all backed up; a route 49 bus was at that stop, headed downtown, but I immediately realized it would be faster and arguably safer, if much colder, to simply keep walking, so I did. I finally got downtown a little after 7, which means I made pretty good time considering the weather conditions and my walking impediment. And then I waited for any bus headed back to Fremont.
And waited, and waited, over a half-hour I'm fairly sure, in a strong and bitterly cold wind and blowing snow. Finally a route 28 bus arrived, and a crowd of us piled on, packing it. The bus set off, making decent time through the first several downtown stops, only to get to Westlake Avenue and become stuck in the same mess of people trying to get to Mercer Street and I-5. We spent probably close to an hour barely crawling along, and a bunch of people gave up and got off the bus rather than wait. Finally when we were within a block of Mercer Street, the bus simply cut into the opposite lane and drove around all the stalled traffic to get across Mercer and continue on to Fremont. The bus still had to drive slowly along Westlake due to the icy conditions but at least it was moving along, and it didn't take much longer to get to Fremont. After that it was easy, just a short stop at PCC to pick up a couple grocery items and then a short but careful walk home. Amusingly, as I was walking home, a driver pulled alongside to ask whether I needed help getting home; with only a couple level blocks to walk, I declined with thanks.
I got home just after 9 pm: over three hours after leaving the vet's office, over five hours since I'd first decided to leave downtown, get the cat food, and head home. My route from downtown to the vet's, back downtown, and then home was about 6.3 miles. That's pretty poor, but not nearly as bad as some people's attempts to commute home on I-5, which reportedly took up to 12 hours for some people. I've remarked before that I do miss the experience of seeing snow fall, and the way that the city sky has a lovely glow at night from the lights reflecting off the snow and clouds. But this was a strong reminder that, as gloomy as the overcast and drizzly Seattle winters can be, I still do prefer them to the bitter cold winds and troublesome icy, snowy conditions of a typical New England winter.
At least I survived another auto accident unscathed, and got home okay.
