The Big Green House

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

 
Take a deep breath.

Hold it� OK, exhale.

We�re back.

Science Girl and I live on what is supposed to be the highest hill in the city. (I have no reason to doubt this, but am too lazy to actually measure it for myself so I can�t be sure. I�m just going to take their word for it, and I think you should too.) What that means is that if Seattle gets any snow at all this year, at least some of it will be falling on The Big Green House.

Those of you living Back East may be wondering why I even bother mentioning this. �Snow is a pain in the ass. When�s it gonna melt?� Right? Well, not for this buckaroo. When I was a kid, if we wanted to see snow we had to go up to Lake Tahoe. Otherwise, we�d have to wait for one of those freak storms that blows through the Bay Area once every ten years or so & dumps half an inch of slush. So snow was a Very Big Deal for us, along the lines of a UFO sighting or the Giants making the World Series. School was let out, snowballs were thrown, half-assed snow beings were constructed in every yard � you know the drill.

Since I�ve moved up here to the Great Pacific Northwest, we�ve had at least one day of snow per year, with maybe one exception. (Again, too lazy to look up the records. You�ve got fingers & a keyboard - you do the work this time.) Every time, it makes me stupidly happy. Pure idiot bliss. It�s still a Big Deal for me & probably always will be, although I reserve the right to change my mind if I ever have to move somewhere that gets fifteen feet over the course of the winter.

So the fact that it's been a cold, foggy and dry fall/winter thus far is not encouraging. Not only is it dry here in the city; there is virtually no snow in either the Cascades or the Olympics, which is bad news for those of us who use water on a more-or-less daily basis. We may be rationing the stuff come springtime. (I certainly hope that that is not the case; having grown up in California, I can tell you that drought is no fun. Three minute showers get to be a drag after awhile, no matter who you�re sharing them with.) Of more immediate concern, at least to selfish people such as myself, is the prospect of a winter with no snow in town. If you have any pull at all with the Weather Bureau, please do what you can to get us some snow. If you can swing it so that it falls on my birthday, so much the better.



bmarkey 12/03/2002 08:37:00 PM