"It rains all the time in Seattle!" they told me. "But the temperature is pretty moderate in the winter," they promised me. Today it actually reached 44 degrees, if my weather program is to be believed, but it is now a frigid 32 degrees. And it's not even winter yet!!!!
This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground. I thought that was pretty neat since it is the first time it's snowed this fall. And I was told it rarely snows here in western Washington since all the snow gets stopped at either the Olympic Mountains to the west or the Cascade Mountains to the east. The snow-covered mountains make a pretty backdrop to the scenery around here for a good portion of the year, which still blows my mind with their beauty every time I see them.
The snow started to get a lot less pretty as I took Kurt in to the ship for his duty day this morning at 7am. The roads were still quite icy since it was before sunup (did I mention that the sun rose at 7:24am and set at 4:28pm this afternoon??? We don't get much sun in the winter time around here), but I only slid a little bit as I made my left turn onto the main country road that takes me into town. I didn't worry because I was going all of eight miles an hour and still had enough control of the car to start it going back into the right direction.
Once we got up onto the highway, the first thing we saw was a Corvette sitting in a ditch right off the on-ramp, I'm guessing because it came onto the highway too fast for the icy conditions. It was the only accident we saw southbound on the highway -- but we saw probably seven to ten accidents northbound. As we drove southward, I figured out why there were so many accidents.
I started out going about 30-35 mph southbound on a highway with a speed limit of 60 mph. Everyone else was going just as slowly, so I felt pretty safe. As we traveled south, I noticed the roads getting better. Finally we were in the next town to the south, and the roads were just about clear. So all the accidents we saw going northbound were probably a result of people going the speed limit in the central part of the county, then getting to the icy conditions of the north county and not realizing the roads had changed so drastically. Sucks to be them! I don't think anyone got hurt, so it's okay that I tease them a bit.
So now I'm sitting in the office of my home, trying to keep my fingers from seizing up from the cold. It's not too bad in the office right now, but the living room was ass cold tonight!! I'm not sure if our heaters are holding up to the cold or whatever, but it's going to suck trying to sleep tonight without Kurt to add to the warmth under the covers! Brrrr!!! I have a hot mug of tea to try to warm up my hands while I type because there's nothing that I hate more than my hands freezing up as I type. I backspace WAY too much when my hands are cold.
I'm hoping we can get some kind of stove to help heat the house, perhaps this winter. We'll see about the monetary side of it also. I'm not sure if we want a woodstove or a pellet stove or a corn stove -- it all depends on what the total cost for getting through the winter will be. I just think we need some sort of fire to keep this house warm!
Or at least, not allowing Kurt any more duty days for the rest of the winter! :o)