Sam's Blog

Back from Sea-Town

I spent last week in Seattle. I stayed in the rental house all week. Man, it was cold!

The Drive…

I couldn’t have picked a better winter day to drive up. There were patches of fog all along the way but nothing too dense. The Oregon Pass was dry and sunny. I made it to Tacoma in about 11-1/2 hours, which isn’t bad considering I had 2 food stops and 3 “bio” stops. The worse thing that happened was that my cough drops fell between the passenger seat and the door at the Washington state line…

I’m going back to Cali…

After the black ice incident, the first thing that came to mind was, “OK. That’s it. I’m outta here. Pack it up.” You see…like most men, I fancy myself an above average driver. I’m (usually) aware of what’s going on around me, I know exactly how long it takes to brake at whatever speed, I can corner in the Explorer like it’s a Porsche, I CAN parallel park, I can accelerate quickly without spinning the tires, … I can do it all…except in the snow and ice.

I was all over the place…couldn’t maintain traction at all. This was all within a mile of the house. In the store, I was hearing stories of fire trucks and ambulances all over the place. I was also hearing “you think it’s bad now, you should’ve been out there when I came in this morning at 5:30.” I’m thinking, “Great! I’m heading into work tomorrow at 5:30…”

Did I Mention the Cold?

I'll be using different modes of public transportation to get back and forth to work. Because of the ice, I didn't want to drive to far so I chose the bus - the bus stop is a few minutes drive. I caught the bus OK on Monday morning and made it to my desk before 8:00. Getting home was another story... It turns out that some of the buses with the same number don't go to my neighborhood... So, I'm stuck at the Renton Transit Center... Luckily there is a bus that took me to my car...

The rest of the week was OK. I think I have the bus system down... Next, the train or Vanpool....

posted by Sam @ 7:48 PM