Last night we stayed in a hotel downtown again, to spare us from the frustrating drive home. Today, we could not avoid it.

Going home, our little Civic got stuck in slush on 7th Avenue between Seneca and Spring. The engine roared, and wheels spun, going nowhere. I put the hazard lights on, backed up, and tried again; the engine roared, wheels spun, and went nowhere. Again backed up, and again. I had to finally get out in traffic and put the chains on, while the cars going by us churned and shimmied through the muddy slush.

We finally got going, but there was no place to pull over and remove the chains. On the highway, I pulled over to a suitable spot on the shoulder and got out to take the chains off — only to see that the broken chains had ripped a huge gash in the plastic wheel cover, which had almost been ripped off and was dragging on the asphalt. There was no putting it back, and no driving with it in that condition, so I ripped the remainder of the cover off as a cop (who looked like Frodo) pulled up behind us to see what our problem was. Frodo shined a flashlight into the wheel well to help me take the wheel cover off, and waved traffic away as I removed the chains. We got back in and on the highway, looking forward to getting home and eating a warm meal.

There was a glaring difference between road conditions in the City of Seattle, and elsewhere. The highways (cleaned by the Washington DOT) and the smaller roads in Snoqualmie were all clear of snow and slush, and were a cake to drive on. In contrast, the roads in downtown Seattle were covered in wet, slick, and bumpy slush, with piles up to a foot tall in the middle of the road, and muddy holes deep enough to capture a tire and not let go. It fills me with pity, and not a small deal of anger, to note the pathetic results of Seattle street-clearing, especially compared with streets everywhere else. Once out of Seattle, streets were fine and clear. Read this Times article on Seattle’s frustrating methods. I’m absolutely ready to vote for whatever mayor or councilperson vows to not let our city paralyze itself when snow falls.

We encountered a little bit of compact snow by the time we got to our cul-de-sac, but it was easily manageable and we made it home. There’s a tall pile of snow in front of our yard, left there by whatever snowplow came by yesterday, a reminder of public services properly executed.

In order to celebrate the summer solstice (and also the one year anniversary of our engagement) Ryan and I decided to go for a picnic and a hike near Lake Cushman on the peninsula. Unfortunately, all did not go as planned. First of all, despite predictions for some sun, we never saw any. Then, the road to the trail we planned to hike was closed. And finally, we couldn’t find the park where we planned to picnic! So we ended up eating our picnic in the car (overlooking the lake) while looking at a map to decide where to go instead. We ended up at Westhaven State Park, which apparently is the place to surf in Washington State. I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with the surf, but I’ll assume it was just a bad day for it. I was impressed, though, with the number of people out there trying to make the best of a rather dreary day!

Today we decided to do some work around the house. We went to Lowe’s and bought ourselves our very own ladder and then removed the bird nest from our dryer vent (don’t worry, the birds were done for the season and had moved out), put a cover over the vent to keep them from coming back, and scrubbed the birdie poo-poo off the side of our house. Phew! Good work!

Friday night it snowed a little over an inch on Snoqualmie Ridge. I went to work and Kim stayed home to take pictures of the beautiful white stuff before it melted (pictures, um, forthcoming…).

Well, Saturday night, it snowed again, this time a little more than two inches. Kim went to work, and I took a morning walk around the neighborhood, taking pictures in the snow.

By the time I got to the Deep Creek Trail, the sun had come out and started melting the snow in the treetops above me. Snowballs and ice chips rained from the canopy as I strolled back home. Very cool.

It was a dark and stormy night, except the storms weren’t outside in the atmosphere, but inside my sore muscles as I lay on our mattress on the floor, desperately trying to fall asleep. With some greatly-appreciated help from my family and our coworker Kevin, and even our new neighbor Coast Guard Andy, we moved our furniture to our new home in one big truckload on Sunday. Couches, bookcases, tables, beds… you name it. We managed to get it all in the front door & up the stairs. We’re officially moved in to our New House!

Now comes the part where we unpack and make it feel like home.   :)

A Big Thank You to everyone who participated in the great endeavor.