I live on Capitol Hill in Seattle, on a tree-lined street not far from a large park. It has been snowing on and off for the last couple of days. Not much, just a couple of inches, but it freezes. The city tries to keep the main streets and arterials clear or well sanded, but the big trick is to get from the neighborhood streets to the arterials. Schleppin' und Schlidin' und bumpin' into things. Not fun. Bus service is very sporadic and unpredictable.

Barbara and I are hunkered down. We have a few DVDs from our NetFlix subscription and we both write, so we can make good use of the time.

But the weather prognosticator on our magic electric radio tells us that there is another storm moving in later today that will dump some four to eight inches (many Easterners may snort at this, but Seattle is pretty hilly and even a dusting over a bit of ice can render things downright dangerous!), along with winds near the Cascade mountains from 70 to 90 mph. Possible winds up to 50 mph. in Seattle itself. They're telling us to be prepared for sporadic power outages.

Oh, whoopie. . . .

Don Firth