Today, in spite of the Puget Sound’s usual mild winters, the trickster weather gods decided to gift us with snow.

This wasn’t serious, Alaskan-style snow. It was sloppy, sleety, slushy western Washington sea level snow, which isn’t much fun for people or dogs.

We couldn’t even curl up by the fire and ignore it, Zach and I had to take Ben to Seattle to catch his train. When we got to the Seattle side taxi stand, the taxi drivers were horrid, just about coming to blows over who got the next fare (hello! by posted city regulation I get to choose). One driver was trying to grab Ben’s suitcase, another was saying come with me, and a third was yelling at me and the other drivers. I threw up my hands and said, “Never mind, we’ll walk. You lost this fare.” Annoying!

We had storm parkas with hoods on, it was about ten blocks to the train station, and we were quite early. It would have been a nice walk if it hadn’t been for the sleet. On the Seattle side it wasn’t sticking and building up at all, just nasty wet, clammy and cold.

We broke up the walk at Elliott Bay Book Company where I added to my bookpile with Eagle Blue and The Tenth Circle, Zach added to his with Hero’s Song, and Ben got a Japanese/English dictionary for the road.

We still made it to the train with a half hour to spare, time for our jackets and shoes to dry off and us to visit with Ben for a last half hour.

By the time we rode the ferry back over and drove back home, there was another inch of snow beyond what was pictured here, and the slush was really starting to build up on the roads and make them slippery. If it had been five degrees colder – not slushy and half melted but fluffy – my guess is we’d have accumulated eight inches.

I’m sure glad I’m able to work at home, I’ll definitely take advantage of that tomorrow and stay off the roads.

Update on Monday, 11/27: We got a total of 4″ of snow, and there’s another 2″ predicted for this afternoon & evening. The schools are closed with a snow day – I wonder if Kitsap County even owns a snowplow or enough chains for its school buses? Bryan very carefully and slowly drove to the ferry terminal and saw several ditch divers, one slid off right in front of him, but there’s no snow on the ground on the Seattle side. It’s not Bryan’s driving I’m worried about, with his years of Alaska snow and ice driving experience – it’s the other drivers!