Snowed In

I have cabin fever.   Days of snow, combined with my first ever Ice Storm.  Interesting stuff.   I nervously watched a tree across the street full of snow and ice hang in the power lines most of the day, just waiting for it to collapse.  Thankfully it has held so far.  There are several large limbs off of other trees in my yard and the neighbors.

Snow in Seattle is different than anywhere else I've lived.  I went out to shovel the drive today.  I got 10 feet in 25 minutes of hard work.  My driveway in only one car wide! The top layer was a mix of the snow that was still falling, and the ice storm we had for an hour or two this morning.  It was a powdery ice.  The middle layer was heavy wet snow/slush.  The bottom inch was pure ice.  Forget shoveling, I was chipping the drive today.
I have learned a few things with this storm.

•    I do not have enough honey on hand.  My husband has been sick for over a week and has been drinking tea and honey consistently.  I also use honey in my bread recipes and needed to bake a few loaves this week.  We are down to scraping the honey bear.
•   When expecting snow, park at the very beginning of your drive way, just off the street.  If you really want to try to go out against all warnings of extremely dangerous conditions, you'll have less driveway to shovel.  Considering how many times this week I've shoveled our long drive way, you would think this would have occured to me earlier than today.

For those of you who need some help to understand why Seattle can indeed shut down in a few inches of snow, this man writes it all so well. 

Snow in Seattle
There are hills in Seattle that I have had a very hard time climbing when they are covering in leaves, let alone ice.  

Also, if you're in the mood for some humor.  I think these are a few of my favorite Seattle winter storm videos.  I could be entertained for hours if I lived on any of these hills.  

2 inches of Snow - The streets really do turn into a skating rink.

Car Pinball -  This would constitute as a very bad day in my book

Vehicle Sledding -This hill is famous for being shut down in the winter.  It is then quickly covered with sleds, skis and boards.  The video here is taken from the winter storm two years ago.  My husband was working in Seattle when it hit.  He left work around 2 in the afternoon and didnt' get home till 7.  Some friends that lived in our area took over 9 hours to traverse from Seattle to Lynnwood (11 miles).  

I'm hoping that rain will come in tomorrow and clear out our frozen tundra.  Tonight I have three kids with fevers, and I am not sure I'm mentally stable enough to take care of 4 sickies after being snows in since Sunday!