Ok, so I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but I refuse to believe that I’m the only one who hasn’t ever experienced snow in any meaningful form before in this city. And since people keep assuring me that no, really, it might actually snow a bit this winter, well…I’m beginning to freak out just a tiny bit. (Power outages?! That’s totally not in the brochure!)

Fortunately, my new best friends at the SDOT have got me covered. They’ve got a list of what streets are likely to be closed in the event of snowfall [#], which websites to check [#], and even a list of who to call in any sort of panic [#].

I can’t say why, but it has made me feel better about being stranded in my apartment by, um, four inches or so of snow. (Ok, I know I don’t even own a car and shouldn’t be nervous, but snow is pretty much an unknown quantity for me. Also, I’m a big baby. Shut up.)

Now I just need to find someone who’ll let me borrow their dog/boyfriend/heated blanket for the days that I’ll be calling in cold to work. And I’m hereby challenging all of you to a snowball fight–just as soon as I learn how to make a snowball.

Five things you can count on:

1. LIVE COVERAGE from the TOP OF QUEEN ANNE! (Doesn’t matter that High Point in West Seattle is a couple hundred feet higher, it’s QUEEN ANNE, and the TV god hath decreed that all LIVE OMIGAWD IT MIGHT SNOW shots in Seattle must be taken from the TOP OF QUEEN ANNE!)
2. LIVE COVERAGE from SNOQUALMIE PASS!!!! (Made better his year by the rockslides.)
3. All broadcasters will wear slick, stylish custom KING/KIRO/KOMO/Q13 all-weather -70F coats from Eddie Bauer or REI.
4. No sudden run on bread and milk at the stores. Seattleites have never done that, unlike other places in this country. It’s either because Seattleites buy their soy milk from their organic producer and their bread from an artisan baker, or it’s because they know the snow is usually gone by noon.
5. Absolute confusion about the Metro snow routes. Because of the hills, Metro routes shift during the snow, but it’s never particularly clear where they get shifted to.

What you can do to get ready:

1. Don’t panic. We’ve survived WTO, earthquakes, volcanoes, and Tim Eyman. Two inches of snow will not paralyze Seattle. This is not Atlanta.
2. But do stock up for the inevitable power outage. Make sure your flashlights have juiced batteries, your portable radio is ready to go, and your best available mammal is around for warmth during the cold night.
3. And make sure you have backed up your computer’s hard drive. One bad power flux and your computer could be a goner. It happened to my TiVo during the January 2004 storm.

And if you’re new to the whole experience of a Seattle snow event:
Just stay up to watch the 11pm news and get ready to laugh, especially if you’re from the Midwest or Northeast. There is nothing funnier in Seattle than watching the local newspeople acting like a little snow shower is KILLER DEATH SNOW BLIZZARD OF DOOM ‘05!!!! Jim Forman [bio] on KING is always good for an accurate surmise of the impending doom about to come upon us, usually peppered with lines about children being stranded in ankle-high drifts and comparisons to previous massive 4″ dumps of the last 100 years. KIRO does a decent job of injecting some gravitas into the hyperbole, while KING and KOMO tend towards the overkill of multiple reporters and multiple meteorologists. Q13 has been an up-and-comer in the “dire circumstances” category, mixing their Fox News we’re-all-gonna-die style with mediocre meteorologists who have two radars but still just read verbatim from the National Weather Service forecast.

Again, people, just chill, drink some cocoa (or a mocha latte if you can snowshoe through the millimeters of snow to your nearest java dispenser), and enjoy watching the impending chaos.

The media blitz has begun in earnest. [ pi ] [ kiro ] [ king ] [ komo ] The temperature is dropping, and we’re being threatened with snow and ice. Storm Watch! Severe Weather Alert! Snowpocalypse 2005!

In the WINTER, for crying out loud! Just shameful…

I’ll confess, I’m from Eastern Washington, where a couple feet of snow isn’t really an issue. Our stoic answer to the winter white is to dress appropriately, and take that few extra minutes to defrost the car and scrape the windows in the morning. Oh, and also: slow down.

This doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with the Seattleite plight on a snowy day. It’s certainly warranted! I’m aware that ice takes the upper hand on our steep hills and many-armed intersections. We don’t have enough road sanders or plows to ensure a morning commute for everyone, and if we did, sleds and snowboards would still be shooting down Denny and Queen Anne.

But don’t let it get you down. Slow down. Let your calls go to voicemail while you’re driving. Or take the bus. And when it gets as bad as all that, stay home and make a cup of cocoa, or join the snowboarders at Olive and Denny. Everything will be back to normal as soon as the sun rises to thaw things out. It’ll be gone as quick as it came. It always is…

(Allow me to pimp out my favorite weather website, AccuWeather, which is pretty accurate down to the hour.)

Seattle-based fans of listener-powered indie radio have come to rely on KEXP for a wide range of needs. From workday audio, to evening activities, to a general feeling of well being that results from living in the same town as a well-respected radio station, KEXP is an important part of the fabric of Seattle life. Hooking up with a fellow fan used to be dependent on prominent placement of station-branded schwag. Now, however, they’re trying to raise money while helping local singles find dates.

On Tuesday, singles will have the opportunity to pay $30 to speed date with other KEXP afficionados at the Century Ballroom. With matching by appropriate age and sexual orientation, the event promises to be an intriguing take on dating, mating, and relating in Seattle. Registration is still open for heterosexual men and homosexuals of either sex [jetcitysocial]. Straight girls will need to sign up for a waiting list until the straight guy dating pool gets deeper.

In addition to the chance to get hot dates for whom music matters, admission also gets you appetizers and tickets for KEXP-related prizes. As for booze, you’ll have to pay for it yourself at the cash bar. If you go, please use the comments let those among us with a crippling fear of strangers know how it goes.

Once again, it’s another new episode of Grey’s Anatomy [abc].

After the jump, play-by-play tour of the episode featuring a whole lot of loving, a key-induced existential crisis, a one night stand that results in maybe the most mentions of an erect penis in primetime history, something about a thirsty tumor, and a quintuplet storyline that will carry over into next week’s episode!
(more…)

The “random city” link just got a lot more interesting.

In addition to adding vancouver.metblogs.com to the growing list of metroblogging cities, our little family of city weblogs grew quite a bit over the last week. Say hello to two more international entries — islamabad.metblogs.com and dubai.metblogs.com — as well as another US city, miami.metblogs.com.

Another pseudo-victory last night for the monorail haters. In something of an “I told you so” moment, regarding the city’s competence to run an elevated transit system, there was a collision between two trains on the short World’s Fair relic line that connects Westlake to Seattle Center:

The two trains scraped against each another, ripping a door off in the process, on the elevated tracks near Fifth Avenue and Olive Way . . . One train was apparently just pulling into the Westlake Center station and the other departing toward Seattle Center when the sides of the trains hit. At least one of the drivers waved at the other and a horn was honked just as the accident occurred. [seattletimes]

Aside from two minor injuries and a fun-deficit for holiday riders who will not have the joy of the ninety second retro-futuristic trip, the carnage from the accident has been minor. Despite its path crossing under the wreckage, the Seattle Marathon apparently went off without any problems [usat].

Work zone webcam

Considering the fact that I don’t even own a car, I’m finding my newfound fascination with the WSDOT’s Snoqualmie Pass Rockslide Updates a little disturbing.

I like how they’re thanking people for taking alternate routes, because the crazy backups that they’d been predicting apparently never happened. (This is, I think, to avoid being the department who cried wolf.) On Thursday they gave several little updates full of statistics, things like,

“During the peak travel time yesterday, noon to 6 p.m., less than half as many drivers traveled across I-90 Snoqualmie Pass as compared to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving last year.”

and

“Thanksgiving dropped from 47,377 in 2004 to 41,488 in 2005, a 12 percent reduction. Traffic on Stevens and White passes more than tripled. Traffic on Stevens Pass jumped from 1,823 in 2004 to 8,130 in 2005. Traffic on White Pass jumped from 850 in 2004 to 4,088 in 2005.”

They’re still warning people about delays coming back across, and they’re very concerned about all of the ice and snow up in the passes. If you want to extend your vacation until Monday or Tuesday, just tell your boss that the WSDOT told you to.

Or you can be like me, and stay at home watching the traffic on the webcams. I find the closeup of the rock face to be particularly poetic.

As I’m sitting here in Portland, deep in a turkey coma augmented by too many books and essays, I send to you a suggestion for the show to see this weekend: Ozomatli. They’re playing The Showbox on Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 at TicketsWest or $20 at the door.

How do you describe Ozomatli to someone who’s never heard them? Well, they got the entire Summer Nights crowd up in a conga line, which has to be something – and they were just the opening act! The band mixes smart lyrics with catchy hip-hop infused, North African and Arabic rhythms. They’re political, social, and aware of what’s going on in the world, and the 10 piece band integrates it all into their music.

I’ve been a fan for years, and would be there in a heartbeat if I was in town. So, you should go for me!

This Weekend Only:

Donate your used running shoes at the Harrisdirect Seattle Marathon! You may toss them in a bin at the Health and Fitness Expo or if you plan on attending the Seattle Marathon (as a participant of spectator) you may dump your shoes at a bin located in the recovery area this Sunday. Please help sorters out by tieing your laces together! Shoes donated this weekend will be washed and distributed to children in an impoverished region of The Gambia, West Africa, to help curb the spread of hookworm. Hookworm can infect children who run barefoot on contaminated soil and may lead to difficulty learning, stunted growth, severe anemia and congestive heart failure. Each pair of shoes can help prevent hookworm and improve a child’s health – so gather all your old shoes, tie laces together for sorting purposes and bring them downtown!. This project is led by University of Washington student Christina Asavareungchai, in partnership with the Seattle-based nonprofit GambiaHELP (Health Liaison Education Project). Please contact donate_shoes@yahoo.com with questions.

If you don’t think you will get there this weekend, you may also take your old running shoes to Super Jock ‘n Jill (directions here) at any time. Shoes are picked up and donated to various shelters around town.