Snow in the Puget Sound

02-03 and 04, 2019
A drive to Bellevue WA to the ADD doctor and another the same morning. All within a few blocks of the regular hotel I stayed at, which became rather strategic as it turned out. Good weather, and some light snow when I pulled into Bellevue. From the weather reports it was going to be an inch or two, so I wasn't concerned.

Except the next morning, why, 6" on my vehicle and still snowing, and the TV reporters pre-empted the regular shows to relate the snow conditions all over the Puget Sound region. Some 12" in Everett, and lightening up some further S. The advice was, if you really don't need to drive, then don't. Nearly all the schools were closed, as were the universities and colleges. The whole of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolis was at a near stand still. Sure, there were some vehicles on the road, and the transit authorities were totally on top of it and had their buses out with chains on their tires. Some flights got away early from SeaTac, but it seemed they had no hope of keeping the snow off the runways. Other airports were shut down.

Some exit ramps were shut down as no one could negotiate them. And plenty of traffic tie-ups at key commuter intersections, e.g. I-5, I-405, I-90 etc. Ironically, it was the opening day of the much awaited Hwy 1 tunnel under the city after the elevated freeway was dismantled owing to the structural damage from the Nisqually earthquake in 2001. (I was there for that!). But I don't think any one noticed for all the snow bound traffic and difficult driving conditions.

Walked to the first appointment at 0900h and the staff were there, surprisingly. At 1230h was my next appointment, and I decided to fill my vehicle up, and drive a whole two blocks and be ready to depart, as the forecast was for dropping temperatures, meaning that all that snow, and whatever ice conditions, were there to stay.

The doctor was in for the second appointment at 1230 and the medical assistant too, but that was it; no one else, patients or practitioners. Rather odd it seemed to me, everyone abandoning ship save the one doctor I was to see. At one point I was mentioning the weather, and he gives me this quizzical smirk, and says something trivial. So could it be that the perps, in their weather controlling capabilities that I have come to know, brought in this snowstorm and essentially shut down the whole Puget Sound metropolis just for their insane games, much of which centers on me? I wouldn't put it past them, but as to exactly why they pull this shit I don't know. They like to shut down activity around me sometimes, and they also like to test for the properties of water in all its forms, and why this on my third trip, and perhaps my last for a long while, I have no idea. The first two trips in July and September might of been "warm ups" for whatever this whole snow scene stunt was all about. Just speculation of course, and limited to only what I suspect based on what I know.

It just seems so highly unusual in these weather conditions where Puget Sound was hardly moving, that both of my doctor appointments were concluded. Especially the first one at 0900h.

And so I departed Bellevue; driving the I-405 to the I-90, now clear of traffic blockages, and I drove the Snoqualmie Pass east to the Columbia River. The snowfall had abated by then, but the road conditions were packed snow, and there were a few vehicles that just plain got stuck, though in the R most lane. The pass was in relatively good shape, with less snowfall than the city, and also good attention from the highways maintenance equipment and personnel. But there was snow on the ground on my whole trip back, unlike my outbound trip. The road conditions got better when by Cle Elum, save some sudden snow flurries that came on, and made me wonder if it was for the better that I avoided the Hwy 97 leg from Wenatchee to Cle Elum (Blewett Pass, with a much more winding road way). I stuck with the I-90, and when traveling from the E bridge out of the gorge, it was down to single lane traffic as a three vehicle pileup from the W bound lanes spilled onto two lanes of the E bound lanes. A mess to be sure, one being a jack knifed tractor trailer unit, but it seemed it was down to the tow trucks to start removing the damaged vehicles.

Along the way near Columbia River gorge on I-90, I recognized some areas that the perps had me drive during the 2002 high harassment days, when the head pain beams were so severe in my apartment that I found relief in my vehicle and I would drive all night. (And never miss the sleep, and rarely fell asleep at a rest area). Often there was some 50-100 vehicles behind me, and then each one would pass me in turn, and then join the group ahead of me. At night I couldn't see much of the landscape of course, and not being familiar with the I-90, it was all relatively new then. And there were some super dense fogs on those night time trips, never experienced before or since, that would suddenly come down, where even going 20mph was out-driving one's vision. And on the Blewett Pass bypass route to avoid the section I mentioned above, why, I was re-acquainted with this same landscape. So it would seem, some 17 years earlier, they had my routing planned for this trip.

A long drive for a doctor appointment for sure, but I hope that will be the last of them, but who knows what is going down on this long running abuse-athon.