The Sense God Gave Goats

RantWoman has a friend who is always complaining that "if so-and-so had the sense God gave goats...."

Tonight, if RantWoman had the sense God gave goats, she probably would have absorbed the data she had been fed by radio earlier in the day about expectations of Metro in snow, Metro in snow when the weather was expected to change dramatically between morning and evening. Perhaps RantWoman would even have put her brain around recent past experience with beloved nearby bus routes and snow. If RantWoman were really headed over the top, she might even have looked up snow route issues on the internet before venturing out to a public meeting in her neighborhood.

This is RantWoman we are talking about though, not goats.

Next, if RantWoman had the sense God gave goats, she might have absorbed the information she was fed about the storm being a little behind schedule but in Tacoma at the time of the call and headed North. The call was about a meeting in Shoreline that RantWoman planned to call into at a specified time. The call with the snowstorm update was cancelling the call-in meeting so off RantWoman trundled to her neighborhood meeting, unencumbered by any realistic contemplation of the impending weather.

RantWoman's event is in walking distance of RantWoman's abode, by RantWoman walking distance standards, on a nice day in daylight. If RantWoman had the sense God gave goats, she would just have stayed home in the impending storm. Apparently though, RantWoman's Montana roots are still strong: at the end of the event during the best of the snowstorm, when RantWoman was heading toward a bus stop, on a hill, a stop with two routes, it finally dawned on RantWoman that maybe possibly it was not particularly the brightest thing to do to be relying on Metro at this point in the storm. RantWoman's Montana roots piped up: "okay fine. It's walking distance if I have to. Wait awhile and see if the bus comes and start walking before I get too soaked."

Soaked? In a snowstorm? Yes, a point that SERIOUSLY does not compute as far as standard RantWoman expectations about snow: fluffy, white, light as feathers, soft, gently enfolding the environment, DRY and less likely to soak one to the skin that what passes for winter weather almost all the time in Seattle. In proper winter climates, snow is cold enough that one actually stays dry while out walking in it. In Seattle, snow exists, when it exists at all, in permanent phase change limbo between frozen and liquid, soggy, sodden, slushy, mushy, splashy, squishy... Get the idea? RantWoman's most important piece of winter gear is a RAIN Coat.

RantWoman hung out at the bus stop for a spell. Buses from both bus routes passed by going the other direction. A couple of other hardy souls walked by. One had been waiting for a long time at another stop. Somewhere, RantWoman remembered she had her cellphone, her plain old voice and text cellphone with a topical number burned into RantWoman's brain. Silly RantWoman though to think that in Great Recession realities, the live humans would be working as late as they used to. RantWoman was stuck in phone queues when...one moment please.

RantWoman especially commends Ambassador Thwack the Badly Behaved White Cane. Ambassador Thwack is not nearly as Montanan about snow as RantWoman. One reason: Ambassador Thwack has a roller tip; tonight plowing through the snowy muck, the cane not only acquired a certain snow shovel weight, RantWoman had the impression the snow shovel weight included a frozen tip. Ambassador Thwack also reminded RantWoman rather forcefully that she went through mobility training when there was only rain and no snow to be found.

RantWoman knows other blind people who also are flummoxed by snow; snow changes the sound and texture of everything. RantWoman is glad to be able to see big things, but the snow messes up exactly the things RantWoman needs Thwack's help about. RantWoman is glad she an call a couple of blind people with actual respectable snow experience up and ask them for pointers. RantWoman realizes she could be much worse off than she is. Still RantWoman is adding "the white cane works really differently" to her list of snow in Seattle pointers.

RantWoman's final spell of free consulting for the evening: this is not the first snowstorm where RantWoman has watched police vehicles slip-sliding away with the best of them. Tonight's patrol car even had chains, though RantWoman is wondering why the snow did not get brushed off before starting out. RantWoman's free consulting point though: there are public employees such as police officers and bus drivers who really SHOULD find some way to practice in the snow in nearby mountains every fall before snow hits the lowlands.. RantWoman realizes it is the Great Recession and no one has any money for actual paid training. Still RantWoman wonders whether there is some way an insightful tax accountant could turn travel to a place to drive in the snow to practice snow driving, occasionally a job requirement, into something tax deductible.

Finally, someone who had been at the event with RantWoman drove by and offered RantWoman a ride home. Turns out this someone is from Wisconsin; he and RantWoman had a good laugh about the perils of being out driving among all the snow novices.