Snowmaggedon Diary

RantWoman offers notes from #Snowmageddon2019

 

Important Carbon Monoxide advisory from King County Public Health:

DO NOT use a generator or grill in doors. Here is a link to pages that say that in MANY languages: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/emergency-preparedness/preparing-yourself/carbon-monoxide.aspx

 

Daily Journal

Day 0 Sunday: RantWoman was supposed to go have Sunday routine at RantMom’s new place. Due to falling snow, RantWoman went the opposite direction and will find another day to help unpack.

 

Day 1, Monday. Lots of things just closed. RantWoman had not been able completely to follow directions and was set to get help through Large Social Services Nonprofit preparing her apartment for roach treatment. Help did not show up; help did not even call or text. But Social Services nonprofit nailed it better than last time. No one got delivered in a wheelchair with frayed transportation connections. In fact, no one showed up at the nearest location and RantWoman actually thinks there are reasons it would have been good to get notified of the closure. RantWoman will take that up…

(Please note: roaches probably will survive a nuclear attack. They were slowed but definitely not stopped by RantWoman’s heating  (non heating practices. Peculiarly, RantWoman gets to be grateful to be able to see the little buggers and if they would offer to chip in for rent… )

 

Day 2: Tuesday. Bug guy came to spray and did not care about incomplete preparation. RantWoman and the Queen of Spades evacuated. The Queen of Spades had to date never visited the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. This time she did not really get to visit. She got to wail about inconvenience in her crate for awhile and then fall asleep until 3 hours had passed and we could go home to the soothing aromas (NOT) of the bug treatment.

 

Day 3, Wednesday: lots of people were glad to be out. RantWoman ran several errands in the U District. Big frownie face to a couple businesses that still had not cleared their sidewalks. Look RanWoman does not want to slip and fall and break her face. Plus RantWoman has insurance providers that will  Hunt You Down. Just clear / shovel your walks!

 

Day 4. RantWoman was part of a Twitter chorus grousing about people needing to clear their sidewalks. Then RantWoman remembered a conversation the night before at her faith community about sidewalks, storm phases and upcoming events over the weekend. RantWoman is reassured to know there is a cancellation policy about rentals and RantWoman was glad to leave further thought in the hands of able staff.

 

Back to Twitter and clearing things that need to be cleared,

Consider bus stops, especially bus stops that are not super heavily travelled. RantWoman thinks maybe drivers should carry gear for such efforts, except drivers already have plenty to pay attention to just driving on snow and dealing with twitchy passengers. However, clearing bus stops is something neighborly that people who live near bus stops could put in their planning.

 

Speaking of better planning, consider…RantWoman.

RantWoman has added an electronic medical device to her life. RantWoman can go for a few days without it but has neglected to think about power outage.

 

RantWoman has a lot of new neighbors and has no idea what people are doing to prepare besides coming in to the Friendly Neighborhood Center … for online weather forecast updates.

 

By midday on Friday all of RantWoman’s updoming activities requiring travel have been cancelled except regular Sunday worship. RantWoman may skip that.

 

A friend headed out for a grocery run asked RantWoman whether she needs anything. THANKS for asking. RantWoman probably should have asked for some peanut butter and maybe some eggs, but she did not. In fact, RantWoman has plenty of ingredients and some canned goods that can be eaten without cooking. But RantWoman decided in consideration of the risk of power outages, that turning ingredients into food would be good. In particular, RantWoman started her weekly pot of legumes, in this case black beans.  Just starting is soothing!

 

RantWoman watched the announcements oftransit route cancellations and travel advisory and thought about all her neighbors who have caregivers, a lot of whom ride the bus. RantWoman has formed the impression that maybe caregivers got instructions for helping their clients prepare for the snow. Still, RantWoman decided it would be good to hang out near where the mail gets delivered and see whether anyone has urgent needs.

 

Yes! Turns out the Chief Morale Officer (CMO) at the Friendly Neighborhood Center… uses a wheelchair and has great difficulty retrieving things that fall to the floor. For retrieving things, she has a Grabber. The Grabber had fallen to the floor and her caregiver might or might not make it.  Gravity is remarkably consistent between the Friendly Neighborhood Center and CMO’s apartment. Thankfully RantWoman has little difficulty retrieving things from the floor.

 

As of this writing, about 8:00 pm on Friday, Day 5, things are dripping outside and RantWoman is trying to decide whether she needs exercise enough to go walk the breezeway.

 

Happy parade of additional storms headed our way.