For those of you keeping up with Lacey Doppler over here in the Puget Sound area, we have an update!
It started Wednesday. Actually, going back to the comments I see it started Monday with a little bit of wind. The entire week it rained, too, setting a new record for me: the first time I ever got out of my car while it wasn’t raining, walked to my building, and had it start raining before I got to my office. I know you’re probably thinking that happens all the time. After all, it’s Seattle. It must start and stop raining all the time. But that’s not really true. It’s usually either raining or it’s not raining. So after the first event, during which I was really, really glad I’d brought my umbrella with me (which would have been hard to forget seeing as how it’s practically attached to my hand), that same strange event happened three more times THIS WEEK.
OK, but that’s just rain. Wednesday there was a small windstorm. Nothing for the average bear to get excited about, but I’m not the average bear. I live near a little old growth forest and the tops of the trees go nuts when it’s windy. And I, personally, get all excited when the wind goes wild. Those 70′ evergreens waving in the air sounds soooooo coool!
And again, you have to remember I’m from Miami. The tallest trees we have there are rarely more than a single story high. It’s evolution, baby. When 75 mph wind consistently blows over an area, the trees just give up. Here wind like that is a rarity, and the trees are GINORMOUS.
Ginormously cool.
But more on trees later. Back to the story. On Wednesday the weather people started predicting a HUGE windstorm. Tropical storm-force winds up to 74 miles an hour, and in some places to the north they figured it might gust up to 90 mph.
Something else you need to know about Seattle: not much happens here. Well, not much happens here that’s not weather-related. Watching the evening news the headline for the evening might be: Lightening in Puget Sound! More at 10! or Hikers Lost in Fierce Snowstorm! People rarely kill each other, and the police seem to have gotten the Jay-walking Epidemic! under control.
Now, of course that second one is a serious matter. On this coast, people die all the time from weather-related trauma. I’m a huge chicken and refuse to go anywhere without power, so I’m not terribly likely to be lost in a storm. Nonetheless, logical reasoning has no place in my mind. Since I am a huge chicken about this, I watch stories about people lost in the elements with morbid obsession, celebrate when they’re rescued and get bummed when they’re not.
And you must know I have tried this whole outdoors thing so I can knock it if I want to. I made that mistake last year, in February, when my friend Matthew (of Christmas light fame) convinced me to go snowshoeing with him and a few other people at Mount Rainier. Looking back on it, I must have been smoking crack to have agreed. In fact, I’m sure I was smoking crack. No reasonable human being should have done what I did and not been locked up for complete and utter stupidity.
A) I had no snow gear whatsoever. I wore a pair of jeans over a pair of long johns some ancient uncle who died in the 80s gave my family. In the 80s. Then I pulled waterproof gym pants over my jeans and sprayed water repellent on my shoes. I wore a jacket I’d bought in Florida to combat those bitter Gainesville nights. And I’d never snowshoed in my life. I’d never even gone skiing.
See, that’s the kind of stupid crap you read about in the papers. “Lacey was last seen in sneakers and jeans on the ridge of Paradise Point. She is clearly retarded and not worth saving. Emergency search crews have been called off.”
B) Not only had I never been skiing, I had practically never seen snow. My sum experience with snow to that point involved looking at the King County traffic website, clicking on the highway cameras until snow appeared on the edges of the pictures, and then driving to that point. We got out of the car, were awed and amazed for about ten minutes, and then plodded into the Family Pancake House whereupon we ate omelets and waffles until we felt sustained enough to make the 15 feet back to the car.
C) I hate hiking. I hate all forms of hiking. This trip ended in me shrieking “We’re lost? We’re lost! You don’t know where you are! Don’t tell me we’re not lost! I can’t see &#*$ and we just crossed a creek! Take me back to the $&%# car you $*#&%@ bastard!”
So I’m probably never going to be lost in the snow. Although I did let Matthew convince me to crawl over caved-in rocks through LAVA TUBES at Mount St Helens. You may safely assume I won’t be doing that again, either. The sign proclaiming we were “Entering the Blast Zone” almost sent me into hysterics.
Which brings me back to Thursday. There really were people lost in the mountains on Thursday, which is one reason I was watching the weather so closely. I wanted those guys to get off the damn mountain but search and rescue teams were blocked by the snow. The second reason I was watching the weather is because EVERYONE was watching the weather. We were having this huge windstorm come in, and people have places to be at this time of year. Namely, their RWA chapter’s holiday party. Wind is highly inconvenient when it’s interrupting Christmas eating, you see.
I decided to go to the party and if I had to stay the night, I’d stay the night. This year we were having it at Gerri Russell’s house, and since she’s this year’s American Title Champion I was extra motivated to get there. I wanted to know ALL about it. And she’d promised lasagna, which is a lot like pizza. I love pizza.
So I went to Safeway, which is when Kristian called me from her office in downtown Seattle. She said, “The wind is coming!” Basically, from her office on the 23rd floor they could see the wind. The could see it in the streets below them, and they could see it bowing their plate glass office windows in on their frames. Needless to say, she did not make it to the holiday party.
But I did! I was a little early, so I decided to sit and read in my car. Until my car started wobbling side to side on its tires. Then I decided to get to Gerri’s house, in case I ended up stranded. I didn’t want to be stuck at Safeway, although there are two Starbucks in that shopping center so I’m sure I would have been cozy. At least I would have been caffeinated.
When I got to Gerri’s house Jane Porter was already there. She’d been at the same Safeway and gotten just as freaked out as I had! I especially enjoyed this part of the party, since Jane and Gerri are mostly from the other Seattle RWA chapter and I’ve never had a chance to get to know them. Champagne flowed freely and we were nice and toasty when Erin Eisenberg arrived (also early).
Then there was a long lull in the guest arrival. Those of us who got out of work around 3 were early, but those people planning to arrive at 6pm were late. BECAUSE THE ROADS WERE FLOODED! But get this–they were flooded on a HILL. Which practically defies the laws of nature. Water on a hill should flow down. Ergo, you shouldn’t have to drive through puddles up to the hood of your car when you’re on them. It’s just not fair.
Eventually, everyone who was coming made it, though some people were two hours late! A good time was had by all, howling wind and wobbling walls aside. I ended up waiting until Erin went home - and then got home - to leave myself. I let her scout the roads back to my apartment because I’m fabulously thoughtful like that. Once the roads had been declared clear, the other three of us Eastside dwellers left together so we could follow each other back.
Luckily the roads were dry by this time, the wind having blown all the water away. Branches were in the streets and the highway was a huge rollercoaster of wind gusts; still, I didn’t see anything significant while I was making my way home. In fact, when I got home Matt and I went down to our apartment’s rec room to chill in the hot tub. It wasn’t until we walked back to our apartment that he noticed the wind in the trees.
And there was wind! We went to sleep and woke up when the power went out at 1am. Then we opened our sliding glass door and watched the storm, listening to the wind howl and moan. Just before we went to bed we heard a crash in our living room but it turned out to be our paranoid imaginations. Or not. It was actually was the 60′ tall tree outside our window blowing over, away from our apartment. We didn’t see it until the next morning.
When I woke up for work our power was still out. I couldn’t see anything in our apartment. We live on the ground floor, which is halfway underground, so between that and the trees outside we don’t get much natural light. Which is great for watching movies or wandering around in your underwear, and not so good when the power goes out. I knew my cell phone was in my car, which I’d parked waaaaaaaay down in the lot because I had looked for a spot that wasn’t directly under a tree. Which is nearly impossible in this area, which is why it was halfway down the hill in front of another complex. There was no way I was going for my phone. And I didn’t know where Matt’s phone was. So I went back to sleep and figured I’d call into work later.
But when I woke up at 8 the place was still pitch black. In retrospect, Matt and I thought up several options we could have used that morning. None of them came to mind at the time. We panicked instead. We have nothing! We’re going to freeze to death! (It was 40F outside. We weren’t going to freeze.) But we did have one real problem in the form of his 70 gallon tropical fish tank. The water had plummeted to a chilly 60 degrees and he needed some form of backup power for the heater. He and I had a “discussion” about going to Wal-Mart. In other words, I said if I was going to drive 20 miles to Wal-Mart I was going to work. So I got in my car and drove to work.
Except I didn’t get very far. Without power, there’s no streetlights. Without streetlights, the world is chaos. I got to see a lot of downed trees and fences (and trees on houses, which is scary) before I turned around and came back home. I even saw a place where there had been a small mudslide next to the freeway, which is about the time I said nevermind. I’ll eat a vacation day on this one.
So I got home and now I could see the trees that had fallen behind our apartment. Two of them, about 100 feet apart, lay prostrate in the yard. It’s very sad, but they came up by their roots so there’s a chance a large crane could right them and they’ll be fine. However, our fish weren’t fine. The water temperature was still dangerously low. Matt still wanted to go to Wal-Mart and I still thought that wasn’t right, since my office was open and my team leader was swamped because she was all by herself. (He’d called work and his office had no power, lucky duck.)
Back into the car I went. This time I tried a different route. It was no-go. Matt called me up (did I mention our cell phones were intermittent? A tower or two must have gone down or lost power. It took me almost 2 hours to finally connect to work and tell them I wasn’t coming.) and said he could see my car and did I want to turn around. So we turned around. The Safeway had backup power and people were able to buy candles and food and stuff. Oh, wait. I did tell you we were COMPLETELY unprepared for this, right?
We had NOTHING. A few lighters, some decorative wall sconces; four Christmas candles Matt refused to let me burn because they were “cute.” We eat frozen meals every night, so there was no ramen noodles or beanie weenies or anything. We have electic heat and water and stove. It figured that the evening before I’d skimped on a shower, so the one day I REALLY needed to bathe there wasn’t a drop of hot water.
We had no firewood and one flashlight (batteries were running low). We had no cat litter because we are extremely dependent on a device Matt made that sucks putrid air from the litterbox right out the window. (Anyone interested in this, feel free to leave a comment. It’s an incredibly easy design and works like a champ.) In other words, I change our litterbox about once a month. OK, I know that’s gross. But I promise you, we never notice because even though the litterbox is in our living room, you can’t smell it.
Oh, but you can smell it when the power goes out. I had to clean the fridge, too, because we still had turkey in there from Thanksgiving. Matt was freaking out because his video games weren’t charged completely and he might not be able to play DS for the entire time the power was out (predicted to be 2 days or more). I was freaking out because I was having serious email withdrawal.
But I did get to start on The Raven Prince, finally! I made it about halfway through when Matt’s old friend from Florida called. Turns out, this guy moved here at the exact wrong time. His new roommate was out of town and the power was out. He didn’t know squat about the area, like where to go to get some dinner and a little bit of power. Matt drove over to pick him up and then we sat around and talked. By that time we’d located some of those Duraflame logs and were feeling pretty competent. Like camping in your house, only more fun.
Then Matt got the idea to go to Shorty’s. It’s in another power grid, so all we had to do was get their number and see if they had power. Except without the internet we were stymied. We called everyone we knew trying to find the phone number until I remembered there was an old phone book sitting outside our apartment. I’d thrown away ours, but the next door neighbors are the kind of people that still have a notice taped to their door that says, “It’s July and time to start thinking about Grill Safety!”
Shorty’s was open, the bridge across Lake Washington was open, and a good time was had by all. When we got back we were just cleaning up the apartment when the power CAME BACK ON! 23 hours later! woo hoo!
/Lacey Doppler Out
This 20 piece extra crispy plate of hot wings was more than enough, though! Remember the diet. Remember the diet…
