Playtime is Over

I spent last week in Seattle with DD#2. As has been the pattern lately, the trip did not go exactly as planned, although this time is wasn’t car trouble, it was weather. I had been planning to leave Tuesday morning, drive to Spokane, spend the night, then drive to Seattle Wednesday morning. However, I got home from running errands Monday morning, and the husband—who had stopped home in between jobs—said, “Did you know there is a winter weather advisory for tomorrow?”

Um, no. The last weather report I had seen showed nothing out of the ordinary. I checked the forecast, and sure enough, it looked like Tuesday morning would be a mess driving over the mountain passes. I could do it, but if I could avoid it, all the better.

There is a saying that the best gunfight is the one you’re not in, and I feel that way about weather. The best snowstorm is the one I’m not driving in. After conferring with the husband, I checked with DD#2 to make sure it was okay that I showed up at her place Tuesday afternoon, hastily packed my stuff, changed the hotel reservation for Monday night instead of Tuesday night, and was on the road by 2:30. I gained an hour going over and was in Spokane by 6:00 pm local time.

I was slightly delayed by a Montana traffic jam:

This was a herd of bighorn sheep crossing the road. The lead ram had walked out into the middle of the road, stood there waiting for cars to stop, then signaled to the rest of the herd—about 40 sheep—to come across.

It was snowing by the time I woke up Tuesday morning. I looked at the forecast for Snoqualmie Pass and decided I would time my departure from Spokane so that I missed the worst of the snow going over that pass. That area is notorious for road closures in bad weather due to the fact that people can’t drive, and in fact, I-90 was closed for about five hours Tuesday morning over Snoqualmie because of spinouts.

[I have a few Washington State travel apps on my phone that send me text alerts about problems, which has been a huge help while traveling.]

While I was puttering around in Spokane, I got a text from DSIL’s mother. She and DSIL’s dad were on their way back from visiting relatives in the midwest and were just outside of Missoula. She wanted me to know they were behind me on the road in case I had car trouble. She also said they were planning to be home Tuesday night and wanted to invite us for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

I left Spokane around 10:30 am. It was dicey for the first 40 miles or so, with heavy fog and snow showers. By the time I got to Ritzville, though, the snow showers had stopped and the fog lifted, and by the time I got to Snoqualmie, the precipitation had changed over to rain. I arrived at DD#2’s apartment and unloaded my stuff. She had dinner and a glass of wine waiting for me.

On Wednesday—my birthday—we did some shopping. My traditional birthday dinner is crab legs, and we kicked around the idea of going to Pike Place Market to get them, but in the end, I decided that a pound of jumbo lump crab meat from Costco served up as Crab Imperial would be a more than adequate substitute.

I’ll write more about our week in upcoming blog posts, but I arrived home yesterday around noon and landed in the middle of a meat grinder. We had concert rehearsal last evening with another one tonight and the concert tomorrow night. I have three sewing commission projects that need to get done this week or next, and I also bought fabric to make myself a Christmas top. DD#2 arrives here on the 14th for two weeks. I have to reorganize my sewing area so she has a place to sleep, and she’ll want to set up a workspace in my office. The piano tuner is coming Thursday morning. The whole house desperately needs to be cleaned, but I’ll start with the living room so he can get to the piano. I am trying hard to stay focused on what has to be done first. Wish me luck.