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A Pacific NW Snow Freakout

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I made some long, multi-colored, vee shaped flags last year from scraps of that oh-so-handy Seattle Fabrics heat sealable water-proof nylon. I had a box of scrap heat sealable fabric in different colors, and made some tarp flag wind flappers.

P9081215 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P9131222 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The multi-colored heat sealable tarp flags were appreciated at a paddler gathering last fall. I alligator-clip hung a bucnch of flags from the big group site tarp, and people snatched them off to take home in short order.

The only problem was that I ran out of the different color scraps when making them. So I recently ordered this $4 sampler pack from Seattle Fabrics

https://www.seattlefabrics.com/Heat-Sealable-Coated-Nylon-Sample-Pack_p_874.html

I am absolutely making one in full LGTBQ colors for someone to snatch next time. “Yeah Wes, I think that flag would look great hung from your big, multi-colored panel Tundra Tarp”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement)

Thinking I might explain my need for various colors I (tried to) call in a phone order to Seattle Fabrics. It was snowing in Seattle at the time, which, presumably, it rarely does. The attempted call-in order was hilarious.

The call center folks answered with a “OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS ENDING, NO ONE SHOWED UP FOR WORK TODAY, I HAVE FOUR CALLS AHEAD OF YOU” freak out.

I laughed and told them I would just order on-line, hoping the sample pack has a good selection of colors, including the RoyGBiv spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

I wonder what the Seattle grocery stores had left in the way of milk, bread and toilet paper with that kind of doomsday “snowflake” reaction,

No PNW diss intended, it happens here too.
 
see this is where winter camping is a practical life skill
You can bake bread over a fire
You can wipe your butt with snow
The cows ought to be in the barn
 
Last time I was in Seattle everyone was freaking out because it was so hot. Walked into the grocery store and the produce people were talking about it. Went to the deli counter to get some cold takeout food and the lady was half serious about not letting me leave with it unless I had a cooler in the car. The checkout lady talked to me all about the crazy heat as well.

When I got in my van to leave the thermometer said 83 degrees. And no humidity either.

I've never been there in the winter but for summer I think the PNW is perfect.

Alan
 
Yeah, Seattle folks are used to the same dull weather year 'round. They pretty much don't now how to drive in anything else either. It's a beautiful place though.
 
Walked into the grocery store and the produce people were talking about it. Went to the deli counter to get some cold takeout food and the lady was half serious about not letting me leave with it unless I had a cooler in the car. The checkout lady talked to me all about the crazy heat as well.

I do the major grocery shopping for our home, and we get some snow here. But if there is even a dusting of snow predicted I know better than to go to the store. If there is any significant accumulation forecast, forget it, the place will be packed and shelves running low on white stuff (always the same, bread, milk, toilet paper).

If there is snow forecast I go days before, or we make do with what we have in the pantry and freezer; I already have enough grocery store pet peeves without crowds, and prefer shopping at 6 or 7am mid-week.

I know, I am just a frustrated bundle of pet peeves.

There is no place on earth where people show less situational awareness than in grocery store aisles. My (least) favorite bit of unawareness is the shopper who parks their cart adjacent to a freestanding mid-aisle \ display, and then stands beside their cart [_] alongside the display searching for that special jar of spaghetti sauce :-?.

This 6-foot wide aisle | :-?-[_]-\ |. Totally blocked by a single oblivious person, who subsequently does the same thing the next aisle over. Blissfully unaware.

To that end I do not bother to push my cart up most aisles; I park it out of the way and walk in and out with the few items I need in that corridor.

I’m not rude when trapped mid-aisle, just mildly amused. I’m a big guy, so it should be hard to miss me standing there, and I’ll wait a minute before saying “Excuse me”. Or sometimes, as a test, wait even longer, saying nothing; just stand there curious to see how long it takes.

Don’t even get me started on grocery store parking lots. I park far away, always in a pull-though spot so I don’t have to back out, and it is still comical at times.
 
Lots of changes in weather here lately. There's been a run on Safe-T-Salt around here, due to the ice storms we've had recently. I don't necessarily stock up on it. It is mined near here in Southern Ontario so I would never expect to see a shortage. I am so short sighted and totally unaware unprepared for the armageddon of bad weather that blows through my corner of the world. Oh well. It'll change tomorrow you see.
Last week between ice storm #1 and forecast ice storm #2 I dawdled out to pick up a couple bags of salt. I was astonished to see a guy hauling the last pallet of salt out of the TSC. Hmm. It wasn't till I tried and failed to purchase this winter commodity from 3 more building stores that I realized the error of my relaxed ways in this stressed out world. Then I remembered my wife telling me she just grabbed a bag last time while she was at the grocery store. Grocery store? Sure enough that's where I struck rock salt gold that day and again today. I respectfully didn't park in the spaces reserved for a) Expectant mothers, b) Handicapped drivers, c) (M)others with very young children. But I did park in a space reserved for another type of shopper I hadn't thought of. I had to stand closer to the sign to read it. The Zehrs grocery store now has spaces right up front exclusively for online shoppers picking up their orders. How about that.
I bought and used up 5 bags of salt tout suite. My driveway is a skating rink and I'm expecting family and friends later today for a winter beer tasting party.
Where the first hot topic of conversation will be the weather. That never changes.
 
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Mike - grocery store isles......yeah. :rolleyes:

We really are getting a lot of snow here in the Northwest. We were a bit behind in snowpack here in my part of Idaho, but we've made up for it in the last week or so. Tried to get to our usual late season Nordic trail yesterday, but the white stuff was falling so hard, we couldn't see to drive, and the highway dept. plow wasn't keeping up. We turned back and went to a closer/lower trail.

Oh yeah......never mind store isles. People parked along the state highway and walking in groups in the middle of the mountain road, oblivious to the fact that some of us are still using it to get somewhere......SMH.
 
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I just got back home from Seattle today. On the way there I-90 was closed so had to detour north over Stevens Pass. People were really freaked out over there, putting on chains even with all wheel drive cars. From my perspective, the road was no different from everday Montana winter driving. When we got to Seattle there were cars everywhere that obviously hadn't moved since the snow started. There are lots of really steep roads in that city, and I'm glad most people decided to do their thing "car free" for a few days. Of course Seattle Fabrics is one of my "go-to" places when I visit along with Fisheries Supply. If you've never been to either of these places they are worth a stop if for no other reason than to browse. Fisheries supply has everything related to marine paint and varnish and stainless and bronze hardware, good prices and give me a discount with an account and no tax since I'm from Montana. I told my brother that you could lock me up inside Seattle Fabrics with a sewing machine and I'd never leave. FIY: If you've never been to Seattle in the spring and summer you might be surprised that it's typically sunny.

Mark
 
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