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Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Snow Day: Part II

How I know that I am old: I thought about taking my mountain bike out in the snow yesterday but I didn’t because I thought it might be dangerous. What a fucking wimp I’ve become. If you passed by Queen Anne yesterday you would have seen hundreds of people sliding down Counterbalance Hill* on anything and everything. Do you think the guys who slid underneath a parked car in an inflatable kayak were worried about it being dangerous? I don’t think so.

I actually met some girls who bought a cookie sheet just so they could use it as a sled. Other items used for recreation: a mattress, two skis with a tire on top, a kayak, skis, snowboards, a plastic garbage can, cardboard boxes, and various household appliances. The real fun comes when you get to the bottom and you have to dodge the cars. What the scene needed was someone with a video camera to inspire truly epic levels of stupidity.

Counterbalance Hill looked like the opening day of the grunge Winter Olympics. There were hundreds and hundreds of people skipping work to fuck-off by sliding down a very big hill on everyday household items. Every single dog in the city of Seattle was out running around in the snow; they all had a blast. A lot of people went to work but I’ll bet overall productivity was for shit. Everyone just wanted to walk around and enjoy something we only see in Seattle every five years or so.

Today is like the hangover for yesterday’s fun. The snow is still here but it is pure slush. The roads are pretty crappy and you’d better wear boots if you are walking. You can still make snowballs but if you try to sled down a hill it will be more like wake boarding. Yesterday was cool but today makes you realize that snow is pretty much a nuisance. You can always drive up to the mountains and get all the winter fun you could ever want. We get yards and yards of snow in the nearby Cascades but every so often in Seattle the winter playground comes to the street where you live. Go out and get silly.


*Counterbalance Hill got its name from the street cars that ran up and down it years ago. As one car went down it pulled the other car up to the top.

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