Snow day!

We have a dusting of snow today. Or, as Seattleites call it, Winter Blast 2008.

See, things here just come to a standstill at the first snowflake. The city is hilly, it doesn’t have many plows, and its denizens are not used to driving in such “extreme” conditions. The papers are all atwitter.

We just had two really bright flashes of lightning with really loud, cat-freakout thunder. Thunder-snowstorm?

I’ll be working from home, I guess. But first, I’m getting back in bed.

UPDATE: We now have quite a respectable amount of snow. Not a blizzard, by any means, but the accumulation is non-trivial. The weather phenomenon we experienced this morning, BTW, is called “thundersnow.”

Crime

This morning, I was witness to a crime. As they were getting off, two punks swiped the iPod of a guy sitting next to the rear door of the bus. The victim gave chase but couldn’t catch them. The bus driver called the police and several passengers provided helpful details on the perpetrators.

I felt horrible that this crime happened. We’re hearing of more frequent crimes in the neighborhood (residential burglaries) and I wonder how much worse things will get with the economic downturn.

I’m encouraging everyone to use preventive measures: security systems, lighted driveways, pockets that fasten shut, and wrist straps on small, valuable belongings.