Breaking up with the weather, that is a different story

My days of religiously following storms in off the Pacific are over. Or are they? I know I am supposed to be breaking up with my break-up and so far it is going well. I removed my Seattle related bookmarks from my computer and my life but not my Seattle related friends. Facebook posts and Twitter tweets from those left behind can suck me back into my Seattle world, particularly when those posts are almost unanimously about the weather.

It is snowing and icing and freezing in Seattle this week. Numerous friends had to abandon their buses and trek through the streets in work attire to get home. For some reason, and this I just do not get, people leave their cars and walk home. Leave their cars - on the side of the road, in the middle of the road, on the freeway, the off ramp, a side street. This morning I read the few plows the city has cannot get through because people left their cars in the middle of the road. Dude, these cars are probably Lexuses (Lexui?) or Audis or other nice, costly, pieces of machinery. How do you just leave them on the road and walk home? I don't get it.

Anyway, this is fascinating because it was just about two years ago that I was stranded in my house for almost two weeks as the city was rendered helpless by snow and ice. Other cities manage in far worse conditions; I don't understand how Seattle becomes so dramatically incapacitated in such a short period of time. It is, clearly, remarkable.

ANYWAY, point being - not my problem! It was 68 here yesterday and will be again today. I went for a hike. I drove with the windows down. The sun is still shining. It is taking me some time to get used to such bright, cheery weather. Admittedly, the weather affects my mood. If it were constantly gray and rainy (or snowy and freezing) I can say my overall affect would surely be much drearier. Following Seattle weather does make me a little home-sick but I am trying to focus on the overall theme of this post - sun = happy = better life for Eme Ashe. Here are some pictures of said life in the sunshine (though you can't tell it was sunny because we were in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Where were you?)