By the by, this post is in the Comedy category because there isn't a Weather Category. Why not? Anthony?

UPDATE: Didn't realize "The" could precede "Weather." Anthony, please forgive me.

Meanwhile, the thing you all really oughta do in a blizzard (3-5 inches counts as a blizzard in Seattle, yes?): go out and have fun. Smell and hear and taste and see your city differently.

If you have a shovel, walk around and offer to clear sidewalks for neighbors. Get in snowball fights. Treat it as a very serious meteorological event, and go for a walk and see how places you never see covered in snow look when covered in snow. Wear good shoes and gloves and take pictures. You all go snowboarding and shit all the time, right, so you have the gear. Walk from Pike Place Market up to Capitol Hill, slipping and sliding and LISTENING—cities sound different when muffled by snow. Stop in your favorite bar—or a bar you'd never go into—and ask for a hot cider with Jack Daniels, or an Irish coffee, or a hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps.

So often, city dwellers (perhaps especially people who live in urban climates that don't vary much—San Diego, Seattle) see extreme weather as a threat or hardship instead of an opportunity to experience the place they live in a new way. Sure, it sucks if you're driving or waiting for a bus. But if that bus won't arrive for an hour, why not spend that hour walking to where you were going anyway? If traffic is gridlocked, park the car and walk home. The cops might not be able to ticket you before you walk back to the car, since they're in gridlock too, and even if they do it might be worth it to see, hear, feel your town in a new way.