I had an interesting day this morning, to put it mildly... certainly one of the more interesting trips in to work that I've had in a while, to be sure!

When I shut things down for the night, it was snowing... I wasn't sure how much it would snow, so I got up early... we got just enough to be worth shoveling, so I took care of it real quick before heading out.

There was a layer of "slick" where the snow had first melted, then frozen in the cold night air, so I decided to take The Shadow Lady's Car, to leave her with the all-wheel-drive Mariner, for safety...

After a bit of coaxing, I was up on the road, and heading in... only a few cars had gone by, so the snow was still pretty fresh.

I caught up with some folks also heading down out of the neighborhood, mostly in SUV's, and they were having troubles... that SHOULD have been my first clue, but it wasn't.

As I was slowly heading down, a truck passed us all, and headed down with authority... and went on down the hill, across the road, and into the ravine... I managed to catch a shot of it as it went out of sight... a big rock stopped it before it got too far down the hill.  The driver was OK.

And, like a moron, I kept on going.

I shouldn't have even tried, but I did, and soon found what I already knew: the performance tires don't perform well in the snow.  Even at a speed far less less than a slow walk, they lost the grip of the icy surface, and I luckily managed to steer it into the curb, otherwise, I'd have followed the first SUV over into the ditch.

First?  Yep... you'll notice the lights of a pickup over the top of the roof of the car... the little ravine claimed two on this day.

Once stopped, I couldn't even back up... I was stuck.  Not wanting to risk damaging her "other baby", I decided to call AAA.  I've been a member for a few years, and have never called them.  They were very nice, and a truck came in about 40 minutes or so... long enough for another car to slide into the guard rail - but stop short of the little ravine... he managed to keep going.  A crowd formed, watching the morning's entertainment.

Shortly after the driver had me up on the bed of his truck, the plow came by, and sanded the hill... it was a nice touch.

He carried me down to the Interstate, below the snowline then dropped me off.  Didn't cost me a cent.  Its all part of my membership... NICE!

He was a nice guy.  Been in the Army from the late 70's to Early 90's, and took the early retirement they were offering at the time, under Clinton's "Force Reduction" plan.  He'd been a mechanic in the Army, and missed it, pretty much like I did.

On the way home after work, it couldn't have been a different day... Blue sky, puffy clouds... a GREAT day, although a bit sunnier than I'd have liked. 

I managed to catch a nice shot of Bellevue as I was driving by... and an even nicer one of Mt Si..

If I had to pick, I'd take the hi-rises with trees on them, any day!

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