[Michael C Henry]

I live out in western Washington State. Snow here is rare and usually short lived. Its been here over a week (since I started my use or lose vacation). It's snowed frezing rain slightly melted and more snow and refrozen. It goes crunch. They are prepaire to clear snow off the hyways through the passes but not city streets. 6 inches of compated snow and ice. Big holes. The tire stores are busy. I want to get up in the attic above the car but can't get the garage doors open to push the car outside. I can't get the gate to the alley open to get the garbage taken care of. I'll have a window of time this afternoon to shovel some of the snow to clear the gate and garage doors. As a kid in Iowa I used a #9 scoop shovel to clear snow. Now all I have is a long handled flat nosed shovel. It seems like using a set of tweezers. It's supposed to get to 36° between noon and 4 O clock then back to freezing and more snow and then rain at near 32° or less. This isn't normal for this area.