Well, don’t thank me, personally. I’m not responsible (and if I were I assure you I’d have arranged events quite differently). <\/p>\n
But the Pacific Northwest is having its coldest winter<\/a> in 32 years. Seattle’s winter, more pleasant than ours, has been classified as “severe”<\/a> by the official classifiers. Where I live we’ve had an unprecedented (in my memory) eight snow days. (Compare that with zero snow the last two years and no more than five snows in the previously most-rotten winter.) And no matter how much we west-of-the-Cascades weaklings whine, the fact is that it’s the hardy east-of-mountain dwellers who’ve really suffered.<\/p>\n So why should you thank us, here in the NorthWet? Because as you sit there basking in the unprecedented warmth of wherever you are (assuming you’re in the U.S., which I know not everybody is), we are the only thing standing between you and the you-know-whos wringing their hands over yet another “warmest winter on record.”<\/p>\n We. Just us. We’re saving you from that. So think of us as we huddle in the icy rain and be grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, don’t thank me, personally. I’m not responsible (and if I were I assure you I’d have arranged events quite differently). But the Pacific Northwest is having its coldest winter in 32 years. Seattle’s winter, more pleasant than ours, has been classified as “severe” by the official classifiers. Where I live we’ve had an unprecedented (in my memory) eight snow days. (Compare that with zero snow the last two years and no more than five snows in the previously most-rotten winter.) And no matter how much we west-of-the-Cascades weaklings whine, the fact is that it’s the hardy east-of-mountain dwellers who’ve…<\/p>\n