Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Street Sliding USA (Musical Tribute)

It snowed in the Seattle area last night. Keep in mind that this is footage from just one street. Similar sliding can be seen at other streets no doubt. For example, be sure to check out Wall Street.



Be sure to check out the transit bus at 2:45 too. Somebody call the Transportation Security Administration. There's definitely been a breach in security!

10 comments:

dearieme said...

None of the drivers seemed to have any idea how to cope with a skid. What a metaphor.

Stagflationary Mark said...

dearieme,

I grew up in Eastern Washington. Snow was something we were used to seeing. I was also an avid snowboarder for quite a few years. That too made snow fairly common to me.

When I first moved to Seattle and saw my first snowstorm here I could not believe my eyes.

I was sharing a story of my first experience with my boss. I thought we were on the same page. He then said he had to "dart" between two spinning cars just to get home.

It was at that point I realized we were not on the same page. My trip home was far different. I came upon a hill with spinning cars on it. I opted to turn around and find an alternate path. This process repeated quite a few times.

A few years later I was working at a different job at the top of a very steep hill. It started to snow fairly heavily. We all left early. I was putting chains on my car when a woman walked by me and gave me the "pitiful" look. She got in her four wheel drive SUV. While I continued to put on my chains she made numerous attempts to exit the parking lot onto that steep hill. She couldn't get over the lip. I knew at some point she would though and then she'd be in for the slide of her life.

How can anyone not see that if you can't even get out of the parking lot then you really don't want to be on a steep hill?

I had 10 miles to go. It took me about an hour to get home. I felt like the only guy in all of Seattle that had chains on his tires. The buses sure didn't. There were SO many people trapped downtown Seattle. Nearly every way out requires going up hill. Even the bridges have hills at the ends. The bridges were packed with abandoned vehicles before the night was over.

This storm wasn't like that, but this snow came way early this year. Some years we don't even get any snow at all.

Stagflationary Mark said...

And when I say "pitiful", I mean that she thought I was pitiful for having to put chains on my Hyundai. I'm fairly sure she changed her tune when I exited the parking lot before her though. Tires are tires. They either have traction or they don't. Her's didn't. Go figure.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Maybe "slip sliding away" would have been a better soundtrack!

Stagflationary Mark said...

GYSC,

How about something with "there's no place like home for the holidays" in it?

Officials to drivers: Stay home

In Seattle, parts of I-5 were shut down down due to vehicles spun out in the middle of the freeway, many Eastside highways were still iced over, and Metro bus service was hit and miss due to many impassable roads.

Correction: Metro bus service was more "hit" than miss, lol. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

I live where there are more cows than people--that helps when driving in snow.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anonymous,

I hear that.

I grew up where there were more acres of wheat than people.

Stagflationary Mark said...

I flipped on CNBC and there was actually a debate over whether or not inside trading hurts stock investors.

Unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

Disclosure of insider trading is one of the best tools for investors. Right now insider selling is at record highs. Wonder what that means :).

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/insider-selling-hits-all-time-record-45-billion-prior-week-everyone-getting-out-market

http://www.j3sg.com/

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anonymous,

Right now insider selling is at record highs. Wonder what that means :).

It probably just means that the insiders think that the stock market is incredibly undervalued right now. In the spirit of fair play the insiders would prefer that the general public reaps all those further upside juicy rewards though. ;)