Black or White

You might have heard we were buried in snow in the days leading up to and during Christmas. It was fun at first. The roads were closed and kids were sledding everywhere.

On a shutdown Queen Anne Ave much bigger kids were snowboarding, skiing, chair-skiing, inflatable-bed sledding, and trashbag sliding their way down the steepest hill we have here.

I wandered out to the streets late that first heavy Saturday to see people congregating among 12-packs of light beer jutting out of the snow. It was a fun and friendly atmosphere. People were offering me beer as we watched, and sometimes pushed, people riding shovels, inner-tubes, and cookie sheets down the hill.

In the year that I've lived in Seattle this is the only the second time people here have been friendly enough to openly smile or say hi to one another. The other time? When Barack Obama was elected. That lasted just two days.

So electing the first black president, or a freak snow storm, is all you need to make a friend in Seattle!