Snowsplosion!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

It snows in Seattle every now and then. Usually not much, but when the entire region is on a 90 degree incline, a little goes a long way… toward sliding your vehicle into a freezing body of water. Some of you might remember the mixture of caution, fear, and hilarity that lead to my own snow-stranding last year. That totally had no influence on the fact that I now live amid the apartments typically referred to here as Paizo East, a whopping three blocks from the office. So, when the Great Flurry of ’12 hit, I sledded down the hill to collect the blizzard of “Out of the Office” e-mails. Lets see what we’ve got:


Not even the Paizo golem is immune to the snowmageddon!
Illustration by Liz Courts, Snowed In Specialist

Jerome Virnich, Editorial Intern
Wes. Unfortunately I'm under the weather, both literally and figuratively. Still planning on being there on Friday. Hope you're well!

Mike Brock, Campaign Coordinator & Survivalist
Hi all. After sliding backwards down the 150 yard hill in my apartment complex, I gave up trying to drive to work. I hear Seattle has a great bus system so went to their website. My results from here to work:

Trip Planner
Error Planning Trip
(#20007--Trip not possible)
Modify Trip

So, looks like I'm working from home today.

Judy Bauer, Disaster Opportunist
Mutinying for Snow Days! In a shocking twist, I'll be editing from home again today. Currently rolling on the AP adventure.

Jason Bulmahn, Senior Snowman Wrassler
Yetis stole my car. I am pretty sure they are doing donuts in the intersection. Sean, Judy, and I are going to be staying home today. I've got work banked up still and will be taking breaks to yell at those damn yetis. Stay warm everyone.

Erik Mona, Snowscarred
Folks. After last year's 520-ocalypse, I'm playing it safe with the snow this year. I've got a pile of work to do here at home today, so I'll be editing and working on emails all day today (and possibly tomorrow, given the way people on the radio are freaking out). If you need me, please call.

Lisa Stevens, Lives on a Mountain
You Redmond folks don't know what snow is! And this with the snowpocalypse major snow not even fallen yet! You may not see us until spring! :)

[Picture of Hoth omitted]

From the incomplete nature of this list I can only assume that many others are wandering about disoriented or huddled cozily in their tauntauns. Some though—like James Sutter who owns a parachute and had a toboggan delivered to the office last week—we might never see again.

Stay frosty everyone.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

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Tags: Paizo Snowpocalypse
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Silver Crusade

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Now THAT'S an example of a blog post we want more of!

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Everything you guys got in Seattle yesterday we are getting in Moscow today. And we already had 2.5 feet on the ground.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Meanwhile out in the Adirondacks on the east coast we have had a severe lack of snow this season. Send some of that snow out my way!

On a related note, is any of the warehouse staff in today? I saw that Robot Chris was in yesterday, but was wondering if more labels were going to get processed today.


That made me laugh.

Also, I'm in North Dakota.

You don't even HAVE WINTER where you are!

Scarab Sages

6 people marked this as a favorite.

Damn those car stealing yetis!!!!

shakes fist

Silver Crusade

nathan blackmer wrote:

That made me laugh.

Also, I'm in North Dakota.

You don't even HAVE WINTER where you are!

Plus it was -20 (real temp, not wind chill). With snow. The thought of not coming in to work never even crossed my mind. But then, the flatness of North Dakota and all.....


Hahaha! Great blog post! Send some of that snow down to Charlotte, NC — I can't recall such a mild winter here!


I live in Canada, and before you expect me to go on and on about how you yanks don't know what snow is, I have to say, we have gotten very little snow this year (granted I live in southern Ontario). I miss the days when I'd walk out of the house and the snow would be up to knees. Those were the days........

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

And this is why Paizo should relocate to Texas, Houston specifically. Pay no attention to those hurricane evacuation signs. Those are just for show for the tourists. Really.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.

That's a great pic Liz!

Lantern Lodge

nathan blackmer wrote:

That made me laugh.

Also, I'm in North Dakota.
You don't even HAVE WINTER where you are!

We might not get much winter weather, but we also have no infrastructure to deal with what we do get. We don't salt (important roads might get plowed and/or sanded) and we have ridiculous hills everywhere.

Cosmo took this picture this morning from the bus.

I'm sure if this weather happened for more than 2 or 3 days every other year we'd invest more into plows and salt and our population base would learn how to drive in it better.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Sara Marie wrote:
I'm sure if this weather happened for more than 2 or 3 days every other year we'd invest more into plows and salt and our population base would learn how to drive in it better.

That would be a false assumption, seeing as how Chicago gets decent to ridiculous amounts of snow every year and 70% of the population cannot drive in it =/

Though it could be worse, I have a friend up in Issaquah without power. You all have emergency generators for writing/editing right? :)

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Renraku wrote:
You all have emergency generators for writing/editing right? :)

At the office, we have redundancies built upon redundancies* to keep the creative juices flowing, but most of us aren't at the office. Seeing other people around the area posting about power outages has me scared, cause my laptop battery will only last so long.

* Subject to verification by the reality verifiers.

Contributor

Just a note, the pic that Cosmo took is at the bottom of the hill that I live on.

Sovereign Court

Liz Courts wrote:
Just a note, the pic that Cosmo took is at the bottom of the hill that I live on.

Geez, that looked scary, no wonder everyone is staying home.

(P.S. Liz, did you get my email...?)

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

6 people marked this as a favorite.

So, what you're saying is...you all got hit by The Hungry Storm?

Liberty's Edge

All I can say is everyone needs to get back into the office and pack up my January subscriptions and get them out. I MUST have the new minis NOW!!!!!! :)


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Renraku wrote:
Though it could be worse, I have a friend up in Issaquah without power. You all have emergency generators for writing/editing right? :)

Printouts and flashlights are a lot like generators, right? <_<

Our power's been flickering this morning, so I'm keeping my laptop charging as long as possible. If it goes out, I'll have to strap snowshoes on the cats before herding them onto the treadmill that serves as our backup power source.

Liberty's Edge

Judy Bauer wrote:
If it goes out, I'll have to strap snowshoes on the cats before herding them onto the treadmill that serves as our backup power source.

And Judy is never seen again. I can't imagine strapping anything on a cat, it's bad enough just putting a collar on one of ours let alone anything else.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Renraku wrote:
Sara Marie wrote:
I'm sure if this weather happened for more than 2 or 3 days every other year we'd invest more into plows and salt and our population base would learn how to drive in it better.
That would be a false assumption, seeing as how Chicago gets decent to ridiculous amounts of snow every year and 70% of the population cannot drive in it =/

Quoted For Truth. :-|

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

And here are a couple of pics I took this morning when a city bus slid off the road, onto the sidewalk, and into a large tree in front of my apartment:

Facebook link
Facebook link

Yes, yes, all of you in other problems have it so much worse that you're practically in Mordor, blah blah blah. Our hills mean it's different here, trust me.

Scarab Sages

You all stay safe up there. Do what you need to do, stay where you need to stay. Yes, we'll be disappointed if our shipments are delayed, but moreso if any of you get yourselves made into yeti chow.
<snark>('Cause then, y'know, who will write/edit/develop/illustrate/pack/ship/etc. the books and stuff we want... 8^)</snark>

Edit: Didn't want anybody to feel left out. 8^)


Callous Jack wrote:
Liz Courts wrote:
Just a note, the pic that Cosmo took is at the bottom of the hill that I live on.

Geez, that looked scary, no wonder everyone is staying home.

(P.S. Liz, did you get my email...?)

That looked pretty standard for New England/Upstate NY winters. Even the lack of plowing. Only real difference is that people are afraid to drive so you don't get as clean tire tracks. People would probably go ~20 MPH less than normal in that, so like 5-10 under the speed limit.

Until my bumper is plowing, I don't consider the snow that bad. Your right though, hills do affect it. Certain areas arround here have completely different results.

I wish we had snow.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I live in Lacey and have had no power since early this morning. I have pure ice in front of my house and it looks like someone stole my snow shovel. With sixteen inches behind my car and no shovel I will stay here u til I starve or it melts.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I live in the DC area, and people don't handle snow very well here either. We don't have many hills though and we have plenty of snow equipment, so I don't know what our excuse is XD

I feel bad asking this... I know that you guys probably won't be able to finish mailing out the January subscriptions for a while, but do you think it would be possible to give people access to their subscription PDFs? I was looking forward to using the Dragon Empires Primer to make some final touches on my Kitsune character before his first game this weekend ;)

Sovereign Court

Caineach wrote:
Callous Jack wrote:
Liz Courts wrote:
Just a note, the pic that Cosmo took is at the bottom of the hill that I live on.

Geez, that looked scary, no wonder everyone is staying home.

(P.S. Liz, did you get my email...?)

That looked pretty standard for New England/Upstate NY winters. Even the lack of plowing. Only real difference is that people are afraid to drive so you don't get as clean tire tracks. People would probably go ~20 MPH less than normal in that, so like 5-10 under the speed limit.

Until my bumper is plowing, I don't consider the snow that bad. Your right though, hills do affect it. Certain areas arround here have completely different results.

I wish we had snow.

It is pretty standard but I think our plows do a much better job than that mess of an intersection.


Thats a good blog. . . you have all the cold air for the rest of the country!

Its pretty balmy here in Virginia . . .a few days ago, I was walking around in shirt sleeves. The ground hasn't really frozen over yet. The cats are shedding thier winter coats and the spring bulbs are putting up shoots. My sister in Oakland said San Francisco had the same temperature as metro DC.

Of course, a few years ago, I was shovelling 6000 pounds of snow and ice . . . welcome to Global Warming!

Contributor

After the record snow last winter, this winter Truckee hasn't got more than a few inches. It's very cold and dry, though the wind is blowing enough that a major storm is supposed to get here by the weekend.


Matrixryu wrote:
I live in the DC area, and people don't handle snow very well here either. We don't have many hills though and we have plenty of snow equipment, so I don't know what our excuse is XD

You have to relearn driving on snow every year. I'm guessing DC doesn't get snow regularly enough or for long enough for people to develop the skill.

...not that I didn't do a 270 degree spin in my car a week ago when I turned too fast. But skids and slides happen to everyone.

Grand Lodge

I live in southern Illinois, where they (being people who arent me) like to say 'Dont like the weather? Wait an hour and it'll change'. Example: Tuesday it was 60ish degrees when I left for work around 7:40am. When I left work at 4:30pm, it was about 30 degrees...

Anywho, it snows here often enough that you'd think people who have learned how to drive on the frackin snow. If that's what you though, youd be wrong. And it's mostly flat around here, too.

On a separate topic, that blog was very funny. :P

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Callous Jack wrote:
It is pretty standard but I think our plows do a much better job than that mess of an intersection.

See, you just admitted you had snow plows. That puts you in a far better situation than we've got, where the entire county has like five. We also don't put salt or ice-melt down in most places in the city, because of all the lakes and the closeness to Puget Sound and the ecological ramifications of all that runoff into the environment.

Having grown up in the midwest and having lived in the northeast for a decade, I've seen my share of snowstorms, and while this isn't the worst in terms of cold, snowfall, or even the level of ice, it's not about knowing how to drive in it. When you're on a 50% or higher grade hill that's covered in ice, there's no amount of skill that's going to help you keep your car from going wherever gravity wants it to go.


Jason Bulmahn, Senior Snowman Wrassler wrote:
Yetis stole my car.

Wes or Jason, one of you may owe me a new laptop if i can't get all this soda off the screen... ;)

hilarious reading, given that winter has finally hit wisconsin, too... seriously, hope everyone stays safe, though. :)

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

It's beach weather here in Oz. :-P


Sara Marie wrote:
...we also have no infrastructure to deal with what we do get. We don't salt (important roads might get plowed and/or sanded)...I'm sure if this weather happened for more than 2 or 3 days every other year we'd invest more into plows and salt and our population base would learn how to drive in it better.

This definitely hurts. As for the hills, I think your points certainly compound the problem immensely. I lived in Ithaca for several years (yes, it's gorges) and while the hills got tricky it seemed like most of the problems from snowfalls were from out-of-town students and the occassional inexplicable lack of salting/plowing.

In any event, I hope you all stay warm and safe. If possible, feel free to send some of that snow Buffalo's way - today is the first day we've had any decent looking snow pretty much all season (not counting the Southtowns). I miss having one or two "snow days"!

Out of curiosity, does Jason Bulmahn drive a Kia Rio?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Meanwhile, in Canada...


I live in BC. I had to work from home Monday/Tuesday because I couldn't get to work. I only came to work on Wednesday because I ran out of work to do from home. It took me 11 minutes to drive 30 feet out of my cul de sac.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

My snow is supposed to hit tomorrow. Potential blizzard conditions, up to 8". Not all that bad, really, if I could just get the snowblower started...

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Gorbacz wrote:
Now THAT'S an example of a blog post we want more of!

I agree.

Grand Lodge

I spent the last twenty years on the west coast before moving back to Minnesota. I will not begrudge anyone in latteland(Seattle) from staying home in this but... people in Duluth deal with those conditions up to four and half months every year, and that is a big hill and Lady Superior is pretty unforgiving.

We have been lucky in the Twin Cities so far in that we have got Jack for snow. I do not envy you all one bit.

At least we have the infrastructure in place to deal with snow removal.

Edit- Looking at Sean's pics reminded me of something I have missed since leaving Crater Lake... Snow Chains!! ytf MN doesn't allow them is beyond me


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Judy Bauer wrote:
Renraku wrote:
Though it could be worse, I have a friend up in Issaquah without power. You all have emergency generators for writing/editing right? :)

Printouts and flashlights are a lot like generators, right? <_<

Our power's been flickering this morning, so I'm keeping my laptop charging as long as possible. If it goes out, I'll have to strap snowshoes on the cats before herding them onto the treadmill that serves as our backup power source.

Hey whatever it takes to get the job done I suppose, HAHA.

Liberty's Edge

I live in Fort Worth and everyone who watched the Super Bowl last year knows how well this area handles snow/ice.

I don't worry about getting out of my driveway when it ices, though getting the car out of the neighbors house could be another story (yes we have a steep driveway). :)


Sean K Reynolds wrote:

And here are a couple of pics I took this morning when a city bus slid off the road, onto the sidewalk, and into a large tree in front of my apartment:

Facebook link
Facebook link

Yes, yes, all of you in other problems have it so much worse that you're practically in Mordor, blah blah blah. Our hills mean it's different here, trust me.

Pshaw! Winter Tires! BUY THEM!

No I get it, I'm in Seattle all the time. HOWEVER, I'm from VT and the roads are steeper... I suppose I'll have to concede that the state doesn't take care of your roads.

Then again, you live in like, the most temperate part of the country.

It's really just jealousy on my part.... darned midwest.


WHIMPS!!! All of you at Paizo are complete and total Whimps! ~basks in the 68 degree temperature of sunny Savannah, GA~ Letting a little bit of snow cause such problems. ~sneers in contempt~ I expect better out of you all.

~grins and runs~


Sharoth wrote:

WHIMPS!!! All of you at Paizo are complete and total Whimps! ~basks in the 68 degree temperature of sunny Savannah, GA~ Letting a little bit of snow cause such problems. ~sneers in contempt~ I expect better out of you all.

~grins and runs~

PSHAW! PSHAW I SAW! 1/4 inch of snow in georgia and the whole STATE IS CRIPPLED!

BAD SHAROTH!

:-)

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jason Bulmahn, Senior Snowman Wrassler wrote:
Yetis stole my car.
Mat Black wrote:
Wes or Jason...

Jason.

Contributor

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Sharoth wrote:
Dear Paizo, I TOTALLY WANT free, loose, hungry rot grubs to be included in my next subscription mailing.

You WANT rot grubs in your subscription package, you say? Okay! Who are we to argue?


For reference, here's what the unplowed, unsalted, and unsanded Seattle hills are like when it's snowy/icy: link—check out the bus at 2:42. This was the storm that trapped Wes in the office last Thanksgiving. That hill continues down for another mile down to Puget Sound, and some of the streets along it have a 20+ % grade. AFTER regrading.

Lantern Lodge

Matrixryu wrote:


I feel bad asking this... I know that you guys probably won't be able to finish mailing out the January subscriptions for a while, but do you think it would be possible to give people access to their subscription PDFs? I was looking forward to using the Dragon Empires Primer to make some final touches on my Kitsune character before his first game this weekend ;)

Granting of PDFs is intimately tied to the shipping of the books. We've gotten some out already and we will be getting the remainder out as soon as possible.


I don't care! ~crack the whip~ Get to work you slackers! ~cracks it again in Judy's direction~ Work HARDER!!! No excuses!

~grins and runs again~

Spoiler:
OUCH!!! Yea, that looks rough. I am glad that I do not have to deal with that stuff. Good luck and everyone please be safe.


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Sharoth wrote:
Dear Paizo, I TOTALLY WANT free, loose, hungry rot grubs to be included in my next subscription mailing.
You WANT rot grubs in your subscription package, you say? Okay! Who are we to argue?

~snarls at Wesley~ NOW LOOK HERE!!! That is NOT what I said! ~cracks the whip at Wesley~ Obviously you have too much time on your hands~ Get back to work!

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