Only on vashon – the weekly rundown 2/19/2021

It snowed! It snowed! It was a glorious miracle, which we celebrated by getting even more frustrated than usual with our fellow drivers. We’ve been reminded to drive slowly and keep our distance from other cars. But remember, this is only because of the snow. As soon as it melts, we’d better get back to driving at least ten above the speed limit. 

We all shared pics of our dogs and chickens in the snow. My chickens, who normally roam around my yard, as well as my neighbors’ yards, stayed mostly in their coop. They occasionally ventured out, squawked with sadness and rage at the icy pestilence that had befallen the land, blocking out the seeds and grubs, then returned home to go poop on their water dish. 

Winners were announced in the Snowpocalypse Snowman Contest. Congrats to all the winners, and to those of us who participated. I especially liked the snow alien and the lit up snow fort. I was not expecting the outpouring of love for my daughters’ submission, Blood Lips. The girls wanted to give our snow woman lipstick, so they used food coloring. It didn’t turn out quite as they envisioned.

We’re still talking about speed limits along the highway. Some people are frustrated by the number of changes in speed limit over the course of the road. I, however, think there aren’t nearly enough changes. I propose everyone with a house along Vashon Highway chooses the speed limit for the stretch of road in front of their property and puts out a sign. I live near a nasty bend on Morgan Hill, so I pick 12mph for my section. 

I like the proposal to change the name of Vashon Highway to Vashon Lane. People will slow down because of the psycho-suggestive effect, which I’m pretty sure is a real thing that I didn’t just make up. 

Full disclosure: I’m in favor of reducing the speed limits. I rarely drive over 35 no matter where I am, and this way I can feel self-righteous when people pass me instead of guilty.

Speaking of driving, pretty much everyone rags on people in Subarus. Why? I’m not versed enough in cars to know what social and class signifiers a Subaru has. All I know is that as an owner of a Hyundai, I belong to a class of people who have terrible taste in cars. 

With the whole world shut down, we really have nothing going on except driving. On that note, someone is looking for Grateful Dead CDs to listen to in the car while cruising to Granny’s. If you happen to have some, please indulge them. I feel like someone driving to the thrift store listening to the Grateful Dead might just drive even more slowly than I do. 

On the Vashonites Rant page, an astute group member pointed out that Tillamook ice cream containers are shrinking. Also, did you know a 2 by 4 used to be 2 by 4?

An auto wrecking yard in Burien caught fire, if you were wondering what hellish ecological disaster would strike this week. At least it didn’t rain ash! 

We’ve discussed the sentiment “I don’t see color” in reference to race. Although the intention behind it may be good, it sends the message that the person who doesn’t see color doesn’t acknowledge race, and thus won’t be able to recognize racism. 

Then we had the usual argument over whether posting opinions online serves any purpose at all, or if everyone is set in their beliefs and just wants to argue. Although there are a few people who like to hold fast to an opinion and make heat on the internet, I think there are also a lot of people quietly reading and learning from other people’s posts. If you have an idea you want to share with the community, don’t let the fear of pushback stand in your way. Unless your opinion is about speed limit changes. We’ve done those to death. 

Author: Anna Shomsky

I'm a former teacher and a data engineer living on Vashon Island. My writing has appeared in Five on the Fifth, Women on Writing and on the Post-Culture Podcast. I wrote and produced the radio show Whispers of Vashon for 101.9 KVSH. I’ve had short stories published in the anthologies Island Stories and Chicken Scratchings, as well as through the Open Space Literary Project.