We got a bit of snow, then some rain, and all the packed snow on trails and paths where people walk, hike, run, and bike have become sheets of ice. Snow is great for outdoor winter stuff, but ice is really hard to deal with.
A good snow would totally be fun, though. I just got new boots, too!
Snow here sucks, for 4 reasons.
1. More than a couple inches on the ground is rare enough that cities and counties do not have a lot of snow clearing equipment. So when we get one the rare incidents of a foot or more on the ground, it takes forever for the streets to be cleared.
2. Most people aren't familiar with driving on snow, so even when the roads are passable it sucks.
3. People are idiots. As a columnist in the Seattle Times once put it, they will be at the top of a steep hill, have just watched 20 other cars try to make it down and lose control, and think "I've got a Subaru Forester so I'll be fine" and become car #21 in the heap at the bottom.
4. The ground here is relatively warm during the winter. It quickly melts the first layer of snow, which then refreezes as smooth ice sheet when subsequent layers of snow pile up. So where places with cold ground have snow with road underneath, we get snow with an ice sheet underneath between it and the road. We end up with roads that are technically more challenging to drive on, which makes #2 even worse.