Yesterday, we asked for your tales of winter weather woe. We wanted to know how the repeated blasts of snow and cold temperatures have impacted your travel and even Christmas plans. Here are more of your stories.

The picture of the 8-foot snowman was sent in from a Lakewood reader.

Leslie Sirag, 63, of Olympia wrote:

We live in unincorporated Olympia and have been snowed in since last Tuesday.
Our car has been in a neighbor's drainage ditch since my husband tried to get out on Thursday, and the AAA towtruck, taking life-threatening situations first, has yet to arrive.

Luckily, we've had power except for about 4 hours in the early am a few days ago. We have food & essential medicines, and, though the house isn't exactly warm, we're not freezing and do have lights, phone, and internet.

Our toilet did back up the other day, probably an ice jam breaking, & put about 2 inches of clean but freezing water all over our bathroom floor & a bit onto the hall rug, but we were able to sop it all up & wash & bleach the towels.

In a few more days we may have a medication crisis, but we're hoping to get out by then. Meanwhile, we're getting to various boring tasks we've been avoiding, but would really like to be able to share the holidays with our family and friends.

Another reader wrote:

We've had to change our routes as we have only one way to get out (streets blocked off--we live at 30th and C Streets South, between Pacific and Tacoma avenues near Holy Rosary Church). My boyfriend and I were also planning to spend Christmas on Whidbey Island but fortunately we hadn't made a reservation. I usually bus it, but we've been able to combine trips to the doctor, p.o., and limited shopping (none at the mall). Can't tell what the snow routes are but I saw a Route 1 bus up on K street and a 2 going up Tacoma toward 38th. Would be nice to see the changes available somewhere. Go figure!

Have no idea what we're doing now for Christmas.

Dave Daurelle wrote:

No problems for me - I use Pierce transit to get around - AND THEY ROCK!!! I've not had any troubles getting to work or home. THANK YOU PIERCE TRANSIT!!!

Diane Harney wrote:

This weather has increased my travel. Having a 4-wheel drive vehicle and lots of snow-driving experience, I've spent a lot of time driving friends to work, church, appointments and parties. The driving has been fun for me (although not around the mall) and have enjoyed the chance to help out friends.

H. William Safford of Olympia wrote:

I learned to drive in ice and snow on Adak Alaska while in the Navy. My last duty station before retiring was 3 years in Keflavik Iceland.

I have an absolute TERROR of the yahoos who drive here in Olympia.

They speed. They drive at 5mph. They have no concept of safe speeds (20-35 on snow and ice). They stomp on the brakes (and skid). No idea of how to apply brakes slowly and steadily. They tailgate. They have no concept of safe distances between vehicles (3x wet street differences). They think a big truck or 4-wheel drive can save them.

And on top of that some of them are rude, vicious, and nasty.

Like the guy who left a threatening telephone call on Friday and cursed me out for delaying him. He was well versed in the F-word, but even after he passed my and the car ahead of me, was only 15 seconds ahead of us by the time he had travelled 4 miles, and when he went from US 101 to I-5 south, I (and the other car he swerved past) were ahead of him heading onto I-5 north. For this he almost head-oned a pickup while passing on a curve.

We will probably be driving up to Seattle to spend Christmas with our daughters and my sister-in-law.

Joan and Michael Milasich of Tacoma wrote:

My husband, Mick, has been very sick the past couple of years: heart surgery and then cancer. Worried we might not have many opportunities for our eight children, spouses, and grandchildren to all be together as a family in the future, I decided last spring to book an entire-family vacation in Cabo San Lucas for this Christmas.

When news of an impending blizzard surfaced Friday, we decided that if we were nearer to the airport in Seattle we would have a better chance of getting on a plane Sunday morning. So some of us took two rooms at the Marriott…five in one room and four in the other...and my son and his wife and another daughter and her fiance would meet us at the airport in the morning.

Later Saturday evening, one daughter called to ask about her boarding pass. I dug through all the piles of reservations I had made for the airplane and the resort rooms, only to find I had skipped her! Her fiancé spent most of the wee hours trying to find a ticket for her at the last minute, and finally found one the next morning at $200 less than I had paid! Greatly relieved after a mostly sleepless night, I pushed my husband out of bed at 6am and told him to take the hotel shuttle to the airport to find out what was happening because I couldn’t get any information on line or from the television.

All we could see from the hotel was a winter wonderland outside, and at that point I didn’t have too much faith we were going anywhere at 10:30am. He couldn’t get a shuttle, so he walked from the Marriott in sweatshirt and tennis shoes (remember we were bound for sunny Cabo!) and called to say he would wait in the line snaking all over the terminal for check in. He suggested we try curb-side check in and it might be faster, so we hauled sleepy children, stroller, and all the luggage outside and stood in line in the freezing cold for a couple of hours waiting to check in.

We finally made it to the boarding gate with fifteen minutes to spare, and I was in a state of disbelief at that point. I couldn’t imagine this thing was going to go off without anymore hitches. In spite of increasing snowfall, everyone was in their seats, belted in, and ready to roll when the first delay was announced.

The pilot was very good about keeping us informed of what was happening, but after several more delays, finally at around 2:30pm, he gave us the excellent news that we were on "first priority" for de-icing, and that would take place just as soon as a couple of people made it back on to the plane (people had been allowed to leave and come back during the delay).

Everyone was happy and cheering. Another twenty minutes went by and a woman came rushing onto the plane—an act that was roundly booed by everyone on board—and after gathering up her personal belongings, she exited hastily and didn’t return.

The next thing I saw was a single luggage container cozying up to the baggage compartment down below me, and a baggage handler who closely resembled Frosty the Snowman with a frown and a frozen mustache attempting to open the hatch to retrieve bags. At that point we were still attached to the jet way instead of pushing back to be de-iced as was the plan.

What had happened was the woman's husband and 12-year-old son, who were sitting in front of one of my daughters in the back of the plane, had decided they didn't want to sit through any more delays, and the son refused to re-board the plane. Regulations require their bags be removed, and because we were not pushed back from the jet way and secured, the de-icing machine moved to the next ready plane and skipped ours.

They ran out of de-icer with that last plane, and we received the news at 3:45pm that Alaska was very sorry indeed, but our flight was canceled.

All I can say is it was a good thing the woman left with her family before those passengers were let off the plane, because they would have ripped her apart like so many rabid dogs! There was one couple on board who had been through the same procedure twice before, and this was their third go at leaving for Cabo. There were many parents with toddlers who had been patiently trying to amuse their tired kids all day long.

We shuffled off, had a brief family meeting about whether or not we wanted to start all over again the next day on a standby basis, because we had $20,000 invested in the project and everyone had taken vacations from work to go. We were told our baggage wouldn't show up for six hours, and if we wanted to re-book, we could stand in a line that would take several hours to move through.

We were stranded without transportation, and it had been snowing heavily all day. Taxi and shuttle lines were snaked for what seemed like miles. We sat down and began the wait for a shuttle outside in the parking garage. Huddled underneath blankets, we chattered our teeth for two and a half hours in the miserable cold, and finally got a shuttle that delivered us to my husband's office on 6th Avenue around 7pm.

Alaska's on-line site is still down today, and it is impossible to get through to them on the telephone. Even as I write this, one of my sons and his wife are still standing in line (since 6am this morning) trying to get on the advertised "on-time" flight to Cabo because neither one of them rarely gets time off from work and they really want a vacation.

All I can say is "Good Luck" and "Hasta manyana."