It brought us an impressive high of 25F but also dropped 2.25" of freezing rain so that was unfortunate but still very memorable. If the upper levels had been like 100 miles south it would've been like 3 feet or more of snow.

Definitely your fault.

Yeah, but it's hard to not objectively be impressed by the numbers on the ground Jan 2024 put up. 10/3 day at BLI. Coldest January high for SEA since 1969. Afternoon temps in the teens at PDX. Low level or not (and remember, some of those mighty historical air masses had quite the low level component, too), those were top tier numbers not seen in many years.

Yeah, ash doesn't melt like snow, it just gets everywhere. Not easy at all to get rid of.

You would not want a foot of ash. I was living in Vancouver when Mt. St. Helens erupted. We got about a quarter of an inch, even with that it was hard to do anything outside all summer. It made you eyes and nose itch, you were also constantly thirsty. No fun. Fortunately it was gone by the following spring. Hopefully Rainier with calm down or maybe not, if you believe all the crazy videos.