Winter

It's a snow storm out there. This is unusual for Toronto. We were lucky to get any white stuff by Christmas last year. Lots of firetrucks and first responders out and hardly any real traffic at all. I love the way it looks and actually don't mind going out in it much as long as I'm dressed warm. Last night skating was on in full force at Nathan Philip Square, despite the wind whipping the snow in everyone's face, and the streets were packed with people downtown.

Michelle, I can't wait to sit in darkness with just the tree on. It's such a pretty and comforting sight. This is the first Christmas in years I bought a tree. Now I need to get a couple more strings of lights and I'm good to go.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..."

It's too damn bad there isn't a sound function on here. I have this most marvellous deep robust singing voice you're all missing out on. Of course you wouldn't have to if you attended the NDP Federal Convention November 21-23 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Not at all, Michelle. On both counts! A: As baseball great Dizzy Dean said: "It ain't bragging if you can do it." And I can. When I do "You've Lost That Lov'in feeling" I get phone numbers - every time. I'd love to to "Unchained Melody" but there are three notes I cannot hit. I can get one of them if I have a cup of hot tea before a performance, but there are two that are forever lost to me. B: It costs a lot to attend Convention. A thousand bucks airfare, five hundred for hotel, a hundred in meals, a hundred in cabs and delegate's fees. That's about two thousand dollars right there. That takes some financial planning. The time to start thinking about it is now.

Well that's if you live in Regina, 2,665 miles away from Halifax. Being a mere 1,153 miles away, your costs should be signifigantly lower.

Yes there was a big warning last night of 35cm of snow. Winds up to.......all bad news. So far a few snowflakes are fluttering down and that it.

A friend from Ottawa said it was snowing very hard there so maybe the weather wizards will be right...... [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]

It started here a couple of hours ago, and it looks like we're in for another good one. Last year, we'd had 38cm of snow by now, and it had all melted. This year, we've had 127cm (not counting the 30-40cm to come), and none of it melted.

OTOH, the skiing is great. Almost all the runs are open, and since there are no tourists yet, there's no waiting for the ski lifts.

I hoped too soon. The snow is falling so hard I can't see across the lake. It is a small lake so the snow is thick.

SHIT. I hate winter! I hate snow and I hate the cold.

It began snowing heavily here in Halifax about an hour ago. We're also expecting lots of it -- up to 20 cm I guess and then, as so often happens here, it's going to turn to rain. And no doubt there will be freezing rain during the transition.

I'm with clersal. I hate winter.

Well, last week I had my mechanic inspect for a noise during an oil change. Turned out to be a cracked housing on the alternator. This is going to cost.

I dug out a bit last night, and again this morning so Rebecca could take Snarfy the Wonder Girl to school, and get herself to work. I had to get the van with the cracked alternator housing out, and deliver my 18 to the bus depot.

Mission accomplished, but the battery light stayed on all the way to the bus depot, so I took the van to my mechanic directly after dropping off my 18 year old.

I still have some snow blowing to do, but I feel rather weak and feverish at the moment.

Maybe I'll get that done, and sleep the rest of the afternoon.

Hate winter? No, but it certainly puts an edge on things.

Oh my GOD. That's awful! I'm so sorry to hear that, Sineed. Which streetcar line are you on? Aren't most of them 24 hours?? St. Clair was running last night, surprisingly enough. (Oh, never mind, I see you said this happened during the height of the blizzard, which was during the day, not last night.) Makes me glad we didn't try to go tobogganing yesterday, if the buses and streetcars weren't running during the storm. We'd have had to take both to get to Christie Pitts.

I managed to go to and from Mississauga without incident last night.

I'm glad you were able to rest today. Couldn't you have stayed with the neighbour too? [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]

[ 17 December 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

I have garbage on the back balcony that I was going to take out. I kept missing the recycling time, which is no big deal, but the garbage is more of a big deal.

Anyhow, last week, the squirrels got into my garbage, and I thought, okay, I'm going to clean that up and take it down to the garbage bins out back of the house. And, I thought, I'm going to make sure I don't miss the recycling this week.

So I just went out to the balcony and discovered that all of my recycling and garbage are frozen in about a foot and a half of snow. And I have no shovel.

So I guess I'll just hope for some mild weather soon. It's safe enough while frozen, I guess!

Most of the streetcars were theoretically running, but there were lots of delays from all the accidents. I would have taken the 504 south on Roncesvalles then the 501 east on Queen, but I walked the full length of Roncy without seeing a single streetcar. Ditto Queen, though on the way back I'd walked about two-thirds the way when one came along, though I still had to walk all the way back up to Bloor from the lake (off of which the wind was just screaming).

I couldn't just wait for my husband to come home, as his gigs go very late; ie, 1-2 am. Part of my distress was related to being silly enough to lock myself out. At least, despite all the snow, it wasn't that cold, not dropping below minus 15, I think.

During my long trudge along Queen West, I was amused by all the lousy drivers. There was the guy in the low-slung sports car who tried to crash through a snowbank two-thirds the height of his car and got hopelessly stuck. He got out of his car and looked at me, and I walked past quickly in case he asked me to help him push out his car (not to be mean, but I'm a tiny person and not of much use when it comes to budging large metal objects). And there were lots of people who would spin out on what looked like totally bald tires before they'd continue careening at top speed along Queen.

I feed the birds and chipmunks every morning. I like having wildlife around, just not the two-footed kind.

Caissa: [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

I also carry dog biscuits in my pockets to feed to the neighborhood dogs when I'm out for a walk. Cassie - the German Shepherd I looked after last year, often joins me for a walk.

With the odd exception, I find London drivers at their best in adverse conditions. The time in London to be on your most defensive are the clear sunny days. Minds tend to wander.

London used to have a really neat store called "Knovacs" when I was a kid. Army surplus stuff, good stuff for camping. But they went all boutiquey years ago, and now they sell all those down filled jackets and wonderful hiking boots and such. A friend of my eldest used to work there, so I have an idea of the mark up. Yikes.

I shop for stuff mostly at "Forrest City Surplus" which is more like the old "Knovacs" used to be.

Saw a really neat trick on "Survivor Man", the episode where he was in Labrador. A little vaseline rubbed into a cotton ball makes a pretty nifty fire starter. A few sparks from his flint and steel had it going just like a zippo. I wouldn't have thought vaseline was that inflammable.... probably came close to becoming a human torch more than a few times when I was a young teen..... [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]