24 January 2010
Doug's Sick, So a Short Letter This Week
24/01/10 18:25
A very busy week. Normally I head to Pacific Shores and the Nanaimo office once a week each. This week I had two trips to Pacific Shores and three to Nanaimo. On Tuesday I was at Pacific Shores for another reason and found out that they were doing a complete remodelling of the Accounting office. So on Friday I spent the whole day up there moving wires, computers, water coolers, cables, desks and such. The other three days I was at Nanaimo working on many different things including a carpentry project. It was a very busy week.
Monday was a bit wild and stormy. They cancelled the ferries between Vancouver Island and the mainland for the whole day. Where we were was not too bad, Nanaimo is in the lea of the mountains that run down the middle of the island. We got a lot of rain, it was a bit gusty and there were some electrical outages, but nothing as severe as on the mainland. There they got winds over 100 (km/hr that is) driving rain, it was a real mess. Trees were down all over Vancouver. Roads were blocked, power was out, traffic lights were down, localized street flooding, it was a mess.
This does bring up one question. Why does the city of Nanaimo wash the streets when it's raining? I swear I only see their street sweepers in the winter. June-August nothing. So far I've seen the sweeper go up our street twice this month, both times when it was pouring. Strange.
This storm was just the next, albeit the most severe, in a series of Pineapple Express storms that started in December. Late in the week the rain stopped and it got sunny and quite warm. So warm in fact that I've been running around without a coat.
The trouble is that all this beautiful weather and warm rain has hit the ski areas really hard. Whistler Blackcombe is scrambling. They've had to close some of the runs to steal snow for others. They are trying to cover some runs to keep the sun off it . They're even looking at putting down plywood and straw and then spread the little remaining snow left at the top of the mountain over this base. In about three weeks the Winter Olympics begin at the resort and they are getting frantic. It's even been too warm to make artificial snow.
We'll see what happens.
Monopoly is having a vote to see what Canadian cities makes it on their Canadian edition board game. Folks are able to vote for their favourite cities. If anyone is interested, here is the website http://www.monopolyvote.ca/en_CA/world. The instructions and general information is below. We are voting for Nanaimo, Victoria and Winnipeg. But if this site works in the US feel free to vote for whom ever you want. (On the other hand Nanaimo was at last count 47th and we'd like to see it a lot higher.)
Instructions:
MONOPOLY is launching a new Canadian Edition and is inviting Canadians to vote for their favourite cities. The vote will determine the top 20 cities and the top 2 wildcard cities that will be the property spaces on the MONOPOLY Canada game board. Please vote for your friend’s cities or choose your own cities!
Every day you are able to vote for up to 3 of your favourite Canadian cities from our pre-selected list and to nominate one city not on the list as a wildcard. To do so, select a city from the map and add to your cities, or enter your wildcard city in the designated area. To keep the vote fair, you will be asked to register and to verify your email address via an email you will receive once your registration is received. Happy voting!
Go Vikings and have a nice week.
Doug and Marsh
No new pictures for this week - but here a few from some of our prior outings
Monday was a bit wild and stormy. They cancelled the ferries between Vancouver Island and the mainland for the whole day. Where we were was not too bad, Nanaimo is in the lea of the mountains that run down the middle of the island. We got a lot of rain, it was a bit gusty and there were some electrical outages, but nothing as severe as on the mainland. There they got winds over 100 (km/hr that is) driving rain, it was a real mess. Trees were down all over Vancouver. Roads were blocked, power was out, traffic lights were down, localized street flooding, it was a mess.
This does bring up one question. Why does the city of Nanaimo wash the streets when it's raining? I swear I only see their street sweepers in the winter. June-August nothing. So far I've seen the sweeper go up our street twice this month, both times when it was pouring. Strange.
This storm was just the next, albeit the most severe, in a series of Pineapple Express storms that started in December. Late in the week the rain stopped and it got sunny and quite warm. So warm in fact that I've been running around without a coat.
The trouble is that all this beautiful weather and warm rain has hit the ski areas really hard. Whistler Blackcombe is scrambling. They've had to close some of the runs to steal snow for others. They are trying to cover some runs to keep the sun off it . They're even looking at putting down plywood and straw and then spread the little remaining snow left at the top of the mountain over this base. In about three weeks the Winter Olympics begin at the resort and they are getting frantic. It's even been too warm to make artificial snow.
We'll see what happens.
Monopoly is having a vote to see what Canadian cities makes it on their Canadian edition board game. Folks are able to vote for their favourite cities. If anyone is interested, here is the website http://www.monopolyvote.ca/en_CA/world. The instructions and general information is below. We are voting for Nanaimo, Victoria and Winnipeg. But if this site works in the US feel free to vote for whom ever you want. (On the other hand Nanaimo was at last count 47th and we'd like to see it a lot higher.)
Instructions:
MONOPOLY is launching a new Canadian Edition and is inviting Canadians to vote for their favourite cities. The vote will determine the top 20 cities and the top 2 wildcard cities that will be the property spaces on the MONOPOLY Canada game board. Please vote for your friend’s cities or choose your own cities!
Every day you are able to vote for up to 3 of your favourite Canadian cities from our pre-selected list and to nominate one city not on the list as a wildcard. To do so, select a city from the map and add to your cities, or enter your wildcard city in the designated area. To keep the vote fair, you will be asked to register and to verify your email address via an email you will receive once your registration is received. Happy voting!
Go Vikings and have a nice week.
Doug and Marsh
No new pictures for this week - but here a few from some of our prior outings