28 December 2008
We Lied Part 2
28/12/08 05:49
The worst of the snow is over. After a couple of weeks at 20 degrees or so, the cold finally broke and it warmed up. Xmas and Boxing Day were in the mid 30's and yesterday and today have been in the mid 40's. Although this morning started out below zero so the parking lots and roads were very icy. You can almost hear the snow melting. For those of you in Minnesota it's like having the whole month of March in two days. The snow is about half gone and if this holds then, outside of the heaps in the corners of parking lots, the snow will be gone by next weekend.
We did notice a few things during the last couple of weeks.
It was cold enough that lakes froze over. Only about 1 mm and we could tell just by looking at it that the ice was really soft, but they were frozen over. Nevertheless officials had to issue warnings so people would not try to walk out on the ice. And speaking of morons, we've mentioned how slick the roads were. Most people were driving very carefully. That is except for the usual guys with 4x4s who think that 4WD helps stopping and steering. We saw several of them in the ditches. Unfortunately that did not include the guy with the oversized Hummer with every accessory imaginable bolted on. He slid all over the place but managed to not actually hit anything. Most egregious though was the morning I was on the way to work. Everyone was doing around 20 MPH and driving like a bunch of cats on marbles. Then through the middle of this a full sized Peterbilt tanker truck came blasting by all of us doing the posted speed limit. Scared the heck out of all of us. Shortly thereafter I turned off so I don't know if he lucked out or not.
On the home front I mentioned last week how we kept getting stuck in the driveway. The biggest problem was that the mix of ice, slush, and water made it so we couldn't even stand, let alone push the car. We had to spread kitty litter under the tires and under our feet. The end result of all this was the car in the garage and we have a deodorized, clumping, 'fresh mountain scent' driveway.
We were rather surprised to find that nobody here cleans the sidewalks. Even the city made no effort to clear any sidewalks. The upshot of this was that in addition to trying to keep the car on the road, not hit the berm or other skating cars, we had to worry about wayward pedestrians walking in the roadway. Fun. Of course this is a town where we saw them trying to clear the snow on the road with a road grader so we had a pretty good feeling for how unprepared Nanaimo was for this kind of weather.
Speaking of shoveling things, As I mentioned last week we've had to shovel the driveway at least once a day. Somehow I haven't felt the urge to work out in the evening like I normally do. Weightlifting and time on the treadmill just seemed like it would be redundant after moving a ton of snow. OK working out in the garage when it was 20 degrees didn't thrill me either.
So this weekend we tried to get things that we had to hold off on during the snow. I needed a haircut, some new shoes, (there's nothing like a shoe blowout and wet socks to let you know it's time for a new pair) and my phone was misbehaving. Marsha worked this morning so I ran around taking care of things. The haircut went fine, except they were short staffed because one of the stylists couldn't make it in. I found the shoes I wanted but they didn't have the right size because they hadn't gotten any shipments in three weeks. Rogers offered to replace my old phone at no cost but all systems were down so they couldn't process anything. I also have been trying to get a copy of the last Narnia movie on DVD but the only copes they have are Blue-Ray. Once again I suspect that deliveries were suspended for most of the month.
At least though, it is warming up. Vancouver has had some trouble with flooding but most of Nanaimo is hilly so we haven't had that sort of problem. So that is it for another week on our Island paradise.
Doug and Marsh
Barbara's cat Sesame keeping warm and dry inside. They are smarter than to go outside in this mess.
Compare these two pictures to the ones from last week and you can see how much the snow has gone done.
We did notice a few things during the last couple of weeks.
It was cold enough that lakes froze over. Only about 1 mm and we could tell just by looking at it that the ice was really soft, but they were frozen over. Nevertheless officials had to issue warnings so people would not try to walk out on the ice. And speaking of morons, we've mentioned how slick the roads were. Most people were driving very carefully. That is except for the usual guys with 4x4s who think that 4WD helps stopping and steering. We saw several of them in the ditches. Unfortunately that did not include the guy with the oversized Hummer with every accessory imaginable bolted on. He slid all over the place but managed to not actually hit anything. Most egregious though was the morning I was on the way to work. Everyone was doing around 20 MPH and driving like a bunch of cats on marbles. Then through the middle of this a full sized Peterbilt tanker truck came blasting by all of us doing the posted speed limit. Scared the heck out of all of us. Shortly thereafter I turned off so I don't know if he lucked out or not.
On the home front I mentioned last week how we kept getting stuck in the driveway. The biggest problem was that the mix of ice, slush, and water made it so we couldn't even stand, let alone push the car. We had to spread kitty litter under the tires and under our feet. The end result of all this was the car in the garage and we have a deodorized, clumping, 'fresh mountain scent' driveway.
We were rather surprised to find that nobody here cleans the sidewalks. Even the city made no effort to clear any sidewalks. The upshot of this was that in addition to trying to keep the car on the road, not hit the berm or other skating cars, we had to worry about wayward pedestrians walking in the roadway. Fun. Of course this is a town where we saw them trying to clear the snow on the road with a road grader so we had a pretty good feeling for how unprepared Nanaimo was for this kind of weather.
Speaking of shoveling things, As I mentioned last week we've had to shovel the driveway at least once a day. Somehow I haven't felt the urge to work out in the evening like I normally do. Weightlifting and time on the treadmill just seemed like it would be redundant after moving a ton of snow. OK working out in the garage when it was 20 degrees didn't thrill me either.
So this weekend we tried to get things that we had to hold off on during the snow. I needed a haircut, some new shoes, (there's nothing like a shoe blowout and wet socks to let you know it's time for a new pair) and my phone was misbehaving. Marsha worked this morning so I ran around taking care of things. The haircut went fine, except they were short staffed because one of the stylists couldn't make it in. I found the shoes I wanted but they didn't have the right size because they hadn't gotten any shipments in three weeks. Rogers offered to replace my old phone at no cost but all systems were down so they couldn't process anything. I also have been trying to get a copy of the last Narnia movie on DVD but the only copes they have are Blue-Ray. Once again I suspect that deliveries were suspended for most of the month.
At least though, it is warming up. Vancouver has had some trouble with flooding but most of Nanaimo is hilly so we haven't had that sort of problem. So that is it for another week on our Island paradise.
Doug and Marsh
Barbara's cat Sesame keeping warm and dry inside. They are smarter than to go outside in this mess.
Compare these two pictures to the ones from last week and you can see how much the snow has gone done.