The Squamidian Report – Dec. 8 / 07
Issue #289
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Seems half the country had a good taste of winter this past week. We sure got ours. It started snowing last Saturday afternoon and by evening there was half a foot of snow on the driveway for me to remove with the snow blower. Then on Sunday morning I removed another half foot. The snowfall rate increased and by early evening I blew off a good foot of the stuff. By the time the snowplow went through at about 2-am Monday morning another half foot of snow had fallen, and, it had turned over to rain making everything very wet and very heavy. The snow on Saturday and Sunday had been nice and dry because we had been having Arctic Outflow winds that kept our temperatures well down below zero.
The Pineapple Express that brought the rain also brought driving winds and temperatures way up into the low teens. That’s warmer than it has been here since September.
Driving problems on the roads and highway kept things at a standstill. When it was snowing and slippery the mountain grades and sharp curves are always more than any unprepared driver can handle. We get jerks running summer tires who get impatient and try to pass on double solid lines, and end up causing collisions that shut the highway down for hours. Then the rain and melted snow couldn’t drain off because the snow banks block the ditches. Sections of road were under a foot of water. And so on. Kind of fun actually.
Officially, Squamish had 62cm of snow, about 2 ft. That was measured down in the valley, we had a bit more than that up here in the Highlands. Rainfall was close to 8-inches. Between rain and melting snow the rivers and streams sure got excited.
It took until Thursday for the sky to clear. That gave us our first look at the surrounding peaks. Wow. Gleaming glistening bright and white, almost blinding. There is something incredible about fresh snow, meters deep, coating the mountainsides. Of course, the stars were also visible once the sky cleared. That comet is still there, but has now faded enough that binoculars are needed to see it clearly. Everything else is in its place as it should be.
And as luck would have it, while all that wild weather was happening, Ryan and Emily were trying to move into a new (different) apartment. Amazing how wet things can get in the back of my little pickup truck.
doug
****
****
Hello
everyone!
Just in
case you haven’t noticed, we’re within a few weeks of Christmas. It’s that time
of year when the stores are bustling with shoppers and the streets are bustling
with traffic. The arrival of snow this year earlier than it has for a few years
added to the work load of most people. Having to clear the snow off your
vehicle and also off the driveway before you can even move a wheel made for
extra confusion for commuters this past week. People don’t seem to keep in mind
that they’ll be taking longer to get anywhere when the snow arrives. They still
don’t leave enough time to do all the snow clearing and get themselves to their
jobs on time. The police talk till they’re blue in the face via the media to
educate people about the problems of traveling when there’s snow on the roads
and people just don’t let it sink in. I don’t think there’s a solution to this
problem. People seem to put more importance to other things and activities in
their lives when compared to the first snowfall. I guess they just have to slip
and slide a little before it’ll sink in. Good tires and patience make good
sense. Drive like your life depends on it! It does!
*
This
winter is supposed to be a heavy one as far as the amount of snow fall and low
temperatures goes. We’ve gotten off lightly for the past several years with the
light snow falls but that’s about to change. We’re supposed to be expecting
winters that compare to those we experienced in the 50’s and 60’s. I can
remember snowfalls that left us with one lane streets and nowhere to pile more
of the white stuff. It was piled so high along the street we lived on in
Kitchener’s North Ward that we could stand on top of the snow on the boulevard
and touch the hydro wires with our shovels. Not a smart thing to do but as far
as I know, nobody died from such antics. There were times when my dad had to
shovel his way out of the driveway in the morning and shovel his way back in
when he got home from work.
I’ve been
surprised to hear announcements on CHYM radio here in KW that schools have been
closed and school buses have been cancelled this early in the winter season.
This past week, I listened to the list of school closures and bus cancellations
on the radio while looking out at the 4” of snow on the lawns and the black wet
streets with cars moving along as if it were summer. There was absolutely no
reason to keep the kids home from school on a day like that. The young parents
of today must have been babied all through their school days to be
mollycoddling their kids today. I guess we were just a lot tougher generation
of kids back in the 50’s and 60’s. I’m sure if you’re over 45 years of age
you’ll agree with me when I say the snow always seemed to be up to my knees
whenever I had to walk to and from school and the wind felt like it was filled
with razor blades as it hit my face. Parents very rarely drove their kids to
school or picked them up in those days. I’m beginning to think we’re raising a
generation of wimps these days. Maybe this winter will open the eyes of the new
generation of parents and school kids if it even comes close to the snowfalls
and temperatures we used to enjoy in “The Good Old Days”! I hate to sound like
my parents used to but I was tempted to start this write up with “Why…. Back
when I was a boy..!” LOL! I just
wouldn’t want to have all our readers reacting with “Oh Oh, here we go again!”
LOL!
I’ll get
off the “Old Days” soap box and say good bye for this week.
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now…. Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Wife:
“Wow, the snow is really coming down!”
Hubby:
“Have you ever seen it go up?”
****
The Family Site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
The Squamidian Site:
The Biking And Stuff Site:
Have a good one..
the
doug
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