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Issue #1130

Including:

Russ

Nova Scotia Sus

Me

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From Russ

Shrinking.

At age 25 I was 5ft 10in - Just tall enough to get into Kitchener Police Department. Normally, humans continue growing taller until age 25, then they hold onto that height until age 70 and then begin to shrink. Manny factors may alter this progression - illness, injury, or amputation, to name a few. Decades of 'wear & tear' have cut me down to 5ft 6in, and to make matters worse, I'm about to be "scalloped" by a surgeon in Owen Sound on January 23rd. Greg will understand what I'm talking about, as he has undergone this experience - when I saw him at the funeral of my oldest brother, Lorne, I didn't recognize him. He had his scalp covered in white bandages, and he was shorter.

I don't know how thick the skin on the top of one's head is, but peeling it off must leave one at least 3 to 5mm shorter. Why are we having this surgical operation done, you ask? The simple answer is, as kids we didn't wear a cap, or sunscreen and the sun rays caused long-term damage, resulting in a form of cancer. (Beycell) That's likely not how it's spelled, but that's how it sounds.

On this same date (Jan. 23) my number one son, Mac, and his charming wife, Marie are arriving from balmy Calgary, to spend a week here in the "land of the Horizontal Snow" (Bruce County). They won't recognize me when I come home from the hospital - because they'll be looking for someone 3 to 5mm taller!

The fun doesn't end there - on Jan. 26 two more guests will join us in the persons of Mac & Marie's daughter, Tamara (whom you might mistake as Cleopatra), and her husband, Dennis (Dr. of Chiropractic). Don't know where I'm going to sleep all them, but my plan is to invite Cleopatra to sleep with me in my wee single bed.

Uncle Russ

PS Did you get the answers to the short Quiz in last Saturday's Squamidian? You didn't? Oh, I see - you were otherwise occupied.

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Our up and down weather patterns has created ice everywhere. I walk where no one has been so as not to slip. So there are foot prints off the lane and off sidewalks. Getting to the chicken coop is further than before...so much for short cuts. The neat thing about it is seeing all the other prints left behind by animals. The mice never go in a straight line and look like a snake path. I found rabbit prints and followed them around the yard going nowhere really. We haven't seen rabbits for years around here. So now there is evidence they exist. Our part time dog leaves lots of prints and loves the snow. So far no bear paws as they are sleeping and leaving our compost bin alone.

As you can see there is not much going on here being in the dead of winter.

Sus

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From Me

I can’t remember the last time we experienced a -25 windchill. The -12 or -15 actual temperature wasn’t too bad. In fact it could be quite invigoration to go for a walk in assuming appropriate layered clothing was warn but add that windchill and wow, it becomes painful. As you may remember, the family and I went to the Vancouver motorcycle show in Abbotsford (which is no where near Vancouver). The big drafty arena that the show is held in is at the Abbotsford airport where the wind was howling, creating that -25 or colder windchill. We managed to find parking within about a 5 minute walk from the building entrance but that walk was pure pain. The wind was so strong that when Kyra jumped up, it took here back a couple of feet. It blew the cold right through you. (Not true from a scientific view point because you can’t ‘blow cold’ as cold is simply a lesser amount of heat energy, relatively speaking). The wind did however extract body heat at an alarming rate. Within seconds every exposed part hurt and no amount of warm clothing could give any protection. By the time we all got to the entrance door we were desperate to get inside. At that point I realized I had to go back out to the parking lot to purchase a parking pass. Some of the automated parking pass machines weren’t working because of the cold and the ones that were were as slow as molasses. The girls had never ever experienced anything like this. Quite an adventure.

Judy had expressed surprise that BC gets cold, snow, and winter conditions. Well, it does. Keep in mind that the bottom of BC is WAY north of Southern Ontario, way up around Dryden’s latitude etc. The southern coastal section tends to be somewhat moderated by the Pacific ocean but even at that, Vancouver and Victoria still get lots of winter although it is often just warm enough that rain tends to be the norm instead of snow. However, just go inland or up hill and you can find frigged temperatures and often massive amounts of snow. The cause of the wild winds and their chilling effect is called an ‘Arctic Outflow’. Thats where the province is flooded with an Arctic high pressure system consisting of very cold, dense air that then flows out through the mountain valleys and over the coastal sections giving the conditions we had. These actually happed several times per winter. This just happened to be not only the first for this winter, but a record breaker for low temps and high winds. Perfect storm.

Then, on Tuesday night and Wednesday we got hit with a big snowfall type winter storm. Normally that would be kind of fun if we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. However, that wasn’t the case as I had an appointment at a hospital in Vancouver to have cataract surgery on my right eye. We had enlisted a neighbor to drive us in as he is used to driving in the city. However, by Wednesday morning the city was at a standstill with all sorts of cancellations, and our highway was a mess, and even here in town was a mess including our hill which was impassable. We have a great all-wheel-drive Rave4, and my truck is a 4X4 but neither does any good if the roads are bunged up with stuck and crashed vehicles. So, I called the eye surgeon's office and told them I couldn’t make it in. That didn’t surprise them as people living close by couldn’t make it in either. So, both eyes are now re-scheduled for February. As for the snowstorm, it went on for another day and the Vancouver area and Fraser Valley got hit harder than we did. The old snow blower got lots of use and it looks like a winter wonderland around here. Then, just for the fun of it, it snowed again Thursday night and into Friday morning adding another half foot. I could go snow shoeing on my front lawn if I wanted to. I could have also taken pictures but face it, we all know what snow looks like.

Doug

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Have a Good One
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