Another Opinion Among Many

1st Real Snow of the Year – 2009 Dec 6

So, last night it began to snow, leaving a nice, white blanket of the stuff today. The kids have gone out to play in it and its reasonably peaceful inside the house at the moment. It snowed once for an hour ot so back in October, but there was nothing left on the ground to prove that it truly was a snow day. A few days ago, we encountered the same stuff, only less. I figure that I can’t really call it the first snowfal unless it sticks around long enough to show a litle proof, so today is the day.

Its December and the 1st day of winter is coming upon us, so its time that we looked the part. Apparently, there are lots of folks around here who have been feeling the same. The excitement of people in the area is spilling over onto their Twitter and Facebook status updates, like this snowfall is some kind of great significant sign. I guess it is. I wrote about it, too, right?

Perhaps its the visual queue that signifys a change. With the way our government has created mass panic over the season’s new flu and the past year of economic slump affecting all of our lives in unpredictable ways, its nice to see that some things change and aren’t actually a bad thing. But, who am I to say? I’m just a guy who woke up and saw a pretty scene out of his front window that just needed to be captured by a lens.

No problem! The radio reports that RCMP have stated that you should not go out on the roads unless you absolutely have to.  If you do, you’re probably on you own.  That is…if you can get on the road!

Where is the road

Here’s my road this morning.  Click on the image for a large view.  For some reason the blowing snow doesn’t show well in it, so its worse than it looks here.

Have you ever done something so boneheaded that you just wish that you could rewind your day?

Today, it snowed and the wind blew (okay, it was yesterday, as its 12:31am and I’m still up).  I don’t know what the snowfall amount ended up as, since its still falling, but I know that the wind blew a lot of it into my driveway.

I left work early today so that I could go home during daylight.  That was the plan, anyways. I went to my car (wading through the snow in the parking lot) and pulled my keys out of my pocket to start the car.  As I pulled the chain out of my pocket, I hit one of the buttons on the remote lock.  I started the car and grabbed my snow brush to clean off the ice and snow from the windows.  I got out of the car and shut the driver’s door and got to the scraping.  Did you catch that? I shut the door.

Yep, I locked the keys inside the car, in the ignition.  My car is locked and running.  My keycard to get back into work is in the car, as I always remove it and store it in the glove box, so that I’ll have it for when I go back to work (and I can lock it in, so its secure).  So, I’m outside in a blizzard, snow pelting me, blurring my glasses and getting me wet, holding my snow brush.

I tried to break into my car with a coat hanger but it wasn’t stiff enough to work the lock or window buttons.  I did this for about an hour without any luck.  It seems that locks are meant to work.

Did I mention that I had no money with me? So, I called my car dealership to see if my “roadside assistance” covered locking your keys in the car.  Apparently not.  So, I told the guy that I had no money so I couldn’t afford to pay a tow truck driver or locksmith to get into my car.  My heart was sunk to the floor at that point.  He raised it a bit by suggesting that I call the towing company that they use and tell them that I’d pay the dealer int he morning.  So, he gave me the phone number and I called the towing company.

Remember, this is a blizzard-like snow storm. Visibility was pretty low and they were busy helping people out of ditches, etc.  It was nearly an hour before they showed up (but he warned me).  So, the tow driver took out a scraper-like device and a slim bladder device to pry the door from the frame of the car by pumping the bladder up, like a blood pressure guage.  he then took his nice doorunlocker rod to push the button to lower the window and he opened the door for me.  Cha-ching!

I followed the snowplow down the highway to home at about 50km/h.  I was pretty bedraggled from the outdoor ordeal, so I concetrated on getting the end of the driveway cleared enough to get the car off the road and lef the rest for later.  I came in and ate and relaxed (recharged, really).  After watching a TV show, I went back outside (in the dark) and finished off the driveway.  I need to have it fairly clear for Saturday, as I’ve got someone coming to service the phone and internet.  I can’t have them wading through 3 feet of snow to do that, now can I?

So now, my rant is over and I am going to bed, only to wake up 5 hours from now.  I’d planned on helping a brewery meet their botom line after work.  I don’t think that I’m going to push their profits over the edge on that much sleep, now am I?

Seems that the warm, heavy snow – that’s perfect for snowmans – is too heavy for our power lines. You don’t know how good it is until its gone, huh. Now, since my alarm clock is run from the electricity in the wall socket…

highway being plowed

So, this is the after…doesn’t look so bad, does it? I didn’t include any pics of me up on the roof, clearing the snow and tree branches away from the power pole entrance and the sattelite dish.  This is the first time that we lost TV because of an obstruction on our dish, and I must say that it took quite a lot.  Kudos to Bell.  From my experience with Cable TV out here, this is nothing in comparison, despite the FUD that the local cable monopoly is trying to dish out.

Where does the time go on the weekends? This weekend, I began, by not working overtime.  That seemed like a good idea.  I stopped at a few places on the way home to grab some odds and ends that I’d not been able to get earlier.

I picked up some delicious beer to start the weekend off right.I must say that I am really liking the Porter style of beer lately. So, last week, it rained a torrential downpour, leaving just our house in the middle of a soggy yard.

This week, it snows and is well below freezing.  Mac’s still in denial, I am sure, but I’ve got the proof that old man winter is on his way.

So, Ange and I painted some more as well.  Our living room is finished, for all intents and purposes, and one bedroom’s paint is drying now.  Two more rooms and a bit in the hall is all that’s left for the paint.  That won’t come soon enough.

As you can see, we’ve tried to escape the ’80s fake wood paneling look as much as possible.  We’ve even fulled in the cracks in the paneling to smooth out the wall a bit.

The sun hasn’t even come up yet, but I can still see the inch or so of snow coating the ground.  Mac’s favorite stuff is coming…

First day I see snow this year

Wow.  I had hoped that the snow was gone for good this season, but we got a dusting on Saturday.  of course, that was just enough to make it a bit yucky to travel in.  The driving was good, but getting in and out of the vehicle was an exercise in keeping little kid’s nice “birthday visiting” clothes clean.  If I had been able to secure a truck for an hour, I would have had to move furniture in that yuck as well (buying a couch and chair from a co-worker).

So, this morning, it was chilly – around the freezing mark – but there were only a few flakes of snow to wipe off the car.  The ice has cleared on the river on our end, down from the dam.  So, now its the dicey exercise for NB Power to open and close the dam to try and minimize the flooding along the river valley.  The water level has risen to about 2 feet below the “overflow” point as of this morning, so it might be us that floods.  We’ll see.