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.
So, the puddle at the end of our driveway is becoming the lake that is swallowing our driveway. I hope that we have a few days in a row of really sunny weather so that the snow will melt off some more, and, with any luck, the ground will thaw a bit and absorb some of the wet stuff. It would be nice if this was truly spring. After all, it IS April. I remember that this time last year, the utility that I work for was waiting for the run of warm enough days so that they could go and shut off the delinquents. Its amazing what you can scam out of your local utility in Ontario. No wonder the prices are going up, thanks to those who know how to fleece the system repeatedly.
My grandfather’s funeral consumed the weekend, of course, so we (Angela and I) spent much of Saturday and Sunday traveling. Despite the short stay in Nova Scotia, it was a pleasant time, with the exception of the funeral itself, of course. Saying all that, the minister who did the ceremony was excellent and his eulogy was that of a family friend, rather than that of a stranger making up encouraging words, which really made a big difference. He stirred up some memories with his own recollections, which was nice. Something that I didn’t know is that my grandfather (and great uncle) had two deceased infant sisters. I wonder how they coped with that as kids. I don’t really want to find out personally, though.
My brother gave me an old camera of his, a Kodak DX4900. Its not a bad camera - not quite as sleek as the Olympus, but it actually works as intended. I went to Future Shop and got a replacement Compact Flash card for it so that I won’t be limited to the piddly 16MB card that it came with. So, now instead of taking 24 pictures on my regular card, I can take 999 pictures on my Sandisk 2GB Ultra II card, which is supposed to be faster than a normal Compact Flash card. Its too bad that the camera doesn’t get recognized under Linux as a flash drive. At least gPhoto picks it up and wants to import your photos for you. Perhaps I should get a card reader for a situation like this.
Wow, what a buzz about Wordpress 2.5. I’m not going to say anything new about it, as the net is saturated with goop about everyone’s new installations. One thing I will warn, though, is the same thing that I warn every time. Back up your site before doing a major change to it! With Wordpress sites, that means, for sure, backing up your database. If you have cPanel, use its convenient backup feature, as its just a mouse click. Do the same for your home directory if you’ve had a lot of changes since you last backed up. At the very least, back up your /wp-content directory, so that your customizations on your theme and plugins will remain intact elsewhere in case a back up is needed. It can’t hurt to export your Wordpress blog via the built in export facility. There’s a lot of goodness in that .xml file.
Do you need a job? Do you live in the Fredericton area? My employer is still hiring. If you want the details, email me. I will refer you and you’ll make me rich! (okay, not rich, but their is an incentive, like a head hunter’s bounty). You’ll also get the chance to work hard and make lots of your own money, of course. 
If a picture is worth 1000 words, then here are 2000. Finally, it looks like the Canada that the rest of the world sees us as:
This was yesterday.
That’s out my window this morning. We got another 10cm or so.
More, but not worthy of another post:
This would be what Macbros had referred to on his site.
Behind our Building
Another of the Trees
[photopress:cutecalebinbed.JPG,thumb,pp_image]So, the weather network is decrying bad things, like a 30cm snow/ice-fall warning. What wacky weather we’ve had this month. Its bee -30°C and +10°C. Today was -26°C and tomorrow is supposed to be around 0C. But, tonight, its supposed to start snowing and not stop.
Will schools be canceled? I’m taking bets (not for money). I’m saying no for now. I’ll update at 5-6am
Who am I kidding? The weather forecast is for 15-30cm of snow and high winds, causing “white out” conditions. Nice. Perhaps the departure may be delayed for a day. We’ll see in the morning…
It’s morning and we’re still here…click the images for a larger version.
So, it looks like its departure Jan 3rd! So, now I have a day off and time to get to the tire shop before they close! That is, unless he’s closed up due to weather…
Its snowing outside right now. The flakes are quite large and fluffy and its coming down reasonably heavily. The snowfall is heavy enough that its altering the “color” of the air to a mist-like whiteness. Its blanketing everything in its path in its generic whiteness. It dampens sounds and one feels like they are being separated from the rest of the world by the snow’s insulative isolation.
I’ve noticed that even on busy week days, snow like this will still create this feeling. The isolation does not induce loneliness, though. Its more of a protective coating that sheilds one from the normal hustle and bustle of the human world. On a weekend like this day, though, most activity slows down and only those who really have to get out of their homes venture to do so.
So, why is it that the potential real isolation of a heavy snowfall brings comfort instead of fear? Is it because we equate fluffy snowflakes with fuzzy soft toys or pets? Is it because it forces us to slow down? Is it because snowfall deadens the sharp sounds, dulling reality? Or, is it something more metaphysical in that its covering up of the dirty ground causes a latent triggering of some primitive inner cathartic mechanism that we don’t normally have access to? Why does a blanket of snow feel like a fresh start?
