Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Bloody weather

[...and now, in true Canadian style, I shall complain about the weather.]

[Yes, I know this isn't unique to Canadians. People around the world like to complain about the weather.]

[But really, if I lived in somewhere warm, like, oh, I don't know, Costa Rica perhaps, I wouldn't have to complain like this. You know, about the snow and suchlike.]

[Yes, Yes, I know, it rains in Costa Rica. So how about Arizona? Nice and warm. Hot? Too hot? Ok, um, er, New Zealand. How about that?]


Ok, so, on with the complaining then. After pulling the disappearing act of the century (yes, really, we've been breaking temperature records right, left and centre), winter finally decided to put in an appearance in these parts. As in, "WINTER STORM WATCH, 5-10 CM OF SNOW AND FREEZING RAIN, LOCK UP YOUR PETS, COVER YOUR CAR, BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, SPRUCE UP THE YARDARM, DISCONNECT THE COMPUTER IN CASE THE SNOW CRUSHES YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION" kind of thing.

Which turned into...

[You know, New Zealand might not be so bad, gentle winds I'm told. Bit of a lack of indigenous mammals though, but plenty of birds. I like birds, have I told you that? Oh all right, I'll get on with it.]

...about an inch of ice pellets. Which is Canadian-weather-broadcaster-speak for granular snow that makes things a bit slippery, but hardly causes widespread death and destruction. But even this disappointing manifestation resulted in chaos on the roads, as in traditional style everybody immediately forgot how to drive in the snow. Traffic: atrocious. Travel time: long.

Summary of Ricardipus' day on Monday:

- express bus is half an hour late
- express bus loses another half hour on the way to the subway; highways jammed
- arrive at work an hour and a half late
- at around noon, tanker truck full of liquid oxygen jackknifes, causing highway closure
- alternative regional bus is half an hour late
- alternative regional bus loses another half hour on the way home; side roads jammed

Total travel time to work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total travel time from work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total useful time at work: just a hair under 6 hours.

That, my friends, was a long and tedious day. I can't wait* to find out what happens when we get some real winter weather.



*and by this, I really mean "I'm moving to Antigua." Actually not, I've been to Antigua. Maybe Naxos. Or Tahiti. You get the idea.

15 comments:

#Debi said...

You had 6 hours of "useful time" at work? In one day?! I'm impressed...

Richard Wintle said...

Hm. Good point. I forgot the second footnote.**


**there may be slight exaggeration of the word "useful" in this case.

Anonymous said...

New Zealand? Gentle breezes?

We had 15 foot swells across from Wellington, and the ship looked like a battlefield with pale bodies everywhere.

WrathofDawn said...

It was -13C with a -25 wind chill here today. They're predicting a balmy -18 tomorrow. Brrrrrrr!!!

That is all.

Anonymous said...

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN60901/IDN60901.94766.shtml

That is all.

Anonymous said...

bastard, bastard line-wrap.

Try this instead.

Bob said...

I'd give certain parts of my anatomy for a few ice pellets or anything that resembles snow...

alicat said...

Hey R -

We got the ice pellets here, too! (But ours manifested itself as a coating of ice on every imaginable surface - very pretty with light reflecting through it on trees, much more treacherous on early morning front stoops...). Anyway, sorry the ice messed with your daily commute - hope you get some (non-antiguan) sunshine soon!

-- Ali >^..^<

Richard Wintle said...

bk - Ok, ok, I *knew* you were going to call me out on the NZ thing...

Ali[cat] - nice to 'see' you... have you been lurking?

WrathofDawn said...

alicat said "stoop"!

bob - I've give body part to never see ice pellets again.

But I'll take my -18C wind chill any day over what's going on in Europe... BBC item

alicat said...

Hey R -

I just got your link today - I am now officially back in circulation, I suppose, as my maternity leave is up after this weekend!

To wrath of dawn - is 'stoop' a funny word? I never thought it was part of regional dialect, but I guess I was wrong! You know, its that thing you step out of your front door onto right before slipping on all that ice and falling on your butt ;)

Richard Wintle said...

Yeah, nasty weather in the US of A these days too... ice storms in Texas, with fatalities. Kind of makes my complaints seem trivial.

Anonymous said...

NZ? ... NZ? are you kidding. It's been cloudy and miserable for a week (except Thursday) and its the height of summer. And traffic in Auckland is about as bad as what you have in Canada
Still its far better than the mid west in the US of A and Europe.

Anonymous said...

Hey Wonderferret,

I was in Blenheim over Christmas. We had about three sunny days. That's not why I married my wife.

WV:veeosjhk - the noise made when you lose control on the gravel bit coming down the Taylor Pass road.

#Debi said...

Wow, Dawn, sounds like I got home from England just in time...