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.