Today Peter was sent home early due to the rapidly deteriorating weather. My mom picked me up at the house today at about 11:45 and we went to WalMart, got a couple of things, and then went to the food court and had a quick lunch. When we walked into WalMart, it was raining with a little hail thrown in for good measure. When we finished lunch, about 45 minutes later, the entire parking lot was covered in snow. The streets were already filled with slush. It happened so quickly it was almost eerie. So my mom threw in the towel on shopping, opting instead for getting home while the roads are still safe, and I called Peter and told him that I'd rather he get here sooner than later. He was home by 2:00 and work tomorrow is looking pretty iffy from where we are.
Now, I know all you Saskatchewan toughies will call us wimps, but there is a very strange difference in the weather here. First, the snow is just different. In Alberta, you're taught that if you're spinning out, to lead your tires to snow, snow they can grip, ice they cannot. Not so here. This snow is so dense and wet from the humidity it's just no use. Also, -10 here feels different than -10 in Alberta. This is a wet cold that seeps straight into your bones and makes it always feel 5-10 degrees colder than it is. So I know it's not as bad, but it sure isn't nice either. Plus, Vancouver Island is simply not prepared for weather like this. We have nearly no snowplows, which is why school closes when it snows 3 inches. Busses refuse to drive in it and the amount of snowplows (snowploughs?) make it so that the back roads simply never get done. There aren't any people to salt the roads. On our last big dump of snow, we actually saw that the city of Victoria had hired constuction companies or anyone with a dump truck to work salting roads. They loaded up with salt and then drove 10 feet along the road, stopped, got out and into the bucket of the truck, grabbed a spade and threw salt on the road, climbed back into the truck, drove another 10 feet...Why a spade, you ask? Because the regular shovels that Canadian Tire keeps in stock sell out about three minutes after the snow starts falling. All five of them, gone in a flash. Window scrapers are the same, you just can't buy one anywhere.
Worst of all, and the main reason why, when I see five snowflakes, I want all my family off the roads, in their houses and safe: drivers. Nobody in BC has the slightest clue what to do with snow. They drive like total idiots. They don't think, when trying to pull into traffic, "hey, because it's snowing, I need a bigger space between cars than I used to, since nobody can slam on their brakes when I cut them off". It doesn't occur to these people. Of course, most of them are over 85 and shouldn't be driving in good weather, let alone this...
However, today, I'm glad for the snow. I'm loving it. We've been hit with storm after storm here, and trees are trashing power lines all over. Poor Reagan and Carlie have been out of power for three days, and will not see it on again before the weekend, I'm sure. They're sleeping at my mom and dad's.
But in my little house, we have power, we have a very steep hill that is impossible to climb in a Civic when the weather gets like this. I went grocery shopping yesterday, my Christmas shopping is done. I have no reason to go anywhere. My family is safe, though crowded, in their house. Robyn and Baby Lu are safe, though bored, in their apartment up the street. My husband is home safe, our car is parked. We're officially snowed in together. I have dinner marinating in the fridge, and I'm going to light some candles. I'm going to keep my fireplace on and wrap up in a blanket with my gorgeous husband and just call it a day. No where to go, and the perfect excuse to do nothing at all. Stay up all night, sleep in all morning, and wait for Christmas.
II also have a new blog. I know, I know, I don't need another one, and it's really annoying that you have to sign up for Vox to comment, but you can post music and videos here much more easily than on Blogger. PLUS it's all Christmas-y. I may switch over completely. I love it. Here's the link.
1:36 PM
ANOTHER NEW BLOG? NO MORE! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO MAKE ANY MORE MEMBERSHIPS AND PASSWORDS.
BESIDES THIS BLOG LOOKS WAY NICER.
8:19 PM
Thank you Melanie for saying everything that I've been thinking!! :D I know all of the Saskatchewanites will call us wimps, but snow is just plain different here. I agree completely. We've been lucky with the power outages and things (unlike Reagan and Carlie, whose power was back on yesterday, luckily!!), but that's because we're just down the street from that health care place and ambulance... depot? Well, wherever all the ambulances come from.
Oh, boy, another blog? Crap, I'm gonna have to go get an account. I swear, I must have an account on half the websites on the entire world. It's so bad. So I figure, hey, one more can't hurt, right?! So, I'll go check it out.
2:19 PM
I'm with Ang. I like this blog better. It looks nicer and I don't have to sign in or get some kind of new membership. So I'm just checking this one. The line must be drawn here.
2:19 PM
Oops. Forgot the line:
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9:05 PM
Yep, Carlie and Reagan being out of power sucks for sure. I had Inge here all week, as they just live a few houses away from them. Not only is their power out, but they have no water either. I am thankful we at least had power. And we also had David and Carolyn here for a night, and I looked after Ethan and Connor until about 2 pm. I am thankful Inge was here to help.