Ask and ye shall receive

Wow - It is now 25 degrees warmer than saturday...only -11 plus the wind (-20 with it). That is over 20 degrees in a day. I'm amazed things in this province don't fall apart from the whackadoo temperature changes and extremes. Apparently people have had the seals on their windows go this winter as it keeps going to insane cold and then warming up about 25 degrees within a few hours. Our windows all suck, so no concern there for us :)

It is downright habitable out there...and about time. It's good to be able to go outside again.

I'm going to look like a twit in my 2000 layers of winter kit going home, but that is OK. I think it should only be allowed to be below -25 for a maximum of a week at a time to prevent insanity...

That's just unnatural

I'm not one to whine (much) but I just read this and must say it to see if anyone else thinks it is as absurd as I do:

Right now, outside my door, it is -47 degrees with the windchill : a mere -33 without.
That is Centigrade people.

MINUS 47.

I am inside with my beer, which seems particularly balmy at a mere 4 degrees centigrade. I went home from work in full winter kit and had tingly toes and fingers by the time I got in the door...that's from a brisk 8 minute walk where only my eyeballs peeked out. I'm a wuss. I dress warm. There is an actual windchill warning. When they do that here it's for real. I can attest to the wind being absurdly biting today.
Ans so I will say this: Awhaaah??
No WAY am I going out until I have to tomorrow.

I'm rapidly moving from the "hooray it is snowy" phase to the "whoops my fingers just froze and chipped off" phase of winter.

Boourns.

SNOW!

It's finally snowing...lots of big fluffy flakes.
It's not so bad actually...considering it's been this long before it came, I can't complain.
I'm more excited that J's shoot was cancelled tonight so he has the evening off!
Pizza and movies and me...oh my!
Oh, and yesterday I made the best pancakes ever.
Ever.
EVER.
Make some...you'll see...Check my food blog for the recipe.
I also made up a feta spinach stuffed chicken breast with oven roasted balsamic veggies for supper. It also was droolingly good...if I can remember how I made it I'll definitely do it again :) Yesterday was truly the day of deliciousness...

Gotta go...I'm off to the pet store to see what weird things I can find to get my cat to stop scratching the couch.
Bye...

Brrrrr

Meh.
It's suddenly winter here again - blizzards and -15 with snow.
It's very heard to train for a 10K run when you can't go outside :). Ah well..it has to melt eventually I suppose. I'm sure by the run in June it will have melted...knock on wood. SO far I"m up to about 6K or so, with 7 minute stretches of running. Not too shabby.
I did my taxes last night...what a thrill. We're getting abit back, which is nice, but we have a crappy little calculator, so it was a team job, with me reading off numbers and J adding them and doing each calculation 2-3 times to be sure the calculator wasn't screwing up. At least it's done now...any $$ we get back can help with repainting the living room this summer. I'd like to get some new blinds too, so we'll see how it all comes together. I may regret it once I'm halfway through it all...but it is the last room left in the house to redo, so I'm forced to deal with it. We'll have to rent scaffolding for the one wall and to do the ceilings, but in the end it will be nice. The whole house was the same shade of brain melting beige when we moved in...we've been filling it with colour room by room. It will be nice to be "done" the painting soon. We're sort of tactfully ignoring all the nail holes a the moment. The previous owners had a thing for covering the walls with stuff, so I'm sure it'll take me a whole day just to fill holes...but in the end - spiffy.
Must go...my lunch is over and I have much to do. Bye.

Barometric pressure rising...

OK...it's been subzero for ages and we're all dying for warmth. Any warmth. Heck I'd settle for going for a walk outside and not cursing the sky.
So altho it's -34 today with the windchill (-25 without) today, we are being told by Environment Canada that tomorrow is a high of +2. Maybe some snow...or even rain?
What?
How is that possible?
Can the weather really go up that much in one day?
Has someone finally given in and sold their soul or something, because this is really wierd.

I figure that it's all because I'll be off that day and driving about for most of it in the car - I'm sure of it? The weather is trying to kill me any way it can...if it can't freeze me, it'll take whatever it can get. Think I'll put some bubble wrap about the car before I go out...

Sun sun sun here it comes...

Why, say now. It's -22, -32 with the wind.
That's positively balmy out compared to the last few days.

Here comes the sun and I say....
It's alright....


Hurray for sunlight :)

Reader's Poll - how silly am I really?

It is -38. With the windchill it is -51.

So...naturally, today I'm working from home.
And this may sound crazy, but I actually had to bicker a bit with my supervisor as to why I should be able to stay home to work on some computer and data work I was going to do on my work computer today. If I lived out of town it would be OK for some reason, but being in town...well everyone *else* is coming in, so why not me? Bah. I'm still not sure if they'll make me take a sick day or holiday day or not...but frankly I don't care. It's minus fifty one freaking degrees...and it will get colder as the day goes on before warming up overnight. I have to walk 15 minutes in this and then wait for a bus, which may or may not be running to get to work, to do things I can easily do at home today on the computer. And I honestly am working hard here at home (OK I'm taking a coffee break now). I actually am getting more done, strangely enough, as there's noone bugging me.
As far as I'm concerned, -40 is my "I'm not going in to work unless I have something critical to do" temperature.
If I could die going in to work, and my car (even while plugged in) barely started with the tires feeling slightly squared when J went to work...well, I'm staying home. And I really defy them saying I shouldn't.

Sometimes we get so caught up in working and doing things that we forget that maybe when it's so cold you could die...you should just take the day off. I mean in BC and Ontario if it snows they get a snow day. What does a blizzard with arctic temperatures the next morning fall under? It's gotta be worth something.

It's warmer here at home..
I've got coffee and work and a cat on my lap. And honestly - I have nothing in the lab planned that couldn't be postponed for a day.

So - opinion poll? Do you readers think I'm being whiney and should have gone into work, or is a cold/snow day justifiable?

Extreme living

It's a positively warm and sunny day out...only -35 with the wind.
Think I'll go for a swim...there's a tiny part of the river that isn't frozen solid yet...how lovely.

Your legs should not freeze pins and needles solid while waiting for the bus is all I'm saying. It's just not polite for the world to be so chilly unless it's a weekend. Then I could just stay in and drink tea and watch movies all day.

Working when it's this cold is rather silly...I'm just not that important I'm afraid! It's odd how you get used to the extreme cold and life goes on regardless. If we were smarter we'd all declare it a stay home day.

I'd be up for it.
Who's with me?

Fluffy puff

It's funny...I've been waiting for lots of snow for ages and we've finally had days of the fluffy stuff. It's great...altho I'm finding already that shovelling snow is turning into making the bed...you know, why do it when you'll just have to do it again tomorrow?

But I love it all, as it's so pretty. And after being out picketing for ages in the cold, now, it's nothing to shovel or just go for a walk in the cold...kinda fun actually. I"m sure it will wear off, but for now it's great.
It's getting me all festive and holidayey. This weekend is "coat the home in lights" time and the tree will go up. I love Christmas for all the lights and shiney things.
It makes me feel so much better just sitting in a blinky room with some tea...
but til then....well, more shovelling (and data) :)

SNOW!

It finally snowed last night!
I've been waiting...there's something about it being cold and windy that is OK when there's snow out but downright crankifying when it's not. If it looks like a regular day it just seems wrong somehow...and that much colder.
I wish it were the fluffy stuff in piles, but I'm sure I'll be whinging about it all soon enough...it'll be fun leaving footprints all day on the line-I hope it sticks around and doesn't melt right away. It makes it seem more like winter's here. I was helping J decorate a 12 foot christmas tree with his work team for a local charity event and it seemed wierd to do that and then walk out to green grass.
This is much better.
I think I'll dig out my fur lined aviator hat just out of principle.

Plus...I now know that Gavin didn't destroy our camera when he knocked it onto the wooden floor...it works!
Squeeeee!

It rained and now I have soggy areas

Note to self:
When going camping for the weekend do not leave half your raingear at home because the weather forcast says sunny skies.

Bad weatherman. No cookie for you.

Yup, I jinxed it - it POURED rain saturday night and all our gear is currently in the back drying out...we got very wet! BUT we also had a fantastic time, if a bit soggy at the end. I had a splitting headache for a the first half of the weekend, but thankfully it went away just in time for the rain...but really, all in all, a good time.
Just mother nature reminding us who's boss.
And reminding us to pack the raingear...:)

I'm melting, ranting and I have to put on a straightjacket...

It's been so hot as of late...a week of scorching and no end in sight. It only cooled off to 25 last night, with a high of 35 today. Our house thanks to the AC went down to about 27 so we could sleep. I can't imagine how hot it would be without it...
Blech.
Heat like this makes you wilt and want to stay inside. Our poor yard is sorely neglected but it's too hot to be out there and fix it up a bit. It's getting rather safari like.
I'm actually happy to be at work and be in air conditioned comfort. Saying the word always irks me - air conditioning...it doesn't really fit the action - wouldn't a furnace heater also technically be air conditioning? Wouldn't it be air cooling or temperature regulation?
Anyways, noone needs to join my pedantic mutterings this early in the day...

I am annoyed at the general publics inability to let others enjoy storeis and other things-it's as though social conversation has devolved into regurgitating phrases and tales from TV or books and not actual conversation. You may have guessed from my last post that I am the sort who doesn't like to hear then ends of things or details of a book or movie until I've seen it myself. It really ruins it for me and my brain goes off on tangents trying to constantly fit in al lthe tidbits I know into the stroy and I can't get lost in it. J works in the media and many of "them" already want to talk about details and plot bits from the new Harry Potter book and he's trying to convince them not to - I mean most people aren't odd enough to sit and read the book in a day or two. And say you're a parent and you have to wait for your kid to read it first? What if you're a slow reader? How is it journalism or reporting to give away plot points of a book and be "the first one" to do it? That's just lame. Not only is it not news, but it's silly and sucks the joy out of things for those of use enjoying it. You might as well go around knocking ice cream cones out of people's hands and then laughing at them as they sadly watch it melt on the ground, because that's what you're doing in a way when yo udo that. I, for one, hope they and other media places hold off and just let the world enjoy it. How often does a thing like this happen in the modern day? It's not like 2/3 of the world won't read the book anyways, so why wreck it? Maybe people don't care about that kind of thing much anymore but I do. I still do. The part of me that was thrilled when my friend's Dad put fairy doors on some of the trees near our cabin as a little girl still does too...I like to hope that won't go away.

And on another topic entirely -I'm nervous. Why? Well, I must be strong., as this post brings me to a point and promise and new vow for the next while - no more posts from work. I've been humming and hawing about this for a while now. Noone here cares much as long as I get my work done, but I have a lot to do and find more and more I'm wasting time that could really be better used by surfing the net and updating weblogs...so henceforth, just lunch break and at thome. Sorry guys -I've gotta cut back my blog addiction. It's starting to get quite out of hand and I like my job...If you hear screams and shaking crazy muttering it's me over the next few days trying to adjust. Wish me luck...it's going to be harder than I imagine, and I'm imagining it to be kind of hard! :)

But before I run I must leave you with bits of lyric from a favorite old song that's been in my head all morning, for life, right now, is quite grand:

"... I don't ever really understand all the things we say
But I try to anyway anyhow
For what's in a day of a dandy life - what's in a day of this dandy life
Everything, Everything, Everything ...

...you said that every single one of us can find a happy face
So why don't you go try, try anyway
And I suppose I was born yesterday, cause I never thought of things
quite in that way at all and in that way
For what's in a day of a dandy life - what's in a day of this dandy life
Everything, Everything, Everything "

rain rain go away

I do believe I'm losing my mind.
I got up at 5 this morning and ran in the rain for nearly an hour.
And get this...I *liked* it.

When I've time there is much to say, but for now, I'll leave it at this:
5 days is enough - No more rain please...and thank you.

The robots were sad it was cold...

I know I whine on about it a lot but I just have to say something this morning. WHAT IS UP WITH THE WEATHER?

I woke up to over an inch of snow this morning! SNOW for god's sake!
Sure it's pretty and everything...but it's spring dammit and I want some sun. We just melted most of what was here and had it dry up from a mud palace into a slightly chilly springtime, despite the fact that it's been about 12 degrees below normal lately -I'm just aching for warmth. I'm allergic to leaf mold and all the things that float about during the spring thaw I'd love it if the world would just sort it all out and get above 0 degrees C and STAY there. I'm someone who is cold all the time, so warm is better.

BUT on the other hand, it really is a lovely day. I can't deny that the snow *is* very pretty. I'm in a disturbingly chirpy mood despite it all, as today is my Friday and I get another long weekend. SO now that I've vented, I'll get on with the rest of the day. BUT before I go, Roximoon pointed out in her blog to go to Google Maps and type in a starting point as New York, New York and your end destination as Paris, France. Then read line 23 in the instructions...go on, you know you want to... ;0)

And on that note...
SCIENCE!

**whoosh!**

hoola hoola jinx

I believe I have jinxed things...
It's been melting for a week or so and about half the snow is gone...actually around 5-10 degrees outside now. So I traded in my winter coat for my shiny spring coat.
And today it is starting to snow.
Hmmm...I think I taunted the weather by bringing out the spring duds.

oops.

Try again please

I am starting to wonder if the weather people at Environment Canada are on crack.
Over the past few years a lot of weather stations have been closed down, and now to talk to an actual weather "dude" at Environment Canada you have to call Vancouver or Halifax. THere's a whole lotta country between those cities and for us, the nearest weather station is in Winnipeg one province away.
Why am I on this?
Well for th past 2 weeks EC has gotten the temperature off by 10 degrees. I don't even bother checking the weather forecast anymore...It was to get up to -6 today...it's currently -16. If I wanted a forcast that was "kinda sorta rightish sometimes" I'd just stand outside in my PJs and listen to how quickly my teeth started to chatter. As it stands I just want to know whether I need to wear a hat or not when I go out for a walk.
I just need a giant unfreezable Galilean thermometer in my yard...that'd solve it all nicely.