You can have too much of anything, be it snow, holiday days off, or time spent indoors by the fire sipping hot chocolate. All of these things are good things, until you have too much of them. The snow has definitely outstayed its welcome in Vancouver in 2008/09. It is certainly the most I’ve ever seen in the relatively short time I’ve lived here. It’s not only the depth, but the duration and repetition that has us going more than a little stir-crazy. It’s been 22 days of the white stuff on and off, but never melting away, since the first of it fell on December 13. (I learned from Frances Bula’s blog about the city that the record for Vancouver is 33 days in 1964/65.) Pam and I have despaired that each time we discuss venturing out with the car, to make a trek down to meet my brother, or even just fill the tank, sure enough, the flakes start to fall some more and we shelve our plans yet again. We’ve been out, trudging down to Granville Market and back with provisions more than a couple of times, but our lack of snow tires and the treacherous roads have kept the car underground and unusable.
Things that I have learned from this Snowmegadon, as others have referred to it:
- The city of Vancouver has 47 snow ploughs. Yes, in Canada it’s spelled ‘plough’, not ‘plow’ as it is in the States. They are getting 5 more snow ploughs before the 2010 Olympics, which will bring the number up to 52. That’s for the whole city.
- Roofs here were not made for this kind of snow accumulation. There have been many collapses, although most of the serious ones I’ve heard of involve northern Washington state, rather than BC, but I’m sure that there have been several.
- YVR (the Vancouver Airport), despite being voted Best Airport in North America in 2006 and 2007 is also not made for this kind of weather. It has periodically had to shut down. There have been many stories of people spending days (and sleeping there at night) during some of those shut-downs. Luggage has piled up. Who wants to bet it won’t get that high a standing in next year’s vote?
- Rats don’t take a snow day holiday. Pam and I saw one in the snow:Ratty in the Snow
I’m sure that I’m putting on weight from all the cooking I’ve been doing. Tonight it was Thai-Style yellow Curry. Last night it was Swedish Meatballs (if we were going to have Scandinavian style weather, then by golly, we were going to eat that way too). Late December and early January has seen Pot Roast, Roasted Lemon-Herb Chicken, Pizza (all from from scratch) Souvlaki-style Pork (from Costco), Kasha Varnishkes (Buckwheat Groats and Farfalle for those who aren’t familiar) French Toast, Buckwheat Pancakes, and other assorted homemade culinary projects like applesauce and sweet pickles.
We’ve also gotten to bed later and later and slept in later and later, until I finally said the night before last that we had to adjust back to PST, rather than the roughly Hawaiian time zone that we seemed to be living in.
Now, with the holidays officially over, I’m hoping that we can escape our condo and get out and about. Besides, blogging about the weather is almost as boring as being cooped up for the past 22 days.