Wow, slack time

Well at least it’s not just me who has been slack lately – none of my blogging friends have been active on their sites, it’s just gone in to a period of quiet. So what’s my excuse? Busy, travel, parties, snow, boarding??? Nah, I just had a good book!

But there is much to write about. Firsty, may I wish you all a happy new year – I hope it is enjoyed by all and that the doom and gloom forecast by the financial world will side step you and those close to you.

There has been one thing DOMINATING conversation in Vancouver since the last time I blogged. Snow, lots and lots of snow. Before Christmas I managed take some shots on the way to work and to get down to the park in front of work and take a few pictures which I quite like.

Think that’s a lot of snow? Well that was just the start, since then we have got 3 or 4 more good dumps. In December we received 89cm of snow, we were less than 1cm away from an all time record for the month of December and this all fell in less than 3 weeks, Christmas eve alone got 26.2cm so it was definitely a white Christmas here. Then January started with another good pummeling. Oh, and yes it got cold, December 20th was the coldest coming in at -15.2 c!!

I do love the snow and find it so pretty, but this city really can’t handle it. The main roads all get plowed, but the side streets where most of us live don’t and have  just had 2 tire tracks down the middle of the road seperated by a 6″ high 2ft wide barrier in the middle. It’s like driving on train tracks – great until you need to turn a corner or park your car.

So I’m excited that it is now raining and up to a balmy 7c today (t shirt weather) and that our roads and paths are beginning to show signs of pavement and grass again. I want to qualify a statement I made in a previous post about how I would like to live in a city with snow on the ground all winter by saying that city needs to have plows which can fit down side streets!

So what did we do to escape the snow? Went to Big White of course. We spent Christmas up there staying with some friends from home who are working there for the season. It was fun having a good ol fashioned Christmas dinner with them, their 6 house mates and a few of their friends – quite an exceptional effort I must say.

We had fun at Big White, enjoyed the snow and the company and got a 3 days of good boarding in. I still love the powder chair, the name says it all really.

Driving there and back was safe and I am now actually thankful for our crash last year which was fresh in my mind as we were driving up there. We didn’t get hurt, got a good insurance payout on the car and it made me drive very cautiously. I felt sorry for the 13 people we did see crash on the way and even stopped to tow one guy out of a nasty wee situation.

So much to say, but I think I will end this one here – except to say if you are a praying person, remember me Tuesday next week as I am going in for laser eye surgery.