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It snowed and blowed a lot last night and today. After going to the ballet (Romeo and Juliet at the Living Arts Centre) not only did I have to walk the dog but I spent another half hour cleaning out what the snow plow had left at the bottom of the driveway.
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Our choir has been hosting a Symposium on this Saturday for the last few years. It has always been cold and today was no exception. There are icicles hanging from our roof and these ducks appear to be frozen into the ice.
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A week into 2007 and still no snow since some time back in November.
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And tomorrow’s the day I decided to drive to work because I have a choir rehearsal downtown in the evening.
Perhaps my nephew who came over from Thailand at Christmas wished too hard for snow!
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Between 15 and 30 cm of wet snow fell last night. I shovelled the sidewalks and a path down the driveway since no had to drive this morning. It was a heavy walk to the train station and also at the other end. Of course, the streets were already plowed to the pavement.
I think all municipal politicians should be required to try and walk to work on snowy days. Maybe then the sidewalk plows would be sent out sooner instead of a couple of days later.
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The drive to choir from Mississauga to the Beaches in the morning was snowy but didn’t get really bad until we exited off the east end of the Gardiner: some kind of lake (Ontario) effect I guess. The return drive home at about 1pm was uneventful though the Gardiner and QEW were only “track bare.” Many heeded the “heavy snowfall” warning and stayed home. We stayed in this evening rather than driving to Scarborough to attend a 50th birthday party for a friend whom we haven’t seen for several years.
With the temperature about -18°C, windchill approaching -30 and lots of blowing snow I decided to stay in and use the treadmill. For some reason the pulse monitor jumped around between 68 and 120 bpm—perhaps because my skin and the household humidity is so dry due to the cold. I experimented and approximated the “pulse” controlled workout with the “interval” workout I used to do. I programmed my fastest walking speed (about 6.8 kmh) and a 10% slope. Judging by the calorie readout of 371 and how I was sweating I think this program equalled the pulse-controlled, 35 year-old program I had been doing.
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- Shorts
- With temperatures in the low teens (°C) today I ran home from the train station wearing shorts—a first for a January 13th for me. Unfortunately, like yesterday, it was pouring rain though, unlike yesterday, it wasn’t a thunderstorm. Of course, being winter, tonight’s temperatures will go below freezing and snow is expected.
- Anti-Spyware
I tried Microsoft’s beta anti-Spyware software at work and at home yesterday. It seems to be pretty simple-minded about filenames and directories. It found a file,
cat.exe, in thesystem32directory and called it the Dutch Porn Dialer. Actually it’s a Windows port of the Unix cat command. It also called twoexpat.dllfiles spyware. These are anXMLparsing library.I think the software needs more work.
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In typical “by the shores of Lake Ontario” fashion, there’s a crust of freezing rain forming on the 20 cm of so of snow that fell during the night. It was tough slog to shovel this morning due to the weight of the snow and ice. Though I worn a rain jacket over a sweater, I was soaked to the skin.
Yes, I could write a family newsletter; however, images are so much
better. Last night’s pics of the family get-together at my
sister's place are available courtesy
of my older son and his digital camera. Special guests: my brother and his family back from Thailand. Missing: my young nephew Crawford, with his timezone still in the Pacific Ocean somewhere, went to bed, younger son went to gf's family Christmas on account of they (her family not my son) are leaving for Mexico today (weather permitting 
).
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September has been mild. It was never cold enough to turn the furnace on. I suppose I should vacuum the burners and air filter and turn on the pilot light this weekend as it looks like it will be rainy and colder next week. According to Environment Canada the mean temperature was 18.5°C and we had only 25.2 mm of rain all month.
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Finally, after 3½ months, our driveway has asphalt. We hired another company as the first company, the one that removed the old asphalt and put down a layer of crushed rock, wasn’t returning our phone calls. They did have $500 from us, though, so I figure we have kept up our end of the contract.
I signed the contract with Burl-Oak Paving on Tuesday and 9 guys (“all from the same village in Newfoundland”) came out to do the work today (Saturday). It took them about 2 hours with about ½ hour spent waiting for the asphalt truck. Now, in 4 or 5 days, I’ll be able to drive straight into the garage with no “bumps in the road.”
My next youngest brother, living in Victoria, had his birthday today. I woke him up at 09:00 his time to wish him a “Happy.” Apparently they stayed up Friday night to finish watching a movie they’d rented. I wasn’t too sympathetic as I had been up since 07:00 this morning not knowing when exactly the paving guys would be coming.
Today’s run was a scorcher: it was so humid that my “sta-dri” shirt was soaked by the end of the hour. My time was a couple of minutes slower, too — probably because I had to wipe the sweat off my brow periodically and drink some water.
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The thermometer in the shade on the front porch said 31°C when I got home this evening. We got by with the bedroom ceiling fan last night. For tonight, however, I have turned on the AC. Tomorrow’s weather promises more hot mugginess.
Of course, where my brother teaches near Chiang Mai, this is “normal” weather.
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EC had forecast some rain and, indeed, it was dull around 9:30 this morning will I drank my coffee and finished reading the Saturday paper. However it brightened up so I decided to trim the privet hedge and the two mock orange bushes, to prune the various euonymus shrubs around the property, the neighbour’s spirea that hangs over the fence, the behind-the-backyard plantings including dogwood, more euonymus, various “weed” trees and “miles” of wild grape. After that pruning frenzy, I just had to pull out my new chipper/shredder and create about five or six bagsful of “shreddings.” It took awhile to do this; however, I realized it would have taken just as long to stack and tie all this stuff into bundles for garbage day. Instead I have lots of mulch and compost.
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There was beaucoup de la pluie and thunderstorms yesterday. Just as I was going to write something last night I found the “hubbo” server was down and another thunderstorm was brewing. That particular storm took out the power to my son’s work where the “hubbo” server resides.
I kept busy by tidying up my garage workbench and by preparing for laminate floor installation in our ensuite bathroom. I dismantled and took out the toilet right down to the flange, then the carpeting, underpad, baseboards and rug nailer strips. My advice is: don’t ever install wall-to-wall broadloom in a bathroom. Barring any major problems I hope to have the floor and toilet back in today. (It seems to be a long walk to the main bathroom in the middle of the night.)
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Due to the sudden apearance of summer (high 27°C, smog alert, high UV index) I baked tonight’s pizza in the BBQ. At one point I thought the pie had caught fire, but no, it was the accumulation of grease in the bottom of the BBQ. I hope the heat abates somewhat as we’ll be singing with the Bell’Arte Singers at the Spirit Matters conference tomorrow night. Fortunately the men don’t have to wear tuxedos.
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It’s that time of the year when I can spend an hour or two in the early evening weeding the lawn and the gardens. The dandelions don’t yet have their yellow beacons but their rosettes of indented leaves are easy to recognize.
Right now the lawn is carpeted in blooming violets. I wonder if it drives my neighbour crazy to see all those violets growing wild in my grass?
The side yard looks great this year with crocuses and “species,” tiny daffodils. It was worth the bother of planting them in the hard clay soil last fall.
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It turned out to be a sunny early spring day with a temperature of about 8°C and a coolish SE wind. As the forecast calls for rain tomorrow, I spread fertilizer on the lawns. I removed the last of the black plastic edging I put around the gardens several years ago. Until the frost heaved parts of the edging and the lawn mower clipped it, the edging served its purpose. Methinks I will try paver edging some time or just go back to using the flat spade, chopping a ditch and weeding every so often.
While I was working outside, a driveway paving salesmen stopped by. So I asked him for a quote on removing the asphalt from the double driveway and spreading a layer of crushed stone suitable for laying pavers. His verbal quote was $650. Of course I’ll have to check into this further.
Later I ran my “river” route 10km run. Yesterday I ran a street route to the west of my place for about another 10km. I think this is the first weekend I have (ever?) done two back-to-back 10km runs. Yeah, of course I’m tired.
Why “gardening without guilt?” I’ve finished my 3 tax returns: there’s no reason I should be working my brain inside for the moment.
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According to the local weather station the temperature has gone from a low of -10°C on the 22nd to a high of 16°C today.
I had a non-routine day. I drove in this morning and started work early. I left for a vendor’s meeting shortly before one and then drove home as the vendor is less than 10 min. away. Then I completed my day’s work at the home computer through the VPN. So, I could knock off earlier than usual and I was home already.
Shorts and T-shirt were enough clothng for the mild spring weather. My “new” usual route time was only a minute faster than the run on Saturday which surprised me as there were less mud and puddles along the way.
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Today was the first day this winter season I could comfortably take a shirtsleeves-shortcut outside between buildings instead of winding my way around the office corridors. Heavens above, it might even reach 5°C tomorrow! And they have started reporting the UV index again.
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Some of the ice on the sidewalk and lower driveway had loosened its attachment though it was -12°C this afternoon. Prying up with my flat spade it felt like a backhoe lifting up slabs of old sidewalk. The ice was 5 to 8 cm thick in places. In other places I used my metre long crow bar to crack the ice. Eventually I had to stop: my feet were getting cold and my wrists were objecting to the pounding.
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My younger son is now a published author. His opinion piece appeared in the University of Windsor student-run paper The Lance.
Today’s stats: #3 / 344 ↑ / 107 ↑ / 3.0% ↑ / 4.43 / 10.5 / 80 / 49 ↑.
Good thing I used the treadmill this morning as I almost fell flat on my back while walking to the corner to get the newspaper later on. Yesterday’s partial thaw and freezing rain have made the sidewalks and paths “somewhat” icy.
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Now there’s too much snow for my snow plow shovel. The wind has blown it into 30 to 40 cm drifts in places — mostly my driveway. It isn’t quite a Mel-Lastman-call-in-the-army snow storm yet but I’ll bet they will be a “snow day” tomorrow for most schools in the area.
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The other runners in my family live in Thailand and Victoria, B.C.
It was -15°C, sunny, no wind and mostly hard-packed snow on the paths: great running weather for this time of year.
I feel sorry for those of you who have to run with only light T-shirts and shorts. You are missing the 3 or 4 layers of clothing, the fleece toque and hood over top, the running pants, the two layers of socks, the sunglasses that fog up when your body starts to get warm, the salt dust when you run by the roads, the continously drippy nose. You also miss the quiet peacefulness of running on the path by the river. Covered in ice, it makes no sound anymore.
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I had to shovel more snow in the zillion degrees below zero wind chill and then drive slowly to the dentist this morning. The snowplower had only just started the visitors' lot so I drove down the street and turned around. By that time I could pull into the lot and go for my appointment.
Today’s appointment included a teeth “physical.” One wisdom tooth has a big cavity (why hadn’t they seen it before?) which means that tooth will have to come out at the end of the month. Here I’m almost fifty and still have all my wisdom teeth! Another wisdom tooth has a small cavity which will be fixed next week: a lot of dental visits.
So, I drove back to work, slowly, as everyone was moving gingerly in the snowy conditions. I much prefer walking and transiting than doing this rush-hour driving thing.
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Finally there was about 15 cm of fluffy snow on the ground tonight so I could try out the snow plow shovel I got for Christmas from my son. Works great — especially after I figured out you need to turn it over each time you reverse direction so that the plowed edge keeps moving in the same direction.
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The temperature got down to -24°C last night and the forecast is for a -27 minimum tonight. It’s darn cold around here. I was at a conference seeking technical recommendations regarding the August 14th blackout. One guy from California apparently came dressed in just a suit. Me, I wore two pairs of pants, boots and a hooded fleece pullover plus coat. In fact, it feels cold in the house as the moisture is sucked out of the air and freezes to the windows. I think I’ll go and crawl under lots of covers.
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The temperature was 10°C and I thought it felt spring-like during my afternoon run. I heard this bird call. Unfortunately it was getting too dark to see the bird except in silouhette. January 3 is the earliest I have ever seen or heard a robin in these parts. Usually I don’t expect them until March. I wonder if it will head south again — it’s supposed to go below freezing and snow next week.
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Well not really the first snow, but the first substantial snow fall of 10 - 15 cm. Slowed my run by about 8 min. today. I like the cushioning on the hard pavement but it does take a bit more energy to propel yourself at each step. I hope the sidewalk plows have cleared along the Burhamthorpe Road bridge over the Credit River; otherwise, I’ll be walking on the road in the morning. And sending an e-mail to City Hall.
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There’s been too much precipitation here. I can do without that “west coast feeling.” It was raining when I walked to work. It was raining at lunch time. It was raining when I ran home. It was sleeting when I took some stuff out to the garage just now. I guess I should be grateful it isn’t snow. Yet. And this is a dull paragraph, too.
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Or at least I was on a ladder at the side of the garage roof. It was mild, about 12°C, sunny and dry so I could fix or replace those shingles damaged by the windstorm. The match of the new shingles with the old wasn’t very good but, hey, I’m going to replace it all in the spring. My impression of the garage roofing job was that it was pretty poor though it has lasted almost 24 years. Now at least it will last one more winter.
While I was up there I cleaned out the eaves troughs. Pretty yucky stuff but at least disposable plastic gloves kept it off my skin.
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I’ll need a dry, warm, sunny afternoon to fix the damaged garage roof shingles. It looks like none of those criteria will happen today. Perhaps I’ll have to take off some afternoon this week. Anyway, at least I have an excuse to shop at the building store today and pick up some materials: a pack of bundled shingles, a flat pry bar, roofing nails (I might have some of those), and roofing cement.
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First it was thunderstorms yesterday evening. Then winds came gusting up to 100 kmh — enough to tear a few tabs off the shingles on my garage roof. Not nice. Now I’ll have to assess the damage this weekend and see whether I need to make repairs pronto up to and including reshingling the garage. From what I hear of neighbourhood history, our house roof lost almost all its shingles during a wind storm several years after it was built. So, I suspect the garage roof is “original,” going on 23 years, and the house roof is perhaps something less than 20 years old. Looks like 2004 will be a year for major home maintenance.
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You just had to do things outside today. I prepared some bare patches, spread some compost, sprinkled grass seed and lightly watered the areas. Our area hasn’t had any rain since mid-August, but rain last week and Isabel’s contribution on Friday has made the soil suitable for lawn seeding. I went to Rona this afternoon and ended up buying a lot of spring bulbs, a Gardena bulb planter and a cultivator fork. I have been searching for the perfect long-handled cultivating fork — this seems to be it though I haven’t tried it yet. The bulb planter has a “quick release” feature. As I bought probably close to 150 bulbs including species daffodils, crocuses, and early tulips I hope this works. I want to naturalize the crocuses and daffodils on a small hill between our two houses. The tulips I’ll plant here and there in the gardens and out in the shrubbery in the park behind our backyard. As I was picking out bulbs I thought, though I enjoy flowers at all times of the year, I especially like them in the spring just after the snow has melted and it is almost warm enough to wear shorts again.
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Everyone else is talking about her — so why shouldn’t I? The east wind made that inline skate home a “breeze”this afternoon. Looks like all southern Ontario will get is lots of rain and some wind. Still, I closed the patio umbrella, tied up the BBQ cover and stacked the patio chairs. I must remember to close the windows to a crack before going to bed tonight.
In other news my cold is much better. I had a quite a sore throat on Monday night so I started taking zinc lozenges. By Tuesday afternoon the sore throat was almost gone. In fact I was able to sing well enough at choir practice on Tuesday night. However, now my nose was a running faucet. After a lousy sleep, I slept in and decided to work from home yesterday. I even took a nap and still went to bed early. Today, by the afternoon at work, my nose was much less drippy and my sinuses seem to have drained somewhat. Perhaps the zinc shortened the duration? Now I’m just hoping I don’t get that dry post-nasal drip cough that sometimes follows a cold.
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The temperature reached about 20°C today and showered for quite a bit this afternoon. I ran home from the GO train station anyway as the wind and rain were at my back. And, unlike Monday when I ran at lunchtime in the rain, I could change my clothes as soon as I got home. Unfortunately the rainy weather slowed rush hour traffic so my wife returned from her course downtown about an hour later than usual. However, I had supper waiting for her when she got in.
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Yesterday the temperature peaked at 30°C for the first time this year. Naturally I turned on the central air, again for the first time this season. Too bad I had decided more morning’s activity was to dig a big hole in the area where I’d removed the thorn bushes and move the forsythia bush. That forsynthia, though I’ve trimmed it back over the years, had feeder roots up to an 3 cm thick. After digging around it and cutting these roots I finally managed to pry out the rootball with 6’ piece of 2''x6''. The root ball probably weighed over 30 kilos. I managed to wrestle it to the wheelbarrow on its side and then tip up the wheelbarrow and take it to the big hole. Whew! It must have taken me 3 hours, sweating buckets of perspiration, to do this job.
The afternoon was much more relaxing. We visited friends, pround parents of twins born premature in April. At one point my wife was holding one and I, the other little girl. The proud mother commented that we looked like we’re ready to be grandparents. Don’t we know it!
In the evening my dad and his fourth wife (a.k.a., stepmother 3, Helen the younger (3rd wife was also Helen)) came for a visit and I did my sonly duty. I managed to get my father out on the deck to chat with me while I cooked supper so that my wife could get to know Helen by herself. Obviously my dad hasn’t told her much about his past: At the supper table Helen was telling us about her kids (in their 20’s) who are both back living at home. She commented about her a**hole ex-husband (her words without the **) ignoring his kids and rarely having anything to do with them. Hmmm, sounds like the way my dad treated us when he left my mom. He was very quiet for the rest of the meal time. Even my son commented that Helen was nice considering his grandpa’s such a jerk sometimes.
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However the best comment I heard about today’s weather is that it occurred on a work day rather than on the long weekend. Amen to that. It was pouring so hard when I left work I used the poncho I keep at work for thunderstorm emergencies rather than the umbrella I had with me. The poncho covers me and the knapsack, too.
At work we are now the proud owners of chintzy name plates. They sort of resemble a couple of pieces of plastic cut with a jig saw in an oval rectangular shape. Then what appears to be black electrical tape was use to frame it. Our name and the company logo in black and white are just a strip of paper inserted inside. Methinks I’ll use the colour laserjet to improve the logo and my name.
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I have moved my automatic Toronto weather report and Ontario electricity demand data collection from the side panel to here. Since the automatic update script is working well enough it seems like a good idea to make it “permanent''. Because I designed it with server side includes I also made a separate page with a different style sheet containing the same information.
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It was 18°C after supper so, instead of emptying the dishwashwer and re-loading it, I took advantage of the evening daylight and fertilized the lawn. I’ll be at choir tomorrow night and Wednesday it’s supposed to turn cooler and rain until Easter. After I fertilized there was yet more daylight so I collected a bushel basket of pine cones to leave for the “yard waste”pickup and uncovered my azalea. It was still quite cool among the leaves I’d piled around it. Lots of tulip shoots here and there and, of course, the snow drops are in full bloom. I can hardly wait for the crocuses which were out by the end of March last year.
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Melting is occuring; however, our driveway, being on the north side of the house, still had a large patch of ice and snow from last Friday. So I chopped it up and started dumping it on the street. Then I thought I should dump this under the pine tree — it’s always dry under there. I carted over five wheelbarrow loads. So, now the driveway is reasonably clear for our company tomorrow and, as the snow melts, the pine will get a cool drink.
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We decided to take a miss on choir this morning as our street still hasn’t been plowed and last night there and additional layer of ice on the approximately 8 cm of ice and snow that was already there. It got above freezing for awhile so I spent two hours (!) with a flat garden spade and shovel clearing a van-sized section of the driveway down to the street. Our part of the street slopes a bit and our driveway slopes down the street. The point of the exercise was to get the van back in the driveway. Thanks to my neighbour Don across the street who gave a push: the speedometer said 50 km/h and the van moved about 5 km/h. I’m glad to say that the wheels caught on the shovelled part of the driveway. Now let’s hope the city called back the grader guy who did the plowing this past winter. This past storm was fiendishly arranged to prevent traction with alternating layers of ice pellets, freezing rain and snow.
Usually, moving our clocks forward tonight means we’ll be sitting out on the deck Sunday night after a BBQ and enjoying the evening twilight. But the deck’s too icy and it will be too cold to BBQ. Oh well, I should get those tax returns completed and filed.
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Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it.
I’m not sure whether the quote is correct but what’s with the snow and freezing stuff, below 0°C temperatures in April? A couple of weeks ago I wore shorts — it was a balmy 16°C! I snarfed a highway webcam picture taken just a short while ago less than 5 km from where I live. I am fortunate that I just walked and took the train this morning. Many others chose (or were told) to stay home. Apparently the ice pellets will continue until well into the evening. It certainly won’t be an easy drive getting to choir practice tomorrow morning. I hope the wind continues to prevail from the east so that my westerly run home won’t including ice pellets in the face. Perhaps it’s just as well I didn’t get around to removing the covering on my small azalea shrub: a rather frost tender plant or at least the flower buds are.
In honour of the unusual weather for this time of year, I have created a new category on this blog. I have also revised the WWW data display to include bigger trend graphs, weather warnings and the current conditions.
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- Cold
It was -5°C this morning. There was a brief snow flurry blizzard just before noon. By the time I went outside at 12:30 p.m. the sun was out again with snowy shadows here and there. I went to the store and post office to by a birthday card for my brother in Thailand. I don’t know whether he reads this but you can him a card is on it’s way. I wonder how long it will take to get there? Anyway, I heard on the radio that a cool spring is good: it keeps the fruit trees from blooming too soon. They’ll bloom later when killing frosts are less likely. It could mean a bumper fruit crop this summer perhaps.- Permanent Part Time
- My wife got good news. She was offered a permanent part-time position at the private school where she teaches music from PK to Grade 2. The only real condition is that she had to do something extra-curricular like a choir or music club or something. She gladly accepted.
- Not a Handyman tonight
- My brother-in-law, he of the flooding apartment fame, had his dryer conk out. I suspect the spraying water from the burst hose problem got into the dryer stacked above it. Anyway my wife ordered a new washer/dryer stack from Sears and it was delivered today. Of course, they didn’t connect it so I thought I would have to do this tonight. Fortunately, my brother-in-law and his wife were going out. Good thing as I had library books to return and garbage to put out. The connections will probably be Wednesday’s evening job.
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Finally the temperature got up past 10°C and the snow is melting away. I went for a run this afternoon in shorts and my long sleeve running top — it felt great. However I can't give a forest path report as I figured it would be far too slushy, puddly and muddy. The local streams are now raging-river wannabees. A strange time of year, though, in the sun it is warm but running down through a hollow I felt the snow and shade keeping the air a good 5 C° cooler. I sure am looking forward to the day when I can run my regular grassy route, and find out whether I do run faster than in the fall or just think I do. Of course I had to barbeque something for supper tonight.
- I've entered 168 items towards my wife's private teaching expense - income data for her 2002 return; still quite a few more receipts to go.
- The scanner operation is much improved under Windows 2000. Here I thought it was a scanner problem when something would hang every so often. Blame Windows Me again: good riddance.
- Windows 2000 has an ntp client in the W32Time service though it needs a registry tweak to get it going. I used to use a separate application in the
Startupdirectory. - I have secured the DNS on my firewall but it complained about my win2k box trying to update records. Finally I tracked down a checkbox that was checked and shouldn't have been nested way down in the Advanced TCP/IP settings. I much prefer the Unix way with plain old text configuration files.