Tile Floors: A Tribute

After receiving another 10 - 15 cm of snow this week, I need to write about our tile floors. I love them! Snow tends to be sticky in this part of the world and I'm quite happy to simply walk across the floor in my wet boots. I've even tried out (gently, mind) my get a grips (see Jan. 15 tribute) and it doesn't seem to affect the floor. Both Dave and I are getting pretty tired of pulling on and off all this clothing just to go outdoors - I have to say I'm abandoning my gaiters and simply letting deep snow get into my boots - and the tile floors diminishes the number of times we need to remove the footwear. Let's hear it for tile floors!

You Are The Sunshine!

Today I had another day "up top", going through dense fog to get to the blue skies. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but the skies were endlessly blue! The picture at left was taken last week in a similar place and we were in "bright" skies and you can see the valley fog below us. It was inspiring to help a woman do her "maiden voyage" as a ski-doo driver today, while I rode up with Dave. I'm still a terribly tentative skier in all this powder, but I kept my balance much better today and even though my turns are stem christies, I don't side slip down the entire hillside.

Now, about the snowmobile. It's great to be able to get up to the sun. Being the driver looks as if it's a terrifically athletic endeavour (at least if there are mountains of powder snow to drive through), although everyone says it's best to be the driver. The machines are noisy, (wear earmuffs), smelly (especially for the back seat person) and tempermental. But here, it's the only ski lift available and it does serve the purpose. I'm not a big fan of Bombardier, even tho' I did sell the stock at its 11 year high this July. But bringing me to the sunshine is worth quite a bit and I've got to say that so far, Bombardier is serving that purpose.

Get A Grip

This post is dedicated to my friend, Marilyn, who sent me a pair of "get a grip" boot crampons. After our big snowfall and subsequent rainfall, we've had a sheet of ice on our driveway and everywhere in town. Saturday, I tried out the "get a grip" crampons and they worked really well. I can now walk pretty confidently up and down the Pine Ridge Road, and more importantly, our driveway. We've had a couple of days of above zero temps (remaining that way at night, too) and the ice is slowly going. Thank you, Marilyn, I love 'em!

Up On the Rooftop

After receiving 30 cm of snow on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, this is how Dave spent part of his day. I shovelled off the deck which was at this point covered with very heavy, sticky snow. Most of the winter we've had cold temperatures - at least cold enough to keep the snow light - but when we got the biggest snowfall I've ever experienced, the temperatures rose and so did the density of that snow! As the youngsters would say, "it's puking snow out there." There wasn't much else to do that day - the power was out for about 18 hours. The wood stove heated up our lunch and supper and it was lovely to eat by candlelight. I was able to listen to my ipod and knit and even spent an hour playing the piano. The next day we got rain and now everything is an icy mess. Time to try my boot crampons today.

Ohh - that Jazz!!

My parents just made it home from their Christmas vacation....... one week later than our scheduled plan! They made it in to good old Castlegar (aka Cancelgar) on December 18th - Mum sans une valise. The suitcase did turn up the next day at the airport and I had pretty good service from them - if you call the airport when an airplane is due to arrive a real person will actually answer the phone. Earlier in the day I was trying to track down the bag and had to speak to a person in India with the details.

Scheduled departure date was Dec. 26th at 3:50. We learned at about 10:30 a.m. that all flights out of Vancouver were cancelled. Mum and Dad insisted on going to Castlegar in order to be in town for their new scheduled flight at 10 a.m. Saturday. The next snowstorm moved in on Friday night. Saturday, I got them rescheduled to Sunday at 3:50 p.m. Sunday a.m. it was still snowing and Dave and I felt we had to get them out of Castlegar that day (the 28th) or take them to a different airport. By noon, the sun was brilliant in Castlegar. We left for the airport at 2 p.m. and an unscheduled arrival of Jazz came in at 2:15. At 2:30 we learned that their scheduled flight was cancelled! By 2:45 we were gassed up and on the highway to Summerland and had them rescheduled to New Year's Day, departing from Penticton.

January 1st another snowstorm arrived. All flights were cancelled. They were rescheduled to 9:35 a.m. on Jan. 2nd. The 6 a.m. flight to Penticton was cancelled. Their 9:35 flight left only 10 minutes late. They arrived home!!! I know weather was a big factor in all of this but the other factor is that Air Canada doesn't really want to deliver service of any kind. That's our Solstice Story, 2008.