As the ancient prophecies foretold, the forecast of snow/freezing rain/rain unfolded on schedule and for a time there were seas of slush on the streets and lapping up onto sidewalks. But the rain was initially so relentless that it obliterated the seas of slush in short order. The following day was mild with only a few sprinkles, allowing the excess water to dry up and safely drain away. We are still left with copious amounts of snow on lawns, fields, trails and the sidewalks of Bad People.
The forecast ahead looks mild and mostly wet, so pretty normal for this time of year. The remaining snow should be gone in a few weeks, perhaps less.
THEN IT MUST NOT SNOW AGAIN THIS WINTER.
Also, no cheating by waiting until it is technically spring, either (late March). I walked past the Brunette River trail today. I predict it will be snow-free when it is technically spring (late March). I wish I was engaging in hyperbole but there’s no way in the entire universe I could be wrong about this.
Also also, my next post will not be weather-related.
The forecast overnight is what you’d come up with if you asked yourself, “What’s the worst combination of weather Vancouverites would fear to see in winter?”
snow starting in the afternoon, ranging from 10-40 cm depending on location
snow changing to freezing rain overnight or becoming the even more delightful-sounding “ice pellets”
as temperatures rise the freezing rain changes to regular rain (with 10-40 cm of fresh snow on top of a huge dump of existing snow)
oh, and winds up to 70 km/h
To be followed by a slushpocalypse, local flooding and general despair over whether we will see sunny, warm days ever again.
Still, if this is the last of the winter weather, I’ll grit my teeth and makes plans for running at Burnaby Lake sometime in March. If it snows in March I will be very cross.
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room.
Help, let me out!
Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit.
Who needs official reports and intelligence when you have [fake] cable news?
For a sense of what is happening outside, he watches cable, both at night and during the day — too much in the eyes of some aides — often offering a bitter play-by-play of critics like CNN’s Don Lemon.
“Hey, you think we should let Donald in on the creation of Executive Orders?” “It’ll just bore him, but okay.”
[t]he president, for whom chains of command and policy minutiae rarely meant much, was demanding that Mr. Priebus begin to put in effect a much more conventional White House protocol that had been taken for granted in previous administrations: From now on, Mr. Trump would be looped in on the drafting of executive orders much earlier in the process.
What happens if Trump signs an Executive Order offering his own resignation and naming Bannon his successor? It, apparently, could happen!
But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president’s dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump’s anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban.
Has there ever been such an inept yet vile set of buffoons in The White House? It’s hard to imagine any administration outdoing the incompetence of Trump and his aides. I remind you, too, that we are three weeks into his presidency. THREE WEEKS.
Clearly, this is the winter of my discontent, at least when it comes to running. I wasn’t really expecting to run this weekend because the pace of the snow melting on the trails suggested it would be at least a few more weeks at minimum.
That was before yesterday when we got yet more snow. And today when yet more snow was met by its cousin, still more snow.
I’m now not really expecting to run at Burnaby Lake or along the Brunette River this month. I suppose it could suddenly warm up dramatically and torrential rains might sweep in, flushing the snow away, but it seems unlikely.
For now, here is a tour of my trip to Lougheed Town Centre today, highlighted by snow and snow.
The first part of the walk is three blocks down Fader Street, toward Hume Park. Surprisingly most of the sidewalks were cleared, including several that weren’t cleared after the last snow on New Year’s Eve. Several houses still had unneighborly snow-filled sidewalks and they shall get a virtual raspberry from me. The streets at this point are unplowed and a bit messy but the snow is still fresh enough that it hasn’t turned into a slush apocalypse–yet.
The sidewalks in Hume Park were shoveled. The park was pretty. And pretty abandoned. I suspect most people–even kids–are well beyond the novelty of snow by now.
I first opted to avoid taking the stairs down to Lower Hume Park, thinking they would be snow-clogged, then changed my mind and figured the fresh snow would provide good traction. I was right on both counts. There was one complication, though.
Yet another tree fell victim to the snowfall. It looked like it was passable on the right, so I decided to continue heading down and would skirt around it.
The gap on the right turned out to be an optical illusion. I still made it through by cleverly ducking and using my opposable thumbs to redirect branches out of my face. My coat pockets were filled with snow afterward.
The Brunette River trail was once again completely covered in snow. It looks like one vehicle had been through, creating ruts that people walked along. If it wasn’t so uneven it would actually be easier to run on this than the hard-packed snow that’s sitting underneath it (and has been there for almost two months). I did not see anyone running.
Even the trains are snow-covered. Who decided Greater Vancouver should audition for the sequel to The Day After Tomorrow, anyway?
And finally, one more tree victim. This winter has not been very environmentally friendly to trees in the area. This one even suffered the indignity of being trampled on.
Because the snow is fresh and not firmly packed down yet, the walk to the mall was actually a bit of a workout. I kept up a vigorous pace and my boots kept my feet dry, even as my jeans got thoroughly soaked almost up to the knees. Sure, I could have tucked the jeans into the boots but I’d rather suffer damp pants than commit such a fashion faux pas. I’m willing to bet they would have somehow gotten wet, anyway.
Throughout the rest of today, it continued to snow on and off and apparently it’s freezing rain now, even though it’s gotten colder. I am not surprised because all snow is hellsnow, as far as I’m concerned. I went out and enjoyed it before it could turn evil again but turning evil was always its destiny.
Act I: Long, golden locks. A rock god, even if they airbrushed my face on album photos.
Speak out sometimes but try to win.
Act II: I’m not losing my hair, I just like hats. No, I love hats. You touch this hat, you die.
Hello my friend, are you visible today?
Act III: Hair is full of germs and a symbol of the patriarchy. Yeah, that’s it. I have shaved my head in protest. Coincidentally I no longer love hats.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Bonus Act: I grew a big, bushy crazy old man beard because why not?
This is not just an amusing cat image, it’s a fitting metaphor for a certain someone’s presidency, albeit this kitten is cute and the presidency is hideous.
Here is the current 10-day weather forecast in convenient screenshot format:
Do you know what’s wrong with this picture? Of course you do.
Damn snow.
If this forecast was accurate, and thankfully it will probably be at least a little wrong, we could be getting up to 35 cm of new snow. This would push back being able to jog outdoors to sometime in 2018.
We should be wearing t-shirts in two weeks, not parkas. Well, maybe not t-shirts but we have had trees flowering by mid-February. That seems…unlikely this year.
I’ve adjusted the logo of the site to include Super Spud, my comic creation from a hundred or so years ago. I made did the illustration and coloring while the shading was done by an online friend, jackrabbit.
I don’t quite like the way Super Spud is aligned (he’s a little too close to the edge, though not in the Donald Trump way–zing!) so consider this a work in progress that will be tweaked in the days ahead.
Still, it’s something and it’s not my ugly mug, so there’s that.
Gallup poll: Trump approval rating, January 28, 2017
62 million Americans voted for this terrible man. Shame on all of them. He didn’t disguise any of his misogyny, racism, narcissism or terrible policies during the campaign. They knew what they were getting and they voted for him, anyway. And now people are genuinely starting to suffer because of their ignorance–and his. The best we can hope for is these profoundly ignorant, gullible idiots never vote again.
Trump has enacted an execute order that has banned all Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. and for 90 days has also halted all immigration from seven Muslim-dominant countries. None of the 9/11 hijackers came from these seven countries. Coincidentally, Trump doesn’t have any business interests in any of these countries, either.
Trump is a craven, simple-minded racist who, through this action, has actually made America less safe and less secure. He is literally playing into the hands of terrorists and their sympathizers by making the U.S. appear “evil” and uncaring.
