Snowing in Horseshoe Bay. Damn snow.
I made it over to the island for a late Christmas the weekend after New Year’s. The reason for the delay, of course, was the weather. If someone had told me back in the fall I wouldn’t be able to ride my bike to work for nearly a month due to snow I would have chuckled quietly and called them insane. Today I would call them Kreskin.
I get up on the morning of Saturday January 3rd and look out the window. It’s snowing. Again.
Undeterred, I head out and once downtown I catch the #153 bus to Horseshoe Bay. It is snowing harder in West Vancouver, nestled as it is at the base of the North Shore mountains. The bus driver advises the passengers that all West Van buses are on “snow routes” without explaining precisely what that means. Someone on the dispatch also relays this information. We eventually learn it means all buses are sticking to the lower roads and avoiding the upper levels highway until the plows get through.
We get to the terminal safe and sound thanks to the driver not being a maniac behind the wheel. The ticket booth at Horseshoe Bay is covered but outdoors. It is a bit chilly but the line-up is not too long as I am early. Unfortunately the line-up does not move. At all. A woman up at the wicket is having a problem of some sort. I am too far away to catch any of the conversation so I wait and watch the snow piling up. The line continues to not move. Minutes go by. Then more minutes. The cashier is on the phone now. I gnash my teeth. The woman holding up the line has a dog. It’s a cute dog but if it’s the reason I’m standing here freezing my skinny butt off then screw you, cute dog!
After about ten minutes (which feels like 20 once you add wind chill) I buy my ticket and am astonished that the price is something like five dollars cheaper than it was in October. I take a whiff and sure enough, there is the unmistakable smell of pre-election on the ticket stub. Thanks, Gordon!
The ride across is a bit choppy and a tad rolly but overall not too bad. The snow peters out about 20 minutes in, so I am spared an island continuation of the snowpocalypse.
Christmas dinner is traditional and yummy — roast turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing and gravy. Mmm. I no longer have the appetite to eat seconds or thirds like I did back in my pot-bellied pig days but I muchly enjoy one full plate. Mom gives me a big slab o’ turkey to take home for sandwich-making. Sandwiches made from fresh roast turkey are 200% better than sandwiches made with deli turkey, as determined by sandwich scientists (and me).
Getting my mom’s Christmas present — a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop — running is a painless procedure and in no time it is connected (as it were) to the wireless gateway provided by Telus. I download a few more updates and then let mom take over. If I am a hunt and peck typist (and I am as that scornful woman Mavis Beacon will attest), mom could be described as a hunt and hunt and hunt and peck typist. 😀 I’m certain her speed will improve in time. I introduce her to e-mail and the web browser and of course, Solitaire. We successfully dispatch a test e-mail and I am pleased that everything seems to be working.
The next morning the wireless won’t connect until I hook the laptop to the gateway with a CAT5 cable. This is why I love computers, they are so capricious and free-spirited.
Christmas in January ends all too quickly and I am on the return ferry Sunday afternoon. We leave a bit late due to some “mechanical problem” on the car deck in Horseshoe Bay (“Honey, I forgot to put gas in the car lol!”) and shortly after we set out, an announcement informs us that due to rough weather the elevators will be shut off until we are just ready to dock. A few minutes pass and there is another announcement advising passengers to basically hang on to anything they can. Yikes.
The ride is very choppy. The ferry doesn’t roll all that much but it crashes fairly regularly into tremendous swells, causing the entire ship to shudder. I’m not overly bothered by this and zone out listening to my iPod. I recall the days when the family would take the Blackball ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. It’s a short trip — only 18 miles straight across — and you can see the destination city from the opposite dock. But as it crosses at the far end of Vancouver Island, the water tends to be a bit rougher than the tranquil routes the mainland BC Ferries run. How much rougher? Rocking so you see nothing but sky then nothing but water rough. Having the ship’s engines cut off and drifting off-course for 20 minutes to avoid especially treacherous swells rough. Hang on to railings as you walk or fall onto your butt rough. Despite the regular terror of that particular ferry, I still fondly remember it as being the place I could get Hostess fruit pies. Back then they were hard to find in Canada but since the Blackball was an American ship, they had Hostess pies a-plenty. Mmm, pie.
It has snowed most of the time I’ve been out of Vancouver. A few hours after my return, it starts snowing yet again. For the first time ever I can safely say I hate the snow. Keep it for the penguins and polar bears, I say. I’d rather be riding my bike and gloating over the folks back east still shoveling their driveways.
Here’s hoping Christmas 2009 (Part 2) is snow-free. Or moved to July.
