It’s better than molten lava pouring down the streets.
It makes things ever so slightly quieter outside, creating a pseudo-small town ambience.
There’s no chance of it piling up between May and August (note: this may change in a few decades).
Provides opportunity to build cool forts at no cost (cool forts–get it?!)
As far as we know, snow doesn’t cause cancer.
The current forecast calls for 3-7 cm of snow on Saturday. This qualifies as a moderate amount of snow. Sunday’s forecast is 22 mm of rain, turning the freshly fallen snow into less-than-fresh piles of slush. Fortunately (?) the rest of the week looks wet enough (and above freezing) that it should wash away whatever remnants of the white stuff that survives the weekend.
Running on Sunday is looking a tad dicey, though. I’ve never run in slush and it’s not something that makes my socks roll up and down in excitement, either.
I read 36 books last year, all of them digital. Those books, if actual physical volumes, could fill an entire shelf of a bookcase but instead they were all contained in a single small tablet (or ereader, as my mood and choice of device varied).
I love the convenience of ebooks. I love being able to highlight words to look them up, to effortlessly pick up from where I left off reading without worrying about a bookmark getting lost, to be able to read in the dark so I don’t disturb others, to flip quickly between different books, to see images and illustrations sharply rendered and in color, something few paperbacks afford these days.
I like being able to read trash on public transit without the pesky social stigma since no one can see the lurid book covers. Actually, I don’t mind people seeing my terrible taste in literature. If I did I wouldn’t carefully track and review everything I read on this blog. But others are bound to appreciate being able to discretely read about unicorn sex or whatnot.
And yet for all these conveniences and perks I can appreciate why some people still prefer actual paper books. There is a solidness, a tangibility to having something you physically heft. It makes the experience of reading seem more substantial. Book covers pop with embossed lettering and illustrations in a way you don’t get from a flat LCD image. The grain of the paper, even the smell of the pages, it speaks to the magic of losing yourself in another world for a little while. I experienced some of this when I was in a bookstore during my mall exercise regime the other day, looking over shelves of books, each a different size or thickness, none of them reduced to bits of digital ephemera.
And then I sighed at how those same shelves are crowded with endless series across every genre. Every story must be spread over ten volumes now, it seems, with single volumes largely left to the “literature” section. If I hear someone go on about world-building one more time I may scream. In fact, I did scream a little just now.
Other things you can’t do with an ebook that you can with a physical book:
beat off rabid animals
use as a paperweight
use as a doorstop (Steven Erickson recommended)
use to build a small fort
use to hide valuable jewels by carving out a secret space inside
use to show off how clever/literate you are in public
flip pages back and forth rapidly with your thumb in order to bug your friends
suddenly snap shut for dramatic effect
have it autographed by Famous Author then sell it on Pawn Stars
When I was a kid and snow was magical instead of maddening, I had pet fish. I had tow tanks for a number of years, a smaller one with gold fish, and a larger one with tropical fish. The tropical tank had the usual assortment of mollies, neon tetras and algae eaters, whose antics I found endlessly fascinating (said antics consisted primarily of sticking to the glass via their sucker mouths or inexplicably chasing other fish). I also had some snails and occasionally an underwater frog mixed in.
Watching the fish was never as engrossing as a good video game (for example) because I was a kid with a kid-sized attention span, but it still was engrossing to just sit back and watch them silently moving through the tank. I wanted tanks as big as I could afford because I wanted the fish to feel less like they were trapped and more like they were just in a really tiny ocean.
As an adult I’ve never had fish but occasionally think of starting a tank again.
When I was exercising at the mall yesterday (see previous post) I went to a pet store that sells not just pet supplies but actual pets. There were rabbits (pee monsters), budgies (screech monsters) and an assortment of other furry critters. There were also tanks of fish, so for the first time in many years I actually stood and watched fish the same way I had as a kid, just with a bunch of other people pushing and shoving around me.
I saw a tank kit that came with some supplies. It looked about 20 gallons in size, though I neglected to check. “I wonder how much a tank costs now versus way back in olden times when I had one?” I said to myself, quietly so all the people around me wouldn’t think I was crazy. I looked at the price: $229. I wondered if maybe a decimal was in the wrong spot or something but no, the price was $229. That seemed like a lot of money for five panes of glass glued together with a few plastic plants thrown in.
Next I looked at the fish. The range seemed to be roughly $3 or so for neon tetras to around $10 for larger/fancier fish. This meant that stocking a good-sized tank would cost probably a hundred dollars or more. I remembered buying fish for about a buck each. Sure, that was back in 1976 and gas was also 29 cents a liter but I still felt some sticker shock. This is what happens when you stay out a market for 40 years.
Even so, I’m still tempted. There are times when watching fish glide though the water while the plants gently sway around them and the bubbles rise steadily behind would be a soothing, even pseudo-therapeutic experience. Until I had to clean the tank, anyway.
EDIT: Looking at this live fish page on the PetSmart website is making me want to set up a tank right this moment. There were a few things that I found intrinsically fascinating as a kid and fish were right in the middle of that list. In fact, here’s the list as best as I can remember it (there may be omissions and the list is not in any order):
dinosaurs
roller coasters
fish
sharks (yes, sharks are fish but they totally deserved their own entry)
reptiles (modern-day dinosaurs in my mind)
miniatures and models (model cars, trains, etc.)
video games (it was early days and everything, even Pong, seemed terribly cool and futuristic)
amusements parks (both going to them and just the general concept, especially themed parks like Disneyland)
monorails (after riding them in Seattle and Disneyland)
fire trucks. I still find them cool. I still can’t explain why.
We got a copious amount of snow, enough that it can’t be described as a dusting, not even a mega-dusting. I’d say it was a mini-dump, enough to be a bother when walking on sidewalks that haven’t been shoveled but not enough to paralyze the area.
Today, with slightly warmer temperatures, the snow became rain and most of the plowed/shoveled areas are now bare again. Yay. The areas that were not touched are covered in a slushy, uneven mixture of water-logged snow. If this stuff freezes (and temperatures are set to go down again thanks to the ominous-sounding Polar Vortex) it will turn into an uneven mixture of jagged ice ready to impale and injure. Not so much yay there.
All of this beings me to my weekend run. I have no idea what the trail at Burnaby Lake would be like except that it would probably be some variation on the slushy, uneven mixture described above. While you can indeed walk on this stuff and stay mostly upright, attempting to do at a higher rate of speed greatly increases the risk of falling on your hiney. I prefer not to do this.
And so it is that for the first time in a long time (possibly ever, though I’d have to check) that I was unable to run due to snow. I’ve actually run in the snow before–once–and it was surprisingly pleasant. But that was when the snow was minimal (a light dusting), very dry and therefore easily compacted under foot. Looking back, it was almost exactly seven years ago (December 13, 2009). That’s long enough to seem like ancient times now. I had yet to run 10K at that point (though I did run 7.99K in the snow).
Now, I have both a Fitbit and an Apple Watch and the Fitbit expects me to walk 10,000 steps a day. The watch has several metrics in its Activity app designed to make sure the day is not spent on a couch pretending to be a legume. With the weather outside being frightful and the thought of lounging about indoors delightful, I had to come up with a plan if I wanted to keep my activity streaks intact (with the bonus of, you know, actual activity which is good for you).
My solution was to go to Metrotown. Walking end to end in that mall probably takes the average person 12 hours. I can do it in less time, though it is a test of my navigation skills. Sunday afternoons tend to be crowded, so I was constantly adjusting my pace, slowing and accelerating, slipping past mega-strollers and people glued to their smartphones. I also did a little shopping, mostly of the window variety. Eventually I realized a more optimal path could be found outside the mall, as the sidewalks skirting the exterior had little traffic, with the bonus of no Christmas music.
I did this both yesterday and today and hit my goals both days. It was nice to meet my targets and yet silly at the same time. Who goes to a mall as part of an exercise regime? And yet it worked.
Now I’m just biding my time waiting for this damn snow to disappear. The next week is looking dry and cold so it’s probably going to hang around just long enough to tease a white Christmas before a deluge washes it all away. It’s our Christmas tradition.
It’s been snowing most of the day and into the evening. This is the most snow we’ve had since the Great Snow of 2008. I expect it to end in giant lakes of slush, as is the tradition of big Vancouver snowfalls.
After a week of near or just-below freezing temperatures it’s finally starting to get a little cool in the condo. Without turning the heat on it plunges down to…22ºC.
I like tacos.
I missed my second drawing for December. I should probably have picked a day to do them (eg. every Monday) instead of a date (eg. the first day of the month, then one week later, then another week later, etc.). I’ll draw something on the weekend. A blizzard, maybe.
I’m seriously thinking about buying an electric razor because I’ve come to loathe using a razor blade and shaving cream. I want to shave and go as quickly as possible so I have more time to write lists of random thoughts.
I completed my Goodreads Book Challenge for 2016, reading 32 of 32 books. I’ve since read #33 and am working on #34 now. This is the one perk of a long commute.
Why does the SkyTrain run slow in the snow when there is no actual snow on the rails?
The Goretex jacket is paying off.
Next week I start on the road back to 150 again after a month and a half of backsliding due to a) usual level of snacking combined with b) no lunchtime walks c) lunch and d) a lot less running.
Perhaps you have heard of Stephen King. He’s had a few books published.
Finders Keepers is the second book in his Bill Hodges trilogy, a thriller in which a high school senior unwittingly faces off against a quite-mad man freshly released after a long sting in prison.
Hodges doesn’t actually appear until about a quarter of the way into the story. Instead the reader is taken back to 1978 where a young Irish man with unusually red lips leads a home invasion of a reclusive author, making off with a load of cash and a collection of notebooks containing work the author has been writing since his alleged retirement years earlier. The young man, Morris Bellamy, is a fan and as King himself once pointed out, fan is short for fanatic and Bellamy is very much a fanatic about the characters the author John Rothstein has created, to the point where he perhaps finds them more real than, well, real people.
When the story jumps forward to the present, Bellamy is just being released from prison, having served 30+ years for a rape conviction. He has spent his incarceration patiently waiting for his release, knowing the stash of loot form Rothstein’s home–cash, but more importantly, dozens of notebooks filled with writing the author has worked on since his alleged retirement–is safely stored in a trunk buried in the woods near his old house. Unfortunately for Bellamy, Peter Saubers, the aforementioned high school senior, has discovered the trunk, used the money to help his family and taken the notebooks, planning to sell them.
The remainder of the story is a series of unfortunate events for Saubers, as Bellamy closes in on the teen, willing to do anything it takes to get back the notebooks he sees as rightfully his. Hodges, along with Holly and Jerome from Mr. Mercedes, enter into the story to aid Saubers before it’s too late.
King effortlessly ratchets up the tension after spending a good while drawing the reader in and while characters sometimes connect the dots a little too easily (I wish I was half as good at making connections as these people), he never cheats. There is no sleight of hand here, just expert play with the cards that have been dealt.
King also sets up the third and final book of the trilogy by having Hodges make regular visits to the hospital where Brady Hartsfield, the Mr. Mercedes killer of the first novel, now resides. It seems that Brady may not be quite as incapacitated as his brain trauma would suggest. Here King broadly hints at more familiar territory, suggesting abilities that go beyond the merely normal.
While the book ends with a set-up for the final volume, the story of Finders Keepers is self-contained and can be enjoyed without having read Mr. Mercedes. It’s a terrific tale of suspense filled with characters that King brings alive with his usual expertise.
The snow stopped and now with temperatures dropping below freezing, all of the plowed and shoveled surfaces are turning from gleaming wet to gleaming ice. Tomorrow’s commute, on foot and wheel, will be interesting. And by interesting I mean sliding and falling and crashing.
And then it will start raining again for the next four months (or back to normal). Is the weather this fall getting to me? Perhaps. Perhaps a little!
I still feel guilty every time I post about the weather. Sure, as climate change begins wreaking havoc on our planet, weather talk becomes somewhat more interesting but ordinary weather, no matter how unpleasant or SAD-making, is still pretty boring as a topic of discussion. I promise this, then–my next post will be about nude volcano hiking.
A month earlier than last winter we got our first snow of the season today. With the temperature just above freezing the snow was wet, heavy and turned into a slushy mess on sidewalks and roads where it wasn’t shoveled or plowed away. For awhile when it was sticking to tree branches it was kind of pretty, though!
Environment Canada ended then resumed the snowfall warning for the Lower Mainland, so who knows if we’ll get more tomorrow. It’s dropping below freezing tonight which means things will be good ‘n icy for the morning commute. People here don’t cope well with the first snow of the season–or, really, just any snow at all. They cope even worse with ice. This is where teleporters would come in really handy.
Here’s a picture of the college at midday with the snow doing its thing. Like I said, it’s kind of pretty but my romance with snow ended after I got my driver’s license and that was…a little while ago.
Run 475 Average pace: 5:33/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 28:04
Weather: Clear, windy
Temp: 5-6ºC
Wind: Moderate to high
BPM: 172
Stride: n/a
Weight: 160.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 3765 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
It was downright chilly today and a strong breeze before the run made it feel cooler still. Temperatures hovered around 5 and 6ºC for the run but my long-sleeved t-shirt has extra long sleeves, so I was able to keep my hands covered until they warmed up a few km in. After that it was fine, plus those first few km made me look like I had no hands, possibly earning unintended sympathy from passersby, noting my triumph over adversity.
I didn’t feel like I was overly pushing myself but it definitely felt like I was putting in more effort. I’m not sure if it was the cold, the wind or some combination of factors but my BPM was higher, my place was slower and overall the results were not nearly as dazzling as last week. One factor was the trail itself, dotted with enough puddles and muddy stretches that a lot of dipsy-doodling was required to navigate.
I also think I’m finally past my fear of the side trail after The Big Trip. It helps that most of the foliage is stripped away now, making visibility on the trail quite good. The only real chance of tripping now comes from paying absolutely no attention.
The park itself must have had some special event going on because the parking lot near the dam was completely full. In five years of jogging at Burnaby Lake I have never seen it full, let alone full to the point people were parking on the road leading in. It was odd. Adding to the oddness, the trail was not packed with people. In fact, given the sunny conditions, there were fewer people out than I expected, though most of them were acting as if it were National Don’t Leash Your Dog Day.
Overall, the run was mildly disappointing in terms of pace, but I should be working in more runs during the week soon and my stamina will get closer to where it was in the summer. If I stay healthy this will be my first full winter of running in several years. I look forward to ice and snow hazards to go along with tree roots, dogs and hail.
Yes, it’s early in the month but I can’t shake this horrible sense of blah. It’s getting colder, the threat of snow (followed by still more rain) is in the forecast, winter is weeks away, work is bearing down, everything feels like a big ball of unraveling string or some other dumb metaphor.
So yes, here is December’s amusing cat image, three days into the month. Enjoy!
After toiling away on my Surface Pro 3, first using the included Sketchpad app (which is pretty bare bones) before switching to Photoshop (which has 5,000 pounds of blubber on its bones), I have drawn a potato.
An amazing potato. It sits on an abstract landscape that invokes memories of the family farm. If you didn’t have a family farm it may instead invoke memories of bad drawings you did when you were a kid, which this essentially is, minus the kid part. I’m a little out of practice.
Secretly I wanted to draw Super Spud but balked because trying to do a simple shape and then adding arms, legs and a face to it was too intimidating after years of not-drawing and even more years of not-drawing-in-computer-programs-I’m-barely-familiar-with.
For December I am going to use my Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 3 Pen to make a Surface Pro Drawing of something or other once per week for the duration of the month. It may be a tree or a potato or perhaps the moons of Uranus (hehehe) but it will be something and each of the four drawings will be amazing*.
Starting tomorrow.
* amazing subject to availability and may be shipped at a later time
