Spoke too soon ...

It appears we have gotten some unseasonably warm weather (and rain) so all the snow has melted. We’re expecting a high of 12C (54F) as well as heavy rain – so what little tufts of snow remain, will soon be gone.

The ponds outside my window are still covered with unbroken ice. I wonder if it will last? Because I have no idea how thick the ice is.

Have a fairly computer free extra long weekend. I took Friday off work because of an unscheduled pedagogical day (strike) at Tania’s school – since the daycare is part of the school, it was also affected.

Then there are always the surprise expenses that come up. This time it was the fridge breaking down. When I arrived home in Montreal Thursday night, the fridge wasn’t working. A little bit of investigation did not reveal any obvious problem. So we went out and bought a new one. But, it won’t be delivered until tomorrow. Fortunately, Sofia will be home because Tania is having another unscheduled pedagogical day that day.

We were able to prolong the life of most of the food by simply making ice outside and sticking it in the fridge. The frozen food (and anything freezable) we stuck in the freezer in the garage. We omitted perishables from our grocery shopping this past weekend.

Monday morning was an interesting morning, weather wise: we had freezing rain. I had to scrape off 2-3mm of ice off the car’s windows, salt our walkway and driveway and then take Sofia and the kids to their respective drop-off points, all the while driving on extremely icy roads. My path of first choice was blocked just before exit to a major artery because a school bus had slid and was blocking the entire street. So, I had to go back, slipping and a sliding (“peeping and a hiding, been told a long time ago” – sorry, tangential jump into a Little Richard song) to try and get to the main artery. Fortunately we made it.

And interesting side observation was that the Wal-Mart parking lot was only half full around 08:45, when it is usually packed at 08:00 when it opens.

Freezing rain is not all that bad, it makes for very beautiful trees. The trees get encrusted with ice and look like beautiful crystal sculptures. It is particularly wonderful when the sunlight is refracted through them. (The down side is that walking and driving are awful, but, hey! That is only a minor concern for an almost surreal vision of extreme beauty).

Tania and Jason are disappointed that the snow is all gone.

Images were grabbed from here, here, and here.

[29-December-2005: fixed broken hyperlinks]