From frigid Quebec - somewhere I picked up that it was the 45th of January! usually it is February that is interminable, tho' we are better equipped to handle it than our poor southern neighbours ....
Hmm. I saw some paperwork recently indicating that something was scheduled for June 35th. Mind you 35 days in June would be much preferable to 45 in January.
Our snow ploughs, snow blowers, salt trucks and sidewalk ploughs, have all been named. It's a delight to watch the online feed of them travelling around the city. Santa's reindeer and all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are part of the fleet.
Here we have Sir Salter Scott, Sir Andy Flurry, Irvine Squelch, Ice Sir I Can Boogie, Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and many, many more.
These are the names Saint John picked in a 2023 naming contest:
Kevin
Plow Chicka Plow Plow
Skip the Ditches
Nor'easter Beaster
Reversing Snowfalls
Port City Pusher
Froster Thurston
Fast and Flurrious
-24° forecast again tonight, but at least it's almost stopped snowing. The roads are all channels with snow piled up and nowhere to put any more. We've had lots of strong sunshine, so the spirits are raised by that. Even I, who likes the cold, could do with just a bit less of it.
I have a goddaughter in Kelowna, so Canadian weather is something I look at on our SBS World News.
Toronto strikes me as a place that frequently gets cold weather far beyond my experience of growing up in Middlesex.
My daughters in Calgary have been complaining about the cold for a couple of weeks, but it seems to have warmed some since then. Still, one is coming for a visit to San Diego in a couple of weeks, quite ready for a spring break.
Showing my age here... While renovating our kitchen recently I saw that one of our spice jars still bore a Steinberg price tag. It must be 40 years old. Then I thought about the other big names on the Montreal shopping scene back then - are there any left? (The smoky, cavernous engineering office at Canadair was known as Steinberg's on account of its resemblance to the supermarket.)
Well; apart from the Grand River still close to flood level, a sudden blizzard this morning still dumping on us and the warm roads making driving more exciting than I enjoy, it's a nice day down here.
In a couple of month's time, I will be making a pleasant return to Canada for a lengthy road trip. We will be starting in Calgary (visiting some old friends) and then travel across BC, stopping off in various places to see friends and revisit old favourite haunts before spending time on our beloved Vancouver Island.
I’ve been to Calgary but never got further into the mountains than Banff. Likewise for Vancouver on the other side. Between the two of us we have family in both places and I’ve sometimes thought about doing that drive from one place to the other. Anyway, sounds like a great trip and in a few months the weather should be more favourable.
In a couple of month's time, I will be making a pleasant return to Canada for a lengthy road trip. We will be starting in Calgary (visiting some old friends) and then travel across BC, stopping off in various places to see friends and revisit old favourite haunts before spending time on our beloved Vancouver Island.
Wonderful trip! If you ever get the chance take the white glove trip on the train from Calgary to Vancouver.
In a couple of month's time, I will be making a pleasant return to Canada for a lengthy road trip. We will be starting in Calgary (visiting some old friends) and then travel across BC, stopping off in various places to see friends and revisit old favourite haunts before spending time on our beloved Vancouver Island.
We really enjoyed our 2013 stay on Vancouver Island including a day in Butchart Gardens.
Back in the days when Mr F could travel, we made several trips to BC (he has old friends/rellies there). Remember Vancouver Island with particular affection. I was reminded of the Butchart Gardens by those at Arduaine - the same oasis of exotica.
Actually, we won't be going anywhere near Victoria or Butchart Gardens, except for the last day when we go to the airport to head home. All our time on VI will be above the Malahat, covering places like Campbell River, Nanaimo, Cumberland and Ucluelet. Really looking forward to it!
We were up in the Nanaimo area in 2019 with my uncle’s family, who live in Chemainus. We went up that way to see Cathedral Grove, which I had remembered from my last trip up that way in 1982.
(We also spent some time in the Victoria area - in addition to Butchart there was another smaller garden that was definitely worth a visit.)
We've now confirmed with all the people we will be staying with the dates we will be arriving and departing. It is going to be great to see them again and so many people have been incredibly generous in offering hospitality. We have also now booked hotels for all the other places that we will be staying in along the way.
I have a Google Calendar for the road trip, making it clear which days we will be travelling. I also have a detailed spreadsheet, where every day is listed, showing where we will be, how far we will be travelling (and estimated travelling times) etc etc
Sounds like a great trip. I always like to have the essentials planned out in advance - it makes everything else fall together with much less stress during the event.
We still have snow and cold here and I have come down with some kind of so far pretty mild cold. Sigh.
My wife and I are doing a California road trip next week. Phoenix to San Francisco, then US hwy 1 to LA, to Phoenix (8 days total). She used ChatGPT (I think thats what it is called) to work out the route, things to see and do, and places to stop for the night.
Used to use CAA Trip Ticks, maps, and tour books, for this type of information.
I’d be a bit nervous about ChatGPT, lest it hallucinate us off a cliff somewhere, but I suppose really what it’s doing is just a more efficient version of the crowdsourcing that is pretty much par for the course these days. I think my parents used to use TripTicks to get us through the States but that was a long time ago. I’ve experimented with AI to get tourist information for hypothetical trips we might take and I’ve been pretty impressed with it as a starting point. You just need to do some independent checking, much as you would do with any other online source…
It’s been cold and wet here and I still have a cold. Sigh.
I've done all the planning and decisions about routes etc myself.
a) I enjoy this kind of thing; working out which route to take and where to stop etc. I'll use streetview on Google Maps sometimes to double check that a road looks reasonably passable and that kind of stuff.
b) When it comes to Vancouver Island, I don't need any help working out routes as I know the way to the places we are going very well indeed. Even in mainland BC, I know a lot of the routes we will be taking.
c) To be honest, I don't really want to engage with ChatGPT and the likes.
I like Google Maps for this kind of thing, though often when we travel it’s not places I really want to drive so it ends up more being about figuring out trains (ideally) or other forms of public transit.
Comments
My thoughts exactly!
(Not sure that deportation jokes are really funny anywhere these days.)
Here we have Sir Salter Scott, Sir Andy Flurry, Irvine Squelch, Ice Sir I Can Boogie, Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and many, many more.
Kevin
Plow Chicka Plow Plow
Skip the Ditches
Nor'easter Beaster
Reversing Snowfalls
Port City Pusher
Froster Thurston
Fast and Flurrious
Toronto strikes me as a place that frequently gets cold weather far beyond my experience of growing up in Middlesex.
(Hoping I don't get ejected).
We were cleaning out our spice rack a while back and found some spices that I think must have been older than our marriage (20+ years).
Wonderful trip! If you ever get the chance take the white glove trip on the train from Calgary to Vancouver.
We really enjoyed our 2013 stay on Vancouver Island including a day in Butchart Gardens.
(We also spent some time in the Victoria area - in addition to Butchart there was another smaller garden that was definitely worth a visit.)
We've now confirmed with all the people we will be staying with the dates we will be arriving and departing. It is going to be great to see them again and so many people have been incredibly generous in offering hospitality. We have also now booked hotels for all the other places that we will be staying in along the way.
I have a Google Calendar for the road trip, making it clear which days we will be travelling. I also have a detailed spreadsheet, where every day is listed, showing where we will be, how far we will be travelling (and estimated travelling times) etc etc
Can't wait!
We still have snow and cold here and I have come down with some kind of so far pretty mild cold. Sigh.
Used to use CAA Trip Ticks, maps, and tour books, for this type of information.
It’s been cold and wet here and I still have a cold. Sigh.
a) I enjoy this kind of thing; working out which route to take and where to stop etc. I'll use streetview on Google Maps sometimes to double check that a road looks reasonably passable and that kind of stuff.
b) When it comes to Vancouver Island, I don't need any help working out routes as I know the way to the places we are going very well indeed. Even in mainland BC, I know a lot of the routes we will be taking.
c) To be honest, I don't really want to engage with ChatGPT and the likes.