OHHHH NOOO,IT NEVER SNOWS IN VANCOUVER

That's what I was told when I moved to Vancouver from snowy Belleville, but we've had this darn white stuff for the last few days. I wrote earlier about the beautiful snow globe, that I felt I was looking at through the patio door. Soft, huge big, beautiful flakes and I think I mentioned, that it was melting as it hit the ground. What I didn't know, that if failed to quit snowing and it began to eventually accumulate. It was horrible out there but not as bad as what they got in other parts of Vancouver. Lot's of accidents and school closures, and major incidents caused by the snow and ice. The weather report is that it's going to continue for a day or so. It's turned to rain out there now, but as it cools at night it can become quite slippery. It's so hilly out here, that many vehicles, including buses couldn't make it up the steep inclines, which caused many people to miss work. Then there was a problem with the trains as well, so all in all, when it snows in Vancouver, it's a major event.

But all across Canada, there are extreme temperatures! Calgary is experiencing 40 below's. We people who grew up in Northern Ontario, know what that's like! Remember how cold that was! How the snow would crunch with every step and you could hear big cracks on the ice on the Bay as the surface would expand. I can remember being out on the ice in our ice-fishing hut and it would be 40 or 50 below and all of a sudden a huge and very scary huge crack ,would break the silence of concentrating on catching fish. It was enough to get the heart pumping fast to warm you right up!! The smoke coming out of the chimneys in our homes, from our furnaces constantly running, would blow the smoke in great plumes, straight up in the air. Our faces would get so cold when exposed to the air that it was like an "ice cream headache". Our legs would feel numb to the touch! Remember how we would brag, how living in Northern Ontario was the BEST!! I guess, we we're young then and either really did love it, or just didn't know the difference of our Southern climate neighbours temperatures of 2 below at the lowest!

The news tonight, reported a story of a young father in ( I think Winnipeg on an Indian reservation),who was drunk and began walking a short distance to a relatives not realizing until the next morning, he had taken his 1 year old and 3 year old children, dressed only in t-shirts and diapers with him. They found the father during the night wandering around with hyperthermia and drunk and got him to the hospital, but he never mentioned his children were still out in the cold somewhere until the next day when he sobered up.Of course they were found dead!! What a sad story, but I seem to remember stories like that, even someone we knew but I can't recall now who it was that had a similar story. Sad to hear!! Maybe Australia had something when they named Canada a dangerous place to visit with extreme temperatures!

We went out this afternoon to pay some hefty bills, like car and house insurance...ouch! We were in BCAA where we also booked our cruises, so stopped to talk to Helen our travel agent. She's so wonderful and fun to talk to. She talks very quickly and at first I had to really focus on what she was saying! It takes awhile anymore for someone talking as fast as she does, for it to hit my ears and get to my brain and for me to comprehend what she said! But, I've gotten use to her now. We inquired about some trips, but just INQUIRED!! We are afraid what the tax man will want from us first!! Damn old tax man!!! I hate him!

I was suppose to go out tonight to a Red Hat dinner, but when we got home, our neighbour on the first floor (we are on 7th floor), was having a problem with a flood coming from her toilet! She had a problem about 3 weeks ago and called a plumber when a metal piece of the toilet had malfunctioned or just rusted out, and she had a big flood. The plumber replaced it with a plastic piece instead of copper, but apparently it broke the next day and when she flushed the water wouldn't stop coming out of the toilet. She had just put down beautiful wood floors about 6 months ago and the water went under the floor, lifting the wood. The plumber admitted his mistake and is going to cover the expense of replacing the floor. He was to replace the floor this week. Today when we came home, she was in a panic because when she flushed the toilet, all of a sudden this mass of floods came floating up around her bottom. Hilarious yes, especially with jokes about now having her own bidet! She wasn't amused after all her problems!! Apparently, what the problem was, someone in the condo above her was using way too much detergent in either the clothes washer or the dishwasher. So, we helped mop and mop and console her, while we waited for the plumber....again!!

So, back to the beginning of this paragraph....I was suppose to go to a Red Hat dinner! After all that excitement, I was just too tired to go anywhere.

So, that's my day! Everyday is an adventure! I love every minute of it too!!

Thanks everyone who leaves a comment at the bottom of my rambles. It's so much fun to get them and read them and know someone I least expect to be reading my blog, actually is!! It only takes a second to leave a little note so please take that second for me. Sure appreciate it!

Picture of the day:

Does anyone remember this famous picture that was on the cover of "Life" magazine? It's massively tall! It's in San Diego, right by the port where our ship landed.

This is also in San Diego, right by the Port, and it's an unfinished tribute to Bob Home and his contribute to entertaining the troops for so many years. I couldn't get any closer with the digital camera. I'm taking my 35mm Canon on the next trip with the big zoom. It's just so heavy to carry, but worth it!