The ice age is upon us!

Friday was another snow day at the high school. It was a "major snow squall event" according to environment Canada. We've gone from bare ground to almost two feet of snow in the last three or four days. Amazingly, we missed out on the worst of it. Minden, about 75km west of us, was reporting 121 cm (a whisker under 4 feet) of snow. By the time I finished shoveling the driveway Friday (the first time), I had to redo the walk and stairs because they had accumulated another two inches. Had to redo the whole thing Friday afternoon after the school was closed and Leaf got to come home.

Mars is happy. He likes the snow. We've all just been outside in the back yard cutting down a christmas tree. Daddy with a saw, Mars with a lightsaber. I think Odin might like snow. Except when it gets on him. He mostly stayed in the scoop and was happy to get pulled around looking like the kid who fell down in his snowsuit and couldn't get up again in "A Christmas Story". Which was in the news yesterday. Real kid gets tongue frozen to flag pole. Kid makes international news. Slow news day?

















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The secret lives of teachers - snow day

I'm no longer undecided about snow. Its sucking already. I think I had just developed nostalgia because I didn't have to do any shoveling last year and my dorm, the cafeteria, and my classes were all less than 100m from each other. Today, we are under a winter storm watch, the van wouldn't start, and I forgot all about wind chill.

A digression. When I was a kid, I didn't literally think that teachers slept in lockers at school and only came out on school days. But it was easy to forget that teachers had outside lives. Marrying a teacher has given me a look at the secret lives of teachers and schools. Its been enlightening.

A segue-way. Today is a snow day for all local schools. I bet you didn't know that teachers have been known to do a secret 'snow-dance' to incite the snow gods to ramp up the precipitation so that they will get a snow day. Of course you didn't. Its hidden in teacher offices behind closed doors.

The rationale behind a snow day is that it is unsafe for kids to take buses to school. However, teachers are expected to be at school. Irony. We talked about it on the way in this morning. Our theory is that while either a bus crash or a teacher car crash is tragic, a bus crash is newsworthy, but a teacher car crash is just tragic.

First real snow & global warming

We've had a dusting a couple of times before, but nothing that lasted the day. Unseasonably warm fall this year. Incidentally, today was the first time that I've worn a jacket this fall. Just sweaters/hoodies until now. Reminded me of the year Doug and I wore shorts all winter. It was a big story down in the big city a week back about being the first recorded November without any snow at all. I'm undecided. Not that I haven't liked the warmer than normal weather, its certainly cheaper on furnace oil, but maybe I secretly kind of like snow. This time of year particularly, it does a lot to brighten up the short dull days. As an added bonus, snow tends to stay whiter here. Mars in enthralled. I asked him and he said he remembers snow but I'm never sure with those kind of questions (he'd say he remembered flying to the moon if I asked him in the right tone). Took forever today getting into the sitters because he had to stop and make hand prints all along the walkway.

Lack of snow also makes me think about the global warming thing. I don't believe in "global warming". Before you eco-freak on me, hear me out. Meteorologists/climatologists can't accurately predict what the weather will be three days from now. This summer, I pretty much started planning on it being exactly the opposite of Environment Canada's predictions. Because they were always wrong.

If it was Monday, and they said warm and sunny on Thursday, I'd plan for rain. The annoying thing was how they would keep revising their model until they got the 'prediction' right. On Tuesday, the Thursday prediction would have been changed to "A mix of sun and cloud". On Wednesday, the Thursday prediction would have been changed to "Cloudy with a 30% chance of rain showers". On Thursday, the prediction would be "WARNING: SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT". By then of course it isn't a prediction, since you're looking out the damn window.

So, if scientists can't accurately model weather 3 days from now, how can they accurately model weather 3 years from now? Simple answer: they can't. Model, revise, model, revise, model, fudge, model, what it comes down to is a big guess. Albeit educated. Will this coming Thursday be warmer than it is today? I don't know, and neither does Environment Canada. They guess, I pick the opposite, we're each correct 50% of the time.

Which brings me to my next beef. Global "warming". That was a mistake. You can't predict the weather, you know (or ought to know) that you can't predict the weather, and then you go and predict the weather will get warmer and expect people to believe you. Global "warming" is and absolute and thus is bad marketing. All it takes is one moronic talking head on FOX to say "Well I heard that up there in Fuktyuktuk the average temperature went down" and you have been proven wrong to the great unwashed masses. From the beginning, it should have been "Climate Change". Will the weather on Thursday be warmer than today? Maybe, maybe not - that's 50/50. Will the weather on Thursday be different than today? Yes - that's as close to 100% as weather prediction can get. You'll never hear "worldwide, weather and temperature was exactly the same as last year - Aha - Climate change is a lie!"

So, while I don't believe in global warming (I'm going to go opposite again and vote for an ice age), I do believe in climate change. I also believe climate change is affected by human beings. It would be naive to think otherwise. So please don't crucify me on a sustainably grown bamboo cross and pummel me with organic carrots.

Birthday present disappointment

We haven't bought real presents for Mars' birthday before. We kind of figure that Mars wouldn't know the difference anyway for 1st and 2nd birthday. Plus he has enough 'stuff', we certainly don't need more toys. We've gone so far as to ask family and friends not to give them gifts for birthday/retail shopping season. A two year old does not need need hundreds of dollars worth of toys every birthday/xmas, and we are not trying to raise some little sheeple consumers.

For some reason we decided to buy him and Odin 'new' toys for birthdays. I think the first store bought new toys ever for both of them. From us at least. Yard sales and thrift stores have provided more than enough wooden blocks, lego, cars, dinosaurs, books, and action figures.

Shopping for presents we were surprised at how expensive new toys are. I was also amazed at how many need batteries - a pet peeve of mine, since they are wasteful, environmentally irresponsible, and cause toys to make the most annoying noises. When we are gifted noisy toys, they usually end up 'broken' after the batteries mysteriously disappear.

We bought Odin a rocking horse on springs. A nice old-fashioned toy. Way, way bigger than expected. A disappointment as well. It functions, but both stirrups are broken, capped nuts are broken exposing threaded bolts, and one of the spring holders is cracked. Thought about taking it back, but there was a toll free number in the instructions to get replacement parts. Of course a couple weeks later, when I get around to calling, the number was no longer in service. No replacement parts for me, and too late to return. A waste of money even at the 50% off we paid for it.

Thought we had found the most amazing present for Mars. "Crazy Forts". A set of balls and rods that plug together like giant tinker toys - throw a sheet over top and you have a play fort. You can build all different designs. Who could resist that? I loved building forts as a kid, Mars' favourite activity when visiting my dorm last winter was building forts with the cushions from the couches in the common room. Unfortunately, while a perfect idea, it was sorely lacking in execution. The rods don't go into the holes in the balls far enough and subsequently don't stay in place. So you build a big complicated fort, it keeps falling apart every time he touchs it. As far as I'm concerned, if you have to say "don't touch it or it will break", it is definitely not a toy. He lost interest in any use other than using the rods as swords to whack people, and Odin enjoyed hiding the little balls everywhere. Collected up all the parts and put them back in the box. Another waste of money.

Sigh. At least we had a nice little birthday party for Mars. Rented the gymnastics room for him and all his little friends from playgroup. Lots of running around and giddiness, throwing balls, somersaulting, and other fun. Then back to the house for cake and ice cream. Leaf made a really cool volcano cake with dinosaurs. Cousin Jovin was also up for a visit that weekend, and I think that was the best part of birthday for Mars.

Mars shocks himself

The little monkey climbs up onto the bathroom vanity, reaches up as high as he can, and tries to shove a clump of dad's combed out beard hairs into one of the empty sockets of the vanity light. The things you think of when you are three. It hurt enough to call for mum to come look, but fortunately not enough of a zap to knock him off the counter. Empty socket now duct taped over, hopefully he's learned his electricity lesson.