snow days

Vancouver has not been at its best for the past 2 weeks. First we endured torrential rain that caused flooding and power outages all over (luckily not us) and finally resulted in an 11 day boil water advisory for the whole lower mainland. The water was very murky due to large numbers of mudslides into the reservoirs. After day two we gave up on boiling and just bought bottled water (our fabulous neighbourhood store never ran out) because even when you boiled it it looked like this:

Slightly greenish-brown, a little murky, and not very appetizing.

Then this past weekend they predicted light flurries and we ended up with this:

Lots of fun for Ollie, and it sure looks pretty, but Vancouver is just not equipped. No plows and not much salt, and drivers who panic at the first flake. On Monday the daycare was closed as the road up SFU mountain was too treacherous, so I stayed home in the morning and Adrian got the afternoon shift. Most of our neighbours stayed home too and there was lots of communal shoveling going on. Ollie and I went out during Sam's nap to shake the snow off the more delicate saplings. Then on the way to daycare this morning Ollie looked out at the approximately 5 million trees on SFU mountain, noted that there was a lot of snow on them, and asked if I was going to shake the snow off them too. He was a little worried when I said I wasn't, he seems to think someone should.

No new snow today, but it's -20C with the windchill. Unheard of in Vancouver in November. They say we will get more snow tomorrow night.

Please note the new rock wall in the garden, under all the snow. Isn't it lovely? It is there pretty much so that Ollie can no longer run over all my plants, but I am really pleased with how it turned out. No, I did not build it myself.

We have become a dreaded hyper-consumer two-car family. The public transportation commutes to the North Shore and South Burnaby are just too long, and I couldn't face biking or scootering all winter in the dark and pouring rain, so we bought a used Yaris pretty cheaply. Its orange, and very basic - driving it definitely makes the Prius seem like a luxury vehicle.