post storm drive

Lo and behold, the sun came out. Excited by this after a couple of days of mixed precipitation, I headed out in my trusty car with my trusty camera to see what I could see.

First, I had to get into the car. The driver's door was frozen shut, but I managed to get into it via the passenger side, and thumped the driver's door into an open position. This had nothing to do with the ice storm and everything to do with Volkswagen's single irritating design flaw in the MKIV Golf. Namely the door seals. The door curves up into the roof line, and the seal has a large contact patch on it. It is one of those old style "felt" like door seals, which fits well, but water can seep through it to be shunted away by the seal under it. Naturally, it freezes shut the minute the temperature drops below freezing. It always has, and always will. Pain in the ass.

Once in the car, I had to wait a few minutes with an idling engine so that I could see. Moisture and frost on the inside... Sigh.

Finally, I head out!

And the sun is gone.

Undaunted, I go anyway, and created these pictures for you:

This one is my favourite of the bunch

a walk on the wild side

We had our ice storm. The alerts are all done and gone. While it is still a bit slippy out, and there is some freezing rain coming down yet, the worst near where we live is finished. Thankfully, we are with power as a lot of local people are not. Rumour has it that those without power may not end up with their power back until Christmas Day at the earliest. I hope for their sakes that this does not happen - most modern houses need electricity to stay warm and cannot be heated without some form of power supply.

Anyhow, I managed to get in a bit of a walk.

It was quite eerie. There was a lot of damage from the ice build up on trees. Branches were everywhere. Even the smallest gust of wind made the trees creak and groan as ice cracked off of the branches.

The light was also marvelously diffuse, which made for some nice photography.

In all, I walked 12km and had a good time doing so.

an idea of how much ice was piling up on the twigs - it was quite a lot

some of the damage in the uptown

usually, we can bike under this, but not today

am not too sure how long that one will remain standing

these people were just too cute as they slipped about and took pictures

perhaps the best example of what I was seeing everywhere

down the tracks - note how much the evergreen is bending

how could anyone not see the beauty of winter?

waiting... personally, I would wait somewhere else rather than in a glass hut with branches falling...

down and out

we`ll be happy when the ice worms nest again

Good ice today. Lots of crackling outside. My family won't let me go for a walk and take better pictures than what I can take from the back window though - something about branches falling down...

happy winter everyone

That is, everyone in the north. You folks in the south (the real south) are just starting summer. I do not bite my thumb at you, but I do bite my thumb...

Anyhow, up here in the Great White North things are, well, white. Lots of snow. Sadly, it is starting to melt like crazy as the United States is sending us their weather which is arriving here in the form of rain, rain, and more rain. It is unseasonably hot outside. All the way up to just above freezing. As an added bonus, we are supposed to be getting a freezing rain storm starting later this afternoon which ought to dump 20-30mm of ice all over the place.

Really? Who needs that?!?

Seems like the cat has the right idea.

Cheers and stay safe out there today.

We are either going to be cuddled up under blankets, or playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids. Bliss it is winter!