It was soooooo cold...

[Rob Wright]

Friday we finally got the Arctic blast that was forecast. Temps have been reaching 25F for highs and dropping to 0 or below at night. Had about three inches of snow, roads were plowed, a bit slick but nothing bad. Someone with 4x4 SUV thought they could drive as fast as they wanted on the roads and ending up sliding of the road and smashing into the tree's on the side of the mountain.

What was unusual was that the basin had the same amount of snow as the house (house is at 7100 ft above sea level, the basin is roughly 4400 feet above sea level). The city where I am student teaching has no snow removal equipment and the roads were extremely slick. No, delay, which was stupid because there were several accidents where people couldn't stop and slid through intersections or ending up flipping their vehicles. A one hour delay would of allowed the roads to warm and clear.

Rob

[Tobus]

Is this really the kind of thing you'd call parenting these days?

Well, no, I wouldn't say it was a wise decision. But we seem to have gone from a society that might have merely frowned on it to a society that thinks it's a criminal offense.

My mom used to leave us kids in the car for much longer than that while she went inside to run errands. Whether it was 20 degrees or 100 degrees. It just never would have entered my mind that this was criminal behavior.

[NewGuise]

...and you know that you're an Xsmarkser when you're standing outside after shoveling a ship-load of snow and find yourself saying, "That was thirsty work...I could use a cold beer right now..."

That just sounds Canadian to me...

Just back from a Caribbean cruise, on which more than once - in and near Florida - we encountered temperatures that were lower than what we experienced today at home in snowbound Edmonton. The weirdness of climate change.

But I remember only one snow day in my youth, in Grade 1, when we were sent home after standing outside for a long while watching the custodian try to dig his way to the rear entrance, which was completely blocked - only the very top of one of the double doors was visible. The roofed front entrance was clear, but fire regulations demanded another exit.