Weird Damn Weather

What strange weather we have been having of late. Heck, this morning at about 11:30 a.m. I went into the washroom at home and 'what the hell!, the furnace cut in'. I know it was a bit misty this morning at 6:00 a.m. when I went out for my hour walk, but it wasn't that bad. I certainly didn't feel it was 'furnace weather'.

Then this afternoon I was out in the backyard with a tee-shirt on checking out if my grass needed cutting yet or not. Yup, it needs cutting. So the grass is growing already, yet we still need our furnace for heat in the house. I guess this is what the global warming is doing for us :(

Hearts A Tickin

What a nice morning for a walk-a-bout.  When I left it was –6C and the ground was frozen so it was easier to walk then in the mud of the last couple of days.  Not much of a moon out there so it was a bit darker than normal, but the stars were shining brightly.

I started out with a smaller dog come running and snarling at me within 1 minute of starting off.  Neighbour was out with his 3 dogs to let them have a pee break.  They are all smaller type animals.  One of them got loose of his leash and came charging at me snarling away.  At least the neighbour was right there to take control of his dog.   After all I sure didn’t want to put a size 12 down it’s throat so early in the morning

 

I finally got to the far edge of town and was walking up to this one house that has a lot of trees and bush around the doorway.  The streets are quite dark as well.  The owner has a homemade mailbox made out of wood and is fairly large to accommodate a couple days papers.  Just as I reached to drop off the paper his motion light finally came on and out jumped a cat that had been sitting on the mailbox.  The cat headed one way and I looked to head the other way.  Of course my heart was just a racing but at least I didn’t scream. 

I did mutter an obscenity however and had my head on a swivel for the rest of the walk home . . .

Foggy Out There

Holy smokes but is it ever foggy out there this morning.  Then add in the melting that occurred yesterday and it is slippery as all get out.

My paper guy was late again this morning due to the fog.  He also ran into a big old skunk and had a hard time driving with tears in his eyes.  He tried hanging his head out the window but then the tears just froze to his face and he still couldn’t see.  At least after my drop he is on the homeward bound leg of his night  He usually starts at about 10 p.m. and done by 7-8 a.m.

Now I actually get a night off.  My only night of the week that I don’t have to go out and clean.  Then the only day I don’t have to get up early is tomorrow morning.  I’m on a roll

It’s Cold Out There

When I got up this morning it was –14.6 C.  Thank goodness the wind went down or it would have brutal on the morning walk.  As it was the coyotes were just howling up a storm this morning.  I would say they were voiced their displeasure with the drop in temperatures.

Other than the coolness it was a nice walk this morning.  Of course it is slippery as all get out with the rain, snow, melting that has gone on for the last couple of days.  So far no falls and I hope it continues that way

This is Not Nice

Old Mother Nature sure spit out raspberries yesterday/last night.  The snow just kept coming, and coming.  Of course there is a real nice inch or two of ice under the snow so it is slippery as all get out.  The wind is still blowing quite strong which is putting a nice crust on the snow banks and slicking up the ice patches even more so.

Needless to say my papers didn’t arrive until 9:20 a.m. which makes it a bit difficult to get them delivered by 7 a.m.   While I was waiting I took the snow blower to my driveway and the sidewalks in my area.  I was going great guns until I sucked up a rock and it jammed the impeller.  That was the end of the snow blowing for the morning.  I did get the machine back into the garage and put a heater on it to melt some of the ice and snow so I could see what was wrong.  As soon as I saw the rock I knew I had found the problem.  Once I got a pry bar and a large hammer and removed the rock, then the blower was back in good shape once again. 

By the time I had the blower fixed I figured I’d better get down to the hall and clean off the walkway for the days traffic.  Lots of ice on the sidewalk so I used the scraper and got a fair amount removed.  I’ll pick up some salt today and get rid of the rest.  Right now with the wind blowing so hard there isn’t a lot of sense throwing salt on as it will just blow away.

After that I noticed my papers had just arrived so I headed out at 9:25 a.m for my normal 45 minute walk.  With all the nice slippery roads and snow drifts I didn’t get home until 10:45 a.m.  So 45 minutes took me 80 minutes today.  Of course with all the trudging through the snow, my legs feel like rubber.  I’m sure they’ll be a bit sore tomorrow.

Sandra actually had a appointment in the city today to see a therapist, but with the roads the way they are I just felt it was not worth it so I cancelled it.  I called the office and got another appointment early in November which is actually better for us.

As I’m typing this the sun actually popped out.  Hopefully it will stay out and melt a bit of this darn white stuff for us.  We can only hope anyway.  It will be soon enough that the snow will be here to stay though so we might as well get used to the idea.

Nasty Morning

We knew it was coming and that it was only a matter of time before it arrived.  We got our first taste of the upcoming winter over night.  It drizzled all day yesterday and as the day moved on it got cooler.  On my way home last night at about 10 pm I could definitely feel the bite in the air.

I was not surprised when I went out this morning at 5:45 am to find a skiff of the white stuff.  The wind was/is quite strong coming out of the northwest.  This didn’t make for a very nice last 1/2 kilometer walk home as I had to walk right into the wind.  It is snowing albeit sort of a pellet type snow, but with the strong winds the face takes a kicking when you are walking directly into it.

The weatherman says we should have this off and on all day today.  But of course it will warm up a bit and take all of this away.  It is our wakeup call to what is to come for the next 5 months or so

Scary Thoughts

For the last week or so the sky around town has been full of geese. There is a field of peas just on the edge of town and the geese have found it and are delighted in filling up on the peas for their long jaunt south. Sometimes the air is just black (and white) with the geese trying to get the best landing spot checked out. Of course they are very vocal as well when they are trying to land and when they are landed and feeding.

The one strange thing I have found for the last couple of days is that when I'm heading out bright and early in the morning; I'm hearing chick-a-dees chirping away. Now what the heck are they doing this far south at this time of the year. Normally we don't hear/see them until the middle of winter when it gets too stormy in the north. We haven't even had a sniff of snow yet and in actuality the weather has been quite nice for the last couple weeks. No rain finally :)

I'm just hoping this is not a sign of what we are going to be in for this coming winter. Mind you the way our weather has been since last year, I certainly would not be surprised if we had a lot of snow and a long cold winter. Brrrrrrr

It's Getting Better Every Day

It's not even the end of March yet and I saw and heard my first couple of robins this morning while out delivering the papers. They were just a singing away from the treetops. Mind you they may be singing to complain about the ground being too hard (ie frozen) yet to get any worms, but at least they are here.

After I saw the robins I took a good look around and holy smokes, the snow has almost disappeared. It is just unbelievable how fast the snow has melted. The other thing is that there is not that much water left around. That would gel with what I thought. We just didn't get very much snow this past winter and what we had didn't have a very high water content. I've already heard that sloughs that are normally overflowing at this time of year have hardly a trickle of water in them.

It could be a dry, dusty summer! But of course if we get some rain in the May/June timeframe it will change everything.

Not a darn thing you can do about it though, so you might as well just go with the flow :)

Still Not Spring Yet!

We went from +16 C yesterday, March 17th to -3 C (-9 C with the windchill) today. Believe me the wind seems to just blow right through you. Of course half the population is already switching over to lighter coats/jackets, no gloves, etc so it seems even colder than it really is. At least with the higher winds, the snow cover is disappearing quite quickly.

This morning while I was delivering the papers the puddles were not totally frozen as I so eloquently found out. I had to cross the ditch at one customers house and I stepped on the ice only to sink in over my ankle. This was just about the furthest out on my route, so needless to say I had a wet and soggy cold walk home for the return trip. At least the roads are drying up a bit.

Soon we will be complaining about the dust blowing around :)

Getting Close To Spring

For the last couple of days we finally have been getting a bit nicer weather. The sun is actually coming out and warming up everything. The snow is melting and the roads are getting muddy.

But today I got another first of the new spring year and that was while I was doing the papers this morning a lonely goose came flying over the town just a honking away. Now this isn't too unusual as there are geese that stay around the province all winter, just normally not in our neck of the woods.

This goose that winging by this morning was heading north at a good clip. So maybe it knows something we don't :)

Autumn in August

I was just walking home from downtown and noticed the chill in the air (temp 18.6 C). I also noticed that quite a few trees in the Cenotaph park have their leaves starting to turn yellow.

In the last day or so, the majority of the purple martins have headed for warmer climes. Mind you the martins usually leave about the 12-15th of August, so that isn't much new. Actually quite a few of the bird population appears to be on the decline and their absence is certainly noted. It sure is starting to look and feel a lot like fall outside.



But wait; it's only August 14th. What the heck happened to summer? I think I can probably count on one hand the number of nice hot days we have had since June this year. The weather has been windy and cooler than normal this year. When we are fortunate enought to get a nice hot day, you only get one of them and then it is right back into the windy, cooler days again.

I was planning on going to the lake this weekend but then I heard the forecast (rain and cool temperatures) and figured we might as well stay home. Good thing too as Kevin called and wants me to work the lumberyard on Saturday and Monday as he needs to pick up a load of lumber up Glaslyn, SK way.

I might as well work as it certainly doesn't appear to be a great weekend for any outdoors activities . . .

'Start of Something Good'

The weatherman has been saying we are going to have a great weekend with lots of sun and warmth. . .

I just returned from doing my morning papers and we definitely have lots of nice clear blue sky. Nary a cloud in sight. Mind you it is a wee bit on the cooler side with the temperature sitting at 5.6C when I started my walk.

Hopefully the skies will stay clear and some of the warmth of the sun can get down here and dry up some of the water that is still in puddles. Great haven for mosquitoes to grow :(

At least the weatherman has it partly right so far. Hopefully they are correct for the rest of the week and into the weekend.

Dang, It's Cold Out There

What a country! We had quite a cool spring this year and then it started to warm up and the countryside became too dry. Then about 2 weeks ago, the moisture started to come down and now we can't get the tap to turn off.

When I went out this morning at 5:45 a.m., it was 7C. That definitely is cool for July 11th. All through the hour walk it threatened rain, however, it held off until I was about 10 steps from my door. That was nice :)

This time of the year in our Province is 'Craven' time and our newest city has sprouted up north of Regina a bit. With all the rain that we have received in the last while, you can bet that Craven will be one huge mud pie. Throw in this cool weather and it makes for an uncomfortable time.

Then again, what will probably happen is those at Craven will just increase their anti-freeze level and keep on partying :)

Fun, fun, fun . . .

What A Nice 'Fall' Day

As I headed outside first thing this morning, the weather was just not very nice. Very overcast and cool with a temperature of 4 C. The wind was down though so at least that is a plus. The last while has been crazy the way the wind has been so strong and of course coming out of the north. The only problem is that it is now June 6th and not November 6th. It just seems we can't get 2 warm days in a row and we can't get spring started let alone summer . . .

Oh heck just think in a short two weeks the days will start to get shorter :)

Smells So Nice . . .

I just returned from my morning paper rounds and all during the hour walk it drizzled rain. The first couple of steps out of the house and you could just smell the difference in the air. According to my gauge we have had about 1 millimetre which isn't much rain, but what a difference even this little bit makes.

In my mind it could drizzle all day long and it wouldn't bother me. However, for those in the farming industry that are not finished planting they may disagree. But in reality I think most folks would like a good rain as it is just so dry out there.

We'll see, but for now I'm just enjoying the fresh smell as the rain comes down . . .

Brrrrrr

The weather sure has been horrible this spring. Cold and windy all the time. It just doesn't want to warm up and give us some good old sun. Here it is May 30th at 6:55 a.m. and my darn furnace just cut in.

I just returned from doing my papers and during my walk I certainly did find it cool. In fact I should have had on gloves. It wasn't quite togue time, but darn close :(