February 2006 Archives

Yes, those words actually exited my mouth today.

I spent Friday night hoping for a blizzard, partly because I've never seen one before, and it seemed like it would be sort of cool, and partly because I wanted a good excuse to miss my flight. It didn't especially help that I spent a couple of hours Friday morning answering questions from the office via e-mail. The kind of job security where they can't live without me for a week isn't really the kind I want.

Scott had to work Saturday morning, so I spent that time packing and fretting, and we had to leave for the airport not long after he got home, since we were relying on public transportation. Two long, cramped, uncomfortable flights later, I arrived in Austin around 10pm, only to be greeted by, you guessed it, freezing temperatures. Thirty-below in Canada translates to about 30 above in Texas, cold and soupy and far less pleasant than the colder temperatures seemed.

Then again, the company might've had something to do with it.

And it's been cold and soupy ever since then, foggy and drizzly and damp and altogether unpleasant. They've been the kind of days that I'd love to spend curled up in bed with a book, but instead, I've been back at work, answering more questions and getting back into the swing of things.

I'd rather be in Saskatchewan, truth be told.

We went downtown Wednesday afternoon for shopping, dinner, and a movie. There's a bus that leaves from about a block and a half from here and goes straight downtown -- fairly convenient in a not-so-big city -- but bus tickets cost $2.10 a piece. In Austin, you can ride all over town for $ .50, or to the airport for $1.00. By "you," of course, I mean "certain people who aren't me," because I get to ride the bus for free.

In any case, it was cold all day, around -8F, and the wind was fierce from time to time. We took several opportunities to duck into shops and browse around, for warmth as much as for interest. I'm enjoying the cold weather, to be quite honest, as long as I'm properly bundled. So our first stop was to the mall to pick up a toque and a scarf. I wound up getting two toques and a scarf, all on sale, for $5 total, and I was good to go once more. But the wind was deceptively fierce -- way colder than the actual temperatures -- and my bare legs beneath my jeans got pretty frigid.

I'm here to tell you, it's a unique experience indeed to have the contents of your nose freeze up into little boogercicles, and to have your hair freeze to your toque. It was cold. Even Scott admitted it. I asked him if it was too cold, and he said no, he was just cold enough. He was without his gloves, after all. -20C is middling cold, apparently, and -30C is very cold, apparently. When we got home that night, to my dismay, it was only middling cold -- only about -8F. I was hoping for something colder.

Yesterday, I got my wish, when the temperature dipped to -32C (or -25F). I didn't go outside much at all -- only long enough to go on a short walk (and jump on the snowbanks in my snow boots) and to take the garbage out to the trashcan in the back alley. Just the couple of minutes I was out with the trash, gloveless, as I'd lent mine to Scott for his trip to work, was enough to make my skin burn by the time I came back inside. It turns out, I'm a furnace. My core temperature has been pretty well fine -- it's just my skin I have to watch.

Today, we took a long walk. It was close to -30C when we left the house, and we were out much longer than we'd been yesterday. We walked all the way down to the river, and out onto the bridge. The point where Scott said, "Can you feel your ears and your cheeks? If your skin stops hurting, we're in trouble, and we've got to go home," that was the point where I got a little concerned. The wind was really frigid out on the bridge overlooking the river -- around -40C, which is also, incidentally, around -40F. It's hard to have sharp fine motor skills when you're wearing gloves, and it's hard to manipulate all the manual settings on my camera without those. There was steam rising from the water, cold as it was, and I was having problems seeing through the viewfinder as it fogged up every time I leaned in close. I took a lot of pictures, in any case, and I'm hoping some of them came out so I can post them later.

On our way home, we stopped at the Broadway Cafe for lunch and hot chocolate and poutine, that peculiar Canadian concoction. The cashier was impressed when she found out I was from Texas. "How are you liking the weather?" she asked me. The weather's nice, if cold. She was talking about how there's been a 40-degree differential in the weather in the last few days, and I said that we have that in Texas all the time, but that it never gets this cold. It occurred to me later that she was talking Celsius degrees, which is a rather different deal. On Sunday, when we hung out with Scott's family, it was hovering around 40F, and with the wind chill, it's been hovering around -40F. That's an 80F degree differential. That's like having 100F weather on Monday, then 20F cold on Friday. Or 80F to 0, except... it never gets to 0 in Texas, does it?

It's -6F outside. It feels like -22F with the wind chill, and the wind's been acting up a bit the last day or two. That's -21C/-30C respectively. Brr. After a few above-normal days, we're finally getting into Canadian weather. "This is middling-cold," says Scott. Very cold is less than -30C without wind chill, he tells me. I' had never been in weather less than -3F (which is what it was when I arrived last Friday), so I decided I needed to see what it felt like. We went for a little evening walk outside, just halfway around the block, from the front of the house, around to the back alley and the back door. It was a beautiful clear evening, but a bit windy. I think I had icicles growing on the inside of my nose by the time we got inside. I'd never felt that particular sensation before.

I spent most of the day indoors today, although I ventured out for a bit of backyard photography. You'll be pleased to know I'm well taken care of, and I'm toasty and comfortable inside most of the time. My parka is, thankfully, standing up admirably to the weather, and the cold is pretty alright as long as I'm bundled up. I'm in need of a new toque, though -- tomorrow, it'll be "bitterly cold," according to the American forecast, but we'll be venturing out into the world a bit, and I'll be getting a new toque. Whee!

They found my backpack yesterday, thank goodness. I'm glad not to have to wash clothes every day now.

It was warm yesterday, by which I mean above freezing. We spent the day with the familia and had a great time. We went to an outdoor skating rink near the Bessborough Hotel, and pretty much everyone skated at least a bt, except for me. I decided I wasn't quite ready to fall on my ass in front of everyone just yet. It's probably just as well, since the ice was all snowy and not very good. I took the time to walk down to the river and try to take a few photos. I haven't looked at them yet -- hopefully later today, I'll know how they came out and have a chance to post a few. Somewhere in the process, I managed to lose my toque and scarf. I'll have to see about replacing those before it gets colder later in the week.

After that, we went up to the top of a hill, where lots of teenagers were sledding. It was much chillier up there on the top of the hill, with lots of wind. It was fun to watch, but I didn't do that, either. I don't know from winter games. Maybe some other time.

In other winter games, we've been watching the Olympics quite a bit. It's interesting to see the Canadian perspective on some sports. Before Canada played (incredibly overmatched) Italy in women's hockey, the announcers were talking all matter-of-factly about how the Canadian team needed not to get lazy and fall into bad habits, and about how they couldn't go easy on the Italians because they needed all the goals to get the home rink advantage against the U.S. later in the games. And then, of course, they pounded them into the ice, 16-0.

I've been watching curling on television, as well. Curling cracks me up, because people are very serious and intent upon what they're doing. And the announcers all act like it's a really big deal and very important, and I can't stop myself from cracking up. "They're sweeping the ice! With brooms! And they look so intent!" I tried explaining this to Scott and his family, but I don't think they understand. It cracks me up.

I've added a weather bug to my template for the next few days, so you can see how cold it is in Saskatoon.

When I arrived on Friday night (Saturday morning, actually, as the jetway and luggage complications kept me at the airport until well after midnight), it was -3F. Brr. To my relief, however, my fingers and toes did not immediately detach themselves from my body, and my parka (plus several layers underneath) kept me nice and toasty.

Last night, we went walking around the city, to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, and then to a jazz concert at the Bassment. I couldn't find pho on the menu, which seemed odd, but I decided that maybe they called it something different. After the concert, we came home. It was a beautiful, clear evening, and there were stars sparkling bright in the sky. Under the full moon, the snow glowed, and I wished I had my tripod, which was (you guessed it) in my backpack. We sat back into the snow on the ground in the back yard and gazed up at the stars for a few minutes. Other than my butt going numb, it was pretty comfortable, bundled up as I was.

I've been reusing my layers since I got here, and I borrowed a t-shirt and sweatpants last night and threw all my (one set of) clothes into the washer. This morning, good news! After a full day of uncertainty of the location of my bag, NWA seems to have found it, and they're delivering it this morning -- hopefully before we leave for the day. I'll be glad to have my tripod back, not to mention a few other sets of clothes.

I didn't get strip-searched* this time, thank goodness, but... they lost my baggage. I carried all my important stuff on with me -- cameras, personal supplies, enough warm clothes to get me to the middle of Saskatoon... but I've got no change of clothes. Brr. This is after we sat at the gate for half an hour because they couldn't find anyone to run the jetway.

But I'm here, and I'm well, and I'm looking forward to getting my backpack back.

Also, it's -3F. That's -19C. There's snow everywhere! It's awesome.

---

* (Updated Feb 11, 8:30 AM) It occurs to me after the fact (though it didn't occur to me at close to 2AM) that one shouldn't be glib about a topic like that when one provides no context for it. No, I've never actually been strip-searched. That's a bit of an exaggeration. I have been hassled by the border folks a bit, and had my luggage searched. That didn't happen this time. A bit of a bummer, really, because I didn't have much luggage.

---
(Update Feb 11, 9:30 AM) From NWA's web site, in reference to my lost luggage:
Bag 1 Status: TRACING CONTINUES. PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER

Why yes, I do believe I will check back later. I want my backpack!

...of things to do before I leave for the Great White North. Organization is not my strong point, but I can make a heck of a list.

• Work stuff. This is a totally separate list, and one that I'm benevolent enough not to subject you to. Moving on.


• Ice skating. I need to practice this at least once more before I go to Saskatchewan. It's much scarier to fall from 5'6" than it was from 4'8" or however tall I was the last time I went skating. And it shows. Canadianers know how to skate, and I don't, and I expect I'll be called upon to skate anyway while I'm there.


• Research curling.


• Buy good socks, to keep my feet warm.


• Reload the extended forecast for Saskatoon obsessively.


• Decide whether I can justify spending $300 for an alternative processing photography darkroom workshop (with very limited enrollment) that I really (really really really really) want to take but have no real practical use for.


• Research the Cap Metro airport bus shuttle schedule.


• Do laundry.


• Clean my room. (This is mostly covered by the previous point.)


• Take C. to stock up on whatever she'll need while I'm gone.


• Get oil changed.

I leave for Canada next Friday, February 10th. Now that I've broken the ten-day barrier, I've been watching Weather.com's 10-day forecast for Saskatoon with a zeal that borders upon obsession. If that isn't enough, Weather.ca has a 14-day trend forecast that's just as compelling. They change significantly about every twelve hours, to the point of being entirely unuseful, but I'm partial to the American version, which predicts snow showers while I'm there.

Scott finds it altogether too amusing (though, I imagine, a bit disturbing as well) that I alternate between being scared to death at the prospect of being too cold and turning into an ice person, and being disappointed that it might be too warm for snow while I'm there. It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, you know. The sooner he learns that, the better.