To those of you in the northeast: Stop you’re friggin’ griping about the weather. So, it’s hot- a heat wave, even- what do you expect? It’s summer for crying out loud!!

Try a lovely June day that probably won’t crack 15 degrees celsius (or 60 degrees fahrenheit for those of you not familiar with centigrade)!!! It’s summer for crying out loud!!!

In honour of my new blog design, and all things light, bright and shiny, I shan’t rail, yet again, against the embittered old bag- yes, that would be you, Mother Nature- relentlessly nurturing this grudge with all you have….

Appeal to embittered old bag: the triathlon is this weekend. That means a 750metre swim in cold, mountain lake. 20km bike. Outdoors. 5km run. Outdoors.

Please find it in your heart to provide appropriate weather for such an event…. And unless you’re not sure: 20 degrees celcius or above.

Oh, and maybe take a break on the wind machine. You must need a break and certainly, we’ve about had enough.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

We wake up to snow again this morning. None of us get up before eight.

This weather is truly getting into my head. Which is interesting… because even in the depths of winter, knowing in the pre-dawn black, that outdoors the mercury remained in the thermomemetrical nether regions, I still enjoyed my very early mornings and really didn`t give a flying *%/&. It`s winter after all, what the hell else could I possibly expect…

The power of expectations… therefore, this mid-April, reminiscent of early March, bullshit weather is effecting my state of mind. The cold drear of the outdoors has numbed those soft folds of my brain resposible for productivity, initiative and motivation. I will say nothing of patience- without a doubt the first segment of my brain obliterated.
Additionally, I`ve always said I need buffer time on one end of my day. A block of time where I can enjoy my coffee, surfing the internet, getting a little work done… and Be. Alone.
Currently, we are all waking at the same time, with the early mornings so unseasonably cold, dreary and inevitably laden with some form of fucking frozen precipitation. We are all going to bed at the same time as the days get longer and the grey daylight persists well after supper.

I am lost in a seasonal limbo.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

OK. Who do I have to screw pay off to get this bitch off our backs?!

Mother Nature is pushing her luck this morning, boy. Temps below freezing and a friggin’ inch of fresh, white, albeit beautiful, snow….

It’s the middle of April!!! Now, as with my last post railiing against her antics, my patience is at an end. It’s not like we’re dealing with some petulant child to whom we can threaten a good and proper beating time out, or can bribe with Ritalin infused candies. No, this old bird has been around the block. She’s got an axe to grind and our pitiful, late in the game negotiations: recycling, hybrids, ethanol, organic, sustainability, bamboo, Kyoto, The Barenaked Ladies… you name it; are just not gonna cut it anymore.

Somebody find this bitter, manic, old bag some Prozac so we can move on to the next season…

Triathlon… less than two months and counting.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

Well, despite our fears we enjoyed a spectacular lunar ecliptical show last night. Unlike yesterday’s post, these images were actually taken, so very carefully, by my own very self. While at the same time staving off frostbite and yelling at spastic, bouncing kids (full moon, yeah?!?!) to “stop running around the Goddamned camera” and “if one of you runs into this Goddamned camera…” and a little, “JeeesusssssChrisssst! Zip, if you’re gonna throw effing ice chunks, do it AWAY FROM THE GODDAMNED CAMERA!!!!” Aaaah… family time under the magic of a full moon, rising.  In fact, eclipsing.

This image was in fact the result of being bumped- Oh, God, did I freak! But then, I looked in my itsy bitsy little screen and what d’ya know… pretty cool.

After the miscreant’s fortuitous “bump”. After my wailing at him in the dark like some freak banshee. I decided to fool around. Like this:

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

We left Friday.  Here?  Going up to +5 degrees Celcius.  There?  Once we made it through the untended, snow covered roads of KNP and on to Banff where “snow and blowing snow” kept traffic speeds to about 60 km/hr; -34 degrees Celcius (this includes the windchill, so I suppose if it were calm, it would have been a balmy -25 degrees Celcius).  Our view from the passenger window…. echoes our view out the front window… Can’t see anything,right?  Right.

So, back to my question.  Who lives here.  And Jeeeeesussss…. Why?!?  Perhaps the buttloads of cash that flow freely through the streets, you say?  OK. Valid point.

We were there to have Sally witness his first real swim meet.  He wasn’t actually racing, but did get to participate in a very good development workshop the night before.  His first time off the block.  There, at the bottom of the frame.  In a word, SPLAT! It was lovely. 

He was sooo nervous. Trooper, he. We’re so insulated here in our little mountain paradise.  A grand total of seven kids on our local team.  There, for the first time, amongst 50 or so other kids of varying skill levels, he held his own- game to try everything required of him. 

While he overcame his challenges in the pool with the masses, I enjoyed the tropical environment of the pool viewing area, shedding clothes as though suddenly dropped onto a Mexican beach.  My God, if we lived here, everyone of my kids would belong to a swim club and we would enjoy all of our winter hours basking in chlorine infused sudo-tropicality…  glorious.

And yesterday, when we left:  -45 degrees Celcius with the windchill.  3 hours, a mountain range and the BC border later, back home that evening:  -2 degrees Celcius and a gentle snowfall.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

Somebody push me.  Please.

I said last night I would head out early, before I settled in with Sally, to go for a run.  It is -20!

Why is it so friggin’ cold.  Irony:  too cold for humans to do friggin’ anything but not cold enough to kill off all thost wretched, nasty little pine bark beetles that are sucking the life out of our Rocky Mountain forests and converting them to match sticks!

Oh, bugger… I’m off.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

It is damn cold out today!! Over the past nine days, we’ve had but one warm-ish day and luckily that was Sunday, when the kids had to hang out on the mountain all day for ski races.
Yesterday. Back into the deep freeze. It’s the kind of weather that you just want to stay in. Stay home. Stay warm. I would have done just that last night if I hadn’t been otherwise committed!!
Despite this bitter-friggin’-ness, I got the beast out for her walk. 40 minutes in the blistering chill. Frosty hairs. Hers and mine.
We went with a neighbor and her lab/pitbull-X pup. Willow. She’s a doll. Pisses my HoneyBeast off to no end.
I do believe it’s good for her.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

Ugh… I’m feeling… blah…

I don’t know if it’s these seemingly endless days of sub- fucking- freezing temperatures or if I am actually imagining coming down with/fighting some kind of nasty winter bug.  I’m achey.  Last night during our much anticipated, ”yay, we get to stay up late”, American Idol party, I sequestered myself and miscreants into my bedroom, door closed, gas firelplace cranked, nestled in down.  Children were shedding clothes and complaining of the heat.  I was still freezing. 

Today.  Better.  Not freezing my ass off from the inside.  Do want to go back to bed.  Bath.  Need hot bath.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

Yeah…. Well, I don’t have any.  And if I did, do you really think, here. Travelling alone.  By myself.  Without anyone else.  I would actually pull over on to the side of this white-out, snowy, sleet-y, shitty bumper to bumper mess and try to strap a set of chains on to these.  All four.  Tires.  Of my mini-van?!?!  No.  I would not.

Drop ‘er into 1st.  Hazard lights a blinkin’.  Let chips fall where they may.

Winter driving across B.C.  Roger’s Pass.  Coquihalla.  And me.

Almost once a year I decide I must get away… OK.  In most cases at around this time of year oh so supportive Filipes is sincerely… strongly… suggesting I get away for a few days.  Get some space. Clear my head. Get my creative juices flowing.  And, most significantly, come back ready and eager to show him some hard earned love and appreciation. 

And so, yes, that’s great.  Until the 24 hours before I am about to leave, when the reality of leaving all of my responsibilities- read: my babies!- hits me and I am completely pissed off and resentful that nobody’s coming with me.  Or that I have decided to do this.  Or that I have been encouraged strongly by someone to do this.  All out of sorts.  All snuggly, buggly, wuggly while babies are playing x-box.  “Mooooooo-ooooom!”

So very early morning arrives.  Pack the van.  Coffee in hand.  Kisses to beautifully peaceful sleeping babes.  Quick kiss to offending party.  I’m off.

It’s good.  Necessary.  That’s clear within an hour of being gone. 

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites

A better first day on the mountain we could never have asked for… OK, I could’ve been spared the Fidgey whine & cheese, but over all, a mahhhhvelous day!

When the whining gets tough, the Fidge gets…. Hot Chocolate!!  

Ready to kick some butt!          

Pooped and rosy!

Blue.  Blue.  Sky.  The sun shone all day and the temps hung around zero.  Spring skiing at its best.  So, it happens to be January?!? The boys did fantastic in their race program and Coral successfully skiied 5 runs, top to bottom,on the bunny slope, ’leashed’.  The whining didn’t start until after, for some reason known only by the Gods of Precious Little Drama Queens.

Bookmark Me!

Hide Sites