Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry once more.
As I have stated in previous posts, I am very pan-Canadian. There are 3 Canadian Olympic cities, and I have lived in all 3. I was born in Montréal and used to walk to school, through 3 feet of snow, uphill both ways… Sorry, wrong story.
I was 17 when the Olympics happened in Montréal. It was a very special time. There were all kinds of events happening throughout the city, but what I remember most was all the tourists. Montréal is a very tourist friendly city and it wasn’t a shock to see tourists, but the volume and the influx were astounding.
I do remember running into a multitude of accents, in both languages, and I think my knack for identifying them was honed during the 1976 Olympics. Some were easy; French from Germans versus Moroccans, or English from Scots or South Africans. Some were very hard; English speaking Finns and Swedes.
As far as getting into the Olympics, I was 17, so I did not have the wherewithal to buy tickets. I do remember asking a scalper in front of the Forum, with a pair of tickets in the reds, how much he wanted for tickets to see Nadia Comaneci, 2 nights after she received her first perfect 10’s. He told me $5000, and when I commented that $2500 was a little steep for a ticket, he told me it was $10,000 for the pair. I turned around a relayed the story to my friends, and at story’s end, he had already sold them.
I lived in Calgary, just not in 1988. I was living in Ottawa, so I did not have much of a connection to the games, save for what CBC brought into my home. The legacy in Calgary includes Olympic Plaza in the downtown, the Olympic Park (which figures into directions into anywhere in the North West), and world class sledding and ski jump runs. (I purposefully did not mention Montréal’s legacy because I’m writing a blog, not a book)
Living in Vancouver, we have been bombarded by any and every story anyone could possibly write about the Olympics. I have no idea how many times I have read, seen, and heard stories about Canada being the only host nation to have never earned a gold medal on their soil. Blah, blah, blah…
A Canadian gold in Canada is not the most important thing about the Olympics, but it is nice. Yes, this is written in the present tense. As I write this, I have just finished watching Alexandre Bilodeau collect his gold medal. It was very inspiring and moving. I think the whole country was cheering for him yesterday.
Almost as inspiring as Shane Koyczan’s “We are More”. Nita & I were incredibly moved by his performance, and awed by his words. I spent the weekend trying to figure out who he was, and if I could locate a book written by him. Chapters lists “Visiting Hours” at $17.05, but “Temporarily Unavailable to Order New”. They do have 5 copies in their used and rare section, but they range in price from $50.46 to $105.11. I wonder how much they listed for last month?
As far as I am concerned, the Olympics are about events that touch us and the memories we carry from these great parties. Once everything is said and done, and after all the taxes are paid (I think Québec finally paid off 1976 a few years back), what is most lasting is what we take away in our memories.
I will always remember being thrilled that Greg Joy received a silver medal in Montréal for the high jump. You see, at the time, our expectations were to host an excellent event and party. Getting a medal was just icing on the cake. I’m fairly certain Greg Joy wasn’t disappointed about not getting the first gold medal for Canada on Canadian soil. And I remember the media at the time being overjoyed that we had actually received a medal.
In 1988, Elizabeth Manley, the darling of Ottawa, was awarded the silver medal. Figure Skating judging at the time, at the Olympic level, was almost always decided beforehand. The favorites, Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas both performed poorly, but the judges somehow managed to still give Witt the gold. We knew Manley was cheated by rigged judging, but she put in a gold medal performance in our hearts.
And lastly, I think Alexandre put in a phenomenal run which was thrilling to watch. But my memory of the race will always be Frédéric’s reaction at the end of the race. He knew his brother had put in a gold medal performance, and you could see it on his face and in his reaction.
So my Olympic memories will always be that lanky guy in those embarrassing red short-shorts missing the bar 3 times at 2.25 meters, the little blond who burst into tears because she knew she skated her perfect program, and the slam poet who almost made me cry. But I know that I will always remember the love and devotion of the brother who couldn’t, and how it inspired the brother who could, to do it.
Go Canada, Allons-y!
For a different version of Shane's "We are More", please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsq68qRexFc
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Movies
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry once more.
I would like to open with an apology; it has been quite a while since I have posted, and common courtesy demands I apologize to my loyal follower. Sorry Mom.
I have been a movie buff for a long, long time. I love movies. At one point, my wife Nita was given a courtesy card to an un-named chain from her sister. We have seen many movies together. Some really good, some really bad, and many in the middle. We only ever walked out of 1; “The Story of us”.
When we lived in Toronto, we attempted to discover a movie reviewer we could rely on. We found the best we could get was about 50%, so we saw quite a few movies in the 2nd and 3rd criteria listed above.
Getting to the end of the available reviewers, I came across this dude in the Star who was brutal; we agreed with him less than 20% of time. I was inspired and threw inverse logic into the calculation, and he became my Bizzaro reviewer; if he hated it, we usually liked it, and if he loved something, we would save our money. It worked quite well.
A few years ago, when I purchased my first iPod, I was trolling iTunes and discovered podcasts. It was wonderful; here were audio, and sometimes video, snippets of people’s shows or ramblings, and they wouldn’t cost a cent. I also discovered that sometimes the snippets were entire programs, like the audio from “60 Minutes”.
One of my first discoveries was “Filmspotting”. This is a wonderful reposting of a Chicago public radio broadcast. These guys are great. I have been listening to them since late 2007. The podcast is simply a couple of guys intelligently and astutely discussing movies. I don’t always agree with them, and they don’t always agree with each other, but it is always very entertaining.
Adam and Matty are somewhat director-centric in their views, but they do not fill their time with technical-ese. They are also responsible for 2 of my favorite new sayings. “Getting dusty” is a term they use when a movie plays to your emotions. Their second is something that many people I know think about me; “I hear what you’re saying, but you’re completely wrong”.
I’m hitting about .700 with these guys, so I think I’ll stick with them. And yes I used the baseball analogy for Matty “Ballgame” Robinson, who refers to “Major League” as his favorite movie. Nita is not so enamored with some of my recent rental choices, with good reason.
These guys have however turned me onto a web site called “Flickchart”, which is fun, free, and addictive for all you movie lovers. Once you have signed up, you are presented with 2 movies, and you simply select which one you liked better, and the site tracks all your answers. I have been wasting time on the site for a few months now, and my statistics show that I have ranked over 3300 times on 600 movies. My top 5 movies are an eclectic mix; “X-Men”, “Ray”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, & “Snatch”.
This is usually fun and you sometimes end up having to make odd and challenging choices. Just look above; choose between “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Godfather”??? Really? What about choosing between “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Goodfellas”.
When it comes to movies, however, my favorite stories are centered on movie critics and reviewers. All too often, we are presented with the views of someone who has grown into an aficionado, or perhaps a critic who has discovered he gets more feedback when he mercilessly tears a movie to pieces. Either one of these 2 scenarios are also self fulfilling scenarios. The more movies you see, the more you know, or the more you ravage movies, the more you want to.
In 1939, 2 movies were almost universally panned; the critics at the time hated them for various reasons. In my lifetime, one of the worst reviews I read was in 1977 was peppered with words like schlock , gimmicky, and too loud.
The reviewer at the time, and probably also those in 1939, forgot one of the basic rules about movies. Movies are made to entertain us. Not every movie needs to be a statement or teach us about our world. Sometimes movies just need to make us laugh or get a little dusty. This is good; even more so when that was the film makers intention.
In closing, I do love my movies, and probably always will. I will not regale you with my favorites, because I am neither an authority nor an expert. But when next you see me, I would be more than happy to share my views on what I have seen recently; I always have and always will.
For those of you paying attention, the 1939 movies were “Gone with the wind” & “The Wizard of Oz”, and the 1977 bomb was “Star Wars”. Fortunately, Hollywood producers don’t always listen to the critics.
Cheers folks!
www.filmspotting.net (Also see iTunes for their podcasts)
www.flickchart.com
www.imdb.com (The Internet Movie DataBase)
I would like to open with an apology; it has been quite a while since I have posted, and common courtesy demands I apologize to my loyal follower. Sorry Mom.
I have been a movie buff for a long, long time. I love movies. At one point, my wife Nita was given a courtesy card to an un-named chain from her sister. We have seen many movies together. Some really good, some really bad, and many in the middle. We only ever walked out of 1; “The Story of us”.
When we lived in Toronto, we attempted to discover a movie reviewer we could rely on. We found the best we could get was about 50%, so we saw quite a few movies in the 2nd and 3rd criteria listed above.
Getting to the end of the available reviewers, I came across this dude in the Star who was brutal; we agreed with him less than 20% of time. I was inspired and threw inverse logic into the calculation, and he became my Bizzaro reviewer; if he hated it, we usually liked it, and if he loved something, we would save our money. It worked quite well.
A few years ago, when I purchased my first iPod, I was trolling iTunes and discovered podcasts. It was wonderful; here were audio, and sometimes video, snippets of people’s shows or ramblings, and they wouldn’t cost a cent. I also discovered that sometimes the snippets were entire programs, like the audio from “60 Minutes”.
One of my first discoveries was “Filmspotting”. This is a wonderful reposting of a Chicago public radio broadcast. These guys are great. I have been listening to them since late 2007. The podcast is simply a couple of guys intelligently and astutely discussing movies. I don’t always agree with them, and they don’t always agree with each other, but it is always very entertaining.
Adam and Matty are somewhat director-centric in their views, but they do not fill their time with technical-ese. They are also responsible for 2 of my favorite new sayings. “Getting dusty” is a term they use when a movie plays to your emotions. Their second is something that many people I know think about me; “I hear what you’re saying, but you’re completely wrong”.
I’m hitting about .700 with these guys, so I think I’ll stick with them. And yes I used the baseball analogy for Matty “Ballgame” Robinson, who refers to “Major League” as his favorite movie. Nita is not so enamored with some of my recent rental choices, with good reason.
These guys have however turned me onto a web site called “Flickchart”, which is fun, free, and addictive for all you movie lovers. Once you have signed up, you are presented with 2 movies, and you simply select which one you liked better, and the site tracks all your answers. I have been wasting time on the site for a few months now, and my statistics show that I have ranked over 3300 times on 600 movies. My top 5 movies are an eclectic mix; “X-Men”, “Ray”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, & “Snatch”.
This is usually fun and you sometimes end up having to make odd and challenging choices. Just look above; choose between “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Godfather”??? Really? What about choosing between “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Goodfellas”.
When it comes to movies, however, my favorite stories are centered on movie critics and reviewers. All too often, we are presented with the views of someone who has grown into an aficionado, or perhaps a critic who has discovered he gets more feedback when he mercilessly tears a movie to pieces. Either one of these 2 scenarios are also self fulfilling scenarios. The more movies you see, the more you know, or the more you ravage movies, the more you want to.
In 1939, 2 movies were almost universally panned; the critics at the time hated them for various reasons. In my lifetime, one of the worst reviews I read was in 1977 was peppered with words like schlock , gimmicky, and too loud.
The reviewer at the time, and probably also those in 1939, forgot one of the basic rules about movies. Movies are made to entertain us. Not every movie needs to be a statement or teach us about our world. Sometimes movies just need to make us laugh or get a little dusty. This is good; even more so when that was the film makers intention.
In closing, I do love my movies, and probably always will. I will not regale you with my favorites, because I am neither an authority nor an expert. But when next you see me, I would be more than happy to share my views on what I have seen recently; I always have and always will.
For those of you paying attention, the 1939 movies were “Gone with the wind” & “The Wizard of Oz”, and the 1977 bomb was “Star Wars”. Fortunately, Hollywood producers don’t always listen to the critics.
Cheers folks!
www.filmspotting.net (Also see iTunes for their podcasts)
www.flickchart.com
www.imdb.com (The Internet Movie DataBase)
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Microsoft
Image from; http://www.designswan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/windows/window3.jpg
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry again.
I have had a long, and sometimes frustrating, relationship over the years with Mr. Gates and his main products. I have used, in order, Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, ME, NT, XP, VISTA, and finally Windows 7. I currently have a work laptop, using Windows XP and Office 2003. Our desktop and home laptop are Windows 7 and Office 2007.
I grew up as a tinkerer. I would look at things trying to figure out how they worked. I always thought my nascent skill to be numbers; apparently I resemble Dustin Hoffman, my wife Nita calls me Rain Man. I am a human calculator. This is probably why my first real foray into the working world was as a teller with the Bank of Montréal.
While I was with the bank, a friend of mine suggested I apply for a job as a copier technician. I thought he was a few spoons short of a full drawer, but applied anyhow. The process was to consist of a mechanical test, an electronic test, and an interview. I had 30 minutes to do the mechanical test, and needed to get 28 out of 36 questions right to be considered for the job. I was done in 20 minutes, and only minutes into the electronic test, I was interrupted by a job offer. You see, I answered 35 of the questions correctly.
In the intervening years, I have used Lotus 123, but moved on to Excel. I am considered the Excel expert at my workplace. I used WordPerfect, liked it, but Word dominates the marketplace. I like Office and its components, and have used quite a few of the satellite programs as well. Once again, dating myself, I have been known to brag that the only computer course I have ever taken was DOS, and I still remember some of the commands.
Over the years, we have had quite a few computers, but our current unit is a Dell we purchased in February 2007, and it arrived with a big surprise, Vista. As I said above, I am a tinkerer, not a geek or nerd. Microsoft over the years has concentrated on putting in code more to control, monitor, and restrict what you do, and less to make it better for you. You see, I was able to install my Windows 95 into 2 computers, and they took this possibility away over the years.
In January 2008, we were moving to Vancouver, and I found I would need a laptop, so I did some research (poorly), and bought a refurbished no-name laptop for personal use. I had, a few months earlier, bought Office Home & Student, and was saying to the dude at the used laptop place that I would have to get another copy of Office. Fortunately, he explained that you usually get 3 licenses with Office, and he was right.
For $150 sometime in 2007, I was able to legally install Office on our desktop, our laptop, and Nita’s Dad’s desktop. This was very cool, and legal, because they all registered on line.
I had been listening to all the hype about Windows 7 and was ambivalent; the same people who were cheering on 7 had done the same for Vista, until after it launched. So I waited for a few months after they launched Windows 7, and went out and bought one. $150; seeing a pricing pattern?
I was hoping it would speed up my own laptop, so I could watch streaming video without the chop/stop effect. No luck. This had annoyed me so much that I had even attempted to downgrade to XP, but since Everex, the remanufacturer, had gone under, I was unable to locate XP drivers for the wireless card and the sound card.
I successfully installed WIN 7 in both my laptop and desktop. After almost a month, I did not see any difference in performance, and I still had my choppy video streaming on the laptop.
But then I received a Christmas gift from Microsoft; my desktop (installed 2nd) has an illegal copy of Windows 7, and I either have to enter a valid product key or purchase an on-line copy Windows 7.
I was actually ready to pay for a 2nd copy of Office, but didn’t have to. I was trapped in Vista for almost 2 years; I should have been recompensed for this, but instead I need to pay for each copy of the OS, which has no visible improvements. Geeks make up less then 5% of the consuming public. If a tinkerer like me can’t discern a difference, then this is a very narrow target market for Windows 7; geeks only? And I’m not even sure they can see a difference.
Sorry folks, but keeping rants internalized can be dangerous to one’s health.
Happy New Year & Cheers!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Ron
Ron, Me & Tug>>>>>>>>>
Yes CJ its story time with once more.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. Wait wrong beginning.
When I began my working career a number of years ago, I was fumbling with my identity. My buddies were still mostly at university, and I had left school to reverse being a drain on my parents, as my Dad was ill and could not work.
While floundering, I was introduced to Ron. My buddies at the time, Mike, Dan, and Tug, introduced me to both curling and golf. I have played and strayed from both over the years, and enjoyed myself while playing them. Ron was a new member at the Meadowbrook Curling Club (now defunct), our club.
Ron and I became fast friends. Ron had almost as warped a sense of humor as I, and we reveled in seeing who could make the cruelest puns. It was both horrific and delightful. Ron and I also shared our views on morals and philosophy, and discovered that where we differed there was open ground for debate. Good debate; I could sway him on some things, he did the same.
Neither Ron nor I supported organized religion. He being a non-practicing Episcopalian, and me a lapsed Catholic, we had both strayed from our respective folds. Every year, regardless of our discussions on religion, Ron would always put $5 into the Salvation Army’s kettle drive. After seeing this for a few years, and me asking why, Ron explained that although he disagreed with their beliefs and their desire to convert the unwashed, they did very good things at Christmas for those who could not do for themselves, and as such earned his respect and support.
After a few years, some of the gang started noticing that Ron was slightly effeminate, and that they had never seen him with a woman. They, of course, assumed that he must be a fag, with all the negative behavior that accompanied this. They did not stay members of the gang for long. When faced with the supposition, I reacted defensively, and postulated that if anyone really cared, they should ask Ron. No one did.
Ron had been transferred to Ottawa; he was a Captain in the Armed Forces. They paid for his medical school and he owed them 5 years service; very equitable. I was visiting Ron one weekend, and while we were in our cups, and discussing all the matters of the world, I asked; “Hey, are you gay?” After a few seconds of silence he answered, “Yes”
I then asked him where we should go for lunch the next day. Ron was dumbfounded and wanted to know why I wasn’t questioning him further. I asked him if he intended to try and put the moves on me, and when he answered no, I told him; “Well I didn’t think you would, and since that was the only possible thing that might have worried me; case closed. Now, what about lunch tomorrow?”
I also moved to Ottawa, and when I married my ex-wife, Ron was my best man; there really was no other choice. We actually shared a town-house with Ron for a few years. Ron was living with us when my eldest daughter, Amanda was born. This was also when Ron confirmed that he was suffering from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, so we wouldn’t have to care for him, Ron decided to take an apartment of his own, and we moved into smaller digs. Ron eventually could not work anymore, and moved back to London to be cared for by his parents.
While visiting Ron in London, he asked me how I felt about euthanasia. We discussed this point quite extensively, and he told me he might ask me if he could write me a prescription for a lethal dose of something, and have me give it to him if the sickness became too much for him. You see, he knew me enough to know that by telling me he might ask me, I would think it through and have the answer if it were ever asked.
He never asked, but if he had, I would have done it without question.
When my youngest daughter Erin was 2 months old, Ron died. The official cause of death was pneumocystis pneumonia. I wanted Erin, if she were born a boy, to be named Ron. We went to London for the funeral, and laid Ron to rest in the family plot in Forest, Ontario.
My daughters may or may not remember seeing this, but every Christmas, and even though I don’t agree with their beliefs or desire to convert the rest of the world to their thinking, I drop $5 into the Salvation Army kettle. They do, after all, do very good things at Christmas for those who can’t do for themselves.
I dropped in $5 just the other day, and remembered my buddy, Dr. Ron Ince, 1957-1990, the best friend I ever had.
Cheers Dr. Chop!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Noah
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry again.
Please note that this is not bitching, moaning, or groaning. I am exercising my right as a Canadian to complain about the weather. I am quite happy being away from the frigid climes of northern Alberta. When you close your tailgate and the Nissan emblems falls off because the adhesive no longer wants to adhere at -50c, one neither reminisces nor pines.
November, according to the locals, is the rainiest and grayest month in Vancouver. This year, I agree with them. Mowgli, our puppy, is a little uncomfortable going out for walks in the dark. He is equally uncomfortable going out for walks in the rain. At night in the rain, we usually end up going out for a drag; he’s been getting to exercise his pulling-back muscles.
I listen to news/talk radio during the week. This is how Al-Qaeda changed my life after 9/11. Before that day, I used to listen to the FM flavor of the month. On that morning, I was listening to a New York city DJ as he described what he was seeing; it was eerie. As a result, Monday to Friday, I listen to talk radio. I actually survived 6 years of Uber-Ultra-Mega Conservative talk radio in Alberta.
The pinnacle of said radio is Dave Rutherford; when the Conservatives talk about pandering to the Socialists & Separatists, they are speaking directly to Rutherford’s soul. Our Prime Minister's views on the media in Canada (detestable & to be avoided at any cost) DO NOT extend to Dave Rutherford. Which is fair since he is definitely on the talk half of News/Talk. The PM had been a surprise guest on the Rutherford show a number of times while I was still living in Alberta. Unsurprisingly, his show is not picked up by CKNW in Vancouver, the local Corus affiliate. Red is a deeper hue of their anti-bullying t-shirts CKNW promotes, not the color of their necks.
A good segue to the subject at hand. I was listening to the radio November 23rd, and the CKNW weather dude, Marc Madryga, was telling us how there had been 23 straight days of rain. We live in North Vancouver, in the Lynn Valley area. North Vancouver is famous for lots of rain, specifically in Lynn Valley. I’m not sure how the rest of Vancouver fared, but we had rain in the next 4 days, bringing us to 27 straight days of rain. Mowgli was convinced I was trying to drown him.
Fortunately, we live on the side of a mountain, so all that water rolled downhill. And there was quite a bit of water. Listening to Mr. Madryga a few days later, they had tracked a low of 600mm of rain up to a high of 1100mm of rain in November. Let me put this into perspective for you. 1100mm of rain would be enough to drown either Vern Troyer or Hervé Villechaize standing up; the average door knob is just under 1100mm; picture your kitchen counters, under water. Using the rule of thumb of multiplying by 10 to find out how much snow that could have been, we get 11 meters. This is higher than my house.
When we were kids, there was a particularly nasty winter storm one March 16. All the schools were closed. This is Montréal, not Toronto. In Toronto, they close the schools at a 5cm accumulation. On this March 16, the schools were closed, not much traffic was moving, and the snow plows were having a hard time getting around. After our 2nd sortie to shovel the driveway, we were gathered around the radio (yes news/talk) and they announced that Dorval Airport was asking for covered Bombardier commercial snowmobiles to come out to the airport. There were planes that had landed, that were stranded, and they were looking for a way to move the passengers from the planes to the terminal.
We received over 60cm (600mm) of snow that day. Nothing really happened other than snow falling, snow shoveling, listening to the radio, and hot chocolate. We decided that the day never really happened, so we took out a pair of scissors, and cut March 16 out of the calendar.
I have scratched out “vember” on my calendar and written in “ah”.
And that is the ark of this story.
(Nita, my loving wife, even after that one, tries to tell there are some I should walk away from.)
Cheers folks!
Please note that this is not bitching, moaning, or groaning. I am exercising my right as a Canadian to complain about the weather. I am quite happy being away from the frigid climes of northern Alberta. When you close your tailgate and the Nissan emblems falls off because the adhesive no longer wants to adhere at -50c, one neither reminisces nor pines.
November, according to the locals, is the rainiest and grayest month in Vancouver. This year, I agree with them. Mowgli, our puppy, is a little uncomfortable going out for walks in the dark. He is equally uncomfortable going out for walks in the rain. At night in the rain, we usually end up going out for a drag; he’s been getting to exercise his pulling-back muscles.
I listen to news/talk radio during the week. This is how Al-Qaeda changed my life after 9/11. Before that day, I used to listen to the FM flavor of the month. On that morning, I was listening to a New York city DJ as he described what he was seeing; it was eerie. As a result, Monday to Friday, I listen to talk radio. I actually survived 6 years of Uber-Ultra-Mega Conservative talk radio in Alberta.
The pinnacle of said radio is Dave Rutherford; when the Conservatives talk about pandering to the Socialists & Separatists, they are speaking directly to Rutherford’s soul. Our Prime Minister's views on the media in Canada (detestable & to be avoided at any cost) DO NOT extend to Dave Rutherford. Which is fair since he is definitely on the talk half of News/Talk. The PM had been a surprise guest on the Rutherford show a number of times while I was still living in Alberta. Unsurprisingly, his show is not picked up by CKNW in Vancouver, the local Corus affiliate. Red is a deeper hue of their anti-bullying t-shirts CKNW promotes, not the color of their necks.
A good segue to the subject at hand. I was listening to the radio November 23rd, and the CKNW weather dude, Marc Madryga, was telling us how there had been 23 straight days of rain. We live in North Vancouver, in the Lynn Valley area. North Vancouver is famous for lots of rain, specifically in Lynn Valley. I’m not sure how the rest of Vancouver fared, but we had rain in the next 4 days, bringing us to 27 straight days of rain. Mowgli was convinced I was trying to drown him.
Fortunately, we live on the side of a mountain, so all that water rolled downhill. And there was quite a bit of water. Listening to Mr. Madryga a few days later, they had tracked a low of 600mm of rain up to a high of 1100mm of rain in November. Let me put this into perspective for you. 1100mm of rain would be enough to drown either Vern Troyer or Hervé Villechaize standing up; the average door knob is just under 1100mm; picture your kitchen counters, under water. Using the rule of thumb of multiplying by 10 to find out how much snow that could have been, we get 11 meters. This is higher than my house.
When we were kids, there was a particularly nasty winter storm one March 16. All the schools were closed. This is Montréal, not Toronto. In Toronto, they close the schools at a 5cm accumulation. On this March 16, the schools were closed, not much traffic was moving, and the snow plows were having a hard time getting around. After our 2nd sortie to shovel the driveway, we were gathered around the radio (yes news/talk) and they announced that Dorval Airport was asking for covered Bombardier commercial snowmobiles to come out to the airport. There were planes that had landed, that were stranded, and they were looking for a way to move the passengers from the planes to the terminal.
We received over 60cm (600mm) of snow that day. Nothing really happened other than snow falling, snow shoveling, listening to the radio, and hot chocolate. We decided that the day never really happened, so we took out a pair of scissors, and cut March 16 out of the calendar.
I have scratched out “vember” on my calendar and written in “ah”.
And that is the ark of this story.
(Nita, my loving wife, even after that one, tries to tell there are some I should walk away from.)
Cheers folks!
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