Well I did adventure out into the cold this morning and it indeed is cold - even with three layers and a toque and gloves I was cold - did stop to take a few pictures - two of which are displayed here.

Most of the sidewalks and even the sea wall have been cleared of at least some of the snow and ice so it wasn't too hard to get around.

Need to go out for supper and then to the liquor store for some beer for the group on Sunday and a couple of final items - like a roasting pan for the the bird and then it will be definitely in for the evening.

Even the apartment is cool - my windows are single paned so they don't hold the heat that well - at least the strata did spend some money earlier in the summer to fix the and clean the boiler so the heat is better than it was last year. I also get the mid day sun at this time of the year so that will warm up the apartment somewhat.

Did three loads of laundry - now just need to put it all away.

Cheers

D

Each year around this time I try to make a trip up Grouse Mt to see the alpine Xmas display but with the current bad road conditions, freezing cold temps and more snow in the forecast I don't know if I will be getting up there this year so these three images are from three previous visits.

It looks like it will stay very cold through the weekend and it will be Xmas before we might see a thaw or a slight warming of the temps.

Attended a small mix and mingle with some of the other members of my Health Spa last night - a couple of glasses of beer and some appys.

Also spent a couple of hours on Wednesday with Tom and the grandchildren at Pacific Center Mall.

Gonna go for a short walk along the water and then a bite to eat and a few more items for the dinner party on Sunday. Rosie just phoned to cancel - her street is a sheet of ice and even the taxis don't want to drive on it and with her being 80 she is worried about falling - she even had trouble walking across the street to church so I can't blame her for not being able to attend.

Good to see that the Canucks have won the Sundin sweepstakes - he should be able to help the team out and advance further into the playoffs.

Finally got around to booking some excursions for my Feb 09 cruise - can't wait to get some warmer weather.

More later

Cheers

D

Did I mention in any of my previous posts that it might snow today - well it is coming down pretty good here in downtown Vancouver but other than meeting Tom for lunch at Pacific Center it is a good day to stay inside.

That's me in front of the Xmas tree in the main lounge at Yellowpoint Lodge this past weekend.

Cheers

D

These are some of the chairs that we use to relax on by poolside at Yellowpoint - thought they looked kinda awesome in the snow.

Today I spent some time getting back into the mundane groove of things - with more snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow - in fact it looks cold until the end of the year - I decided it was time to get the shopping done for the Xmas dinner on Sunday so I headed out to the Real Canadian Superstore for that major shopping - I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had utility grade Turkeys on for $1.11 a pound - I still spent over $70.00 on groceries but this is a once a year treat for some of my closest friends and then I headed to my gym for a nice relaxing steam bath.

Time for supper

More later

Cheers

D

It was quite the weekend over at Yellowpoint Lodge - the actual work party, social and meeting went off as planned but the big story was the weather - in the four images in this post you will see how things looked at different times on the weekend. The image at the bottom was taken shortly after I arrived on Friday afternoon - the drive in from the ferry was not a lot of fun - while there is no snow in this photo there was several inches of snow on the road just a few kilos from the lodge and many people were having trouble navigating - I made it okay with my all seasons and standard shiftshift.

Second closest image is taken at lunch time on Saturday and the third one in the evening after it started to snow - the top picture shows how much snow had fallen by Sunday noon - the main photo on the page is how it looked after it started to clear off late Sunday afternoon.

By then I had made a decision to stay for another night - several others in the group also decided against trying to drive even a short distance home.

Once the snow stopped and it cleared it turned very cold and the roads became compact snow and ice - I left the Lodge about 9AM on Monday for the 10:30AM ferry - this drive usually takes no more than 20 minutes but it took me 45 minutes of driving in second gear and two hands on the steering wheel to make it to the ferry - I didn't slip or slide - just kept the speed down to around 40KPH and gave myself lots of room for braking - fortunately the other drivers were also being extra careful and I didn't need to do any sudden stops - the ferry left on time and by 12:30PM I was in Horseshoe Bay and home an hour or so later.

We did a number of work projects on Saturday - I signed up for a wood splitting job - a large fir tree on the property was diseased and had been felled so we were left with the task of downsiding the large pieces into smaller ones that can then be used in the stoves in the cabins.
It was a good day's labour and we were rewarded with adult beverages for a few hours in the evening - after a delicious roast beef and all the trimmings dinner we were entertained by a pick up band - Richard the Lodge owner plays the guitar and he has a few friends in the community who are alos musicians so they get together and do a jam session - this year they called themselves "Sing - a - long Pete and the Sheaves of Wheat.

Sunday we held the AGM - I was returned as Work Party co-ordinator which was expected as you usually stand for three years unless you want to move on to another position.

Shortly after I turned in for the night and after breakfast on Monday left for home - this is one AGM weekend that many of us won't forget for some time

More in the next post - this one is getting long.

D