Xmas Eve Weather

Toronto Hit by Major Snow Storm

A friend of mine is stuck in Toronto, unable to fly out. I checked here to find out just how bad it was. Yikes!

Let's Not Forget Our Friends & Family in Texas

Much more here.

Update from an Ike Refugee

Houston: After Ike

Hurricane Ike Photos

Live video from Houston can be seen here.

Hurricane Ike Evacuee

Here's a first hand account of a family that left a suburb south of Houston:

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike

Hanna + Ike

Gustav Spares New Orleans

Thank goodness, Gustav sputtered out without doing much damage to New Orleans!


Everyone must be ecstatic, except for Michael Moore and the liberal "brown shirts".

Gustav & Hanna Update

Gustav & Hanna Update

Gustav & Hanna Update

Update: On the 12:00pm news it was reported that Gustav has reached Category 5. My heart goes out to all of the people in its path.

Gustav & Hanna

Gustav

Hanna
God help all of those in the path of these 2 storms. Makes me appreciate the mild weather in my neck of the woods.

Stormy Weather

The weather has generally been exceptional but once in a while, for no more than a few hours, Waikiki gets storms like this:

A Little Satisfaction For My Cold Weather Friends

A couple of notes about these photos:

1. They were taken a few minutes ago, about 1:45pm (ie. the middle of the day!).
2. They were not shot through any kind of cloudy, dirty glass, but directly w/o any obstructions.
3. It's impossible to see the rain but trust me, it was heavy!
   

So get the hell of my back about me being in paradise and you not! :-)

Snowy Drive to Bellingham

I had a rental car for the weekend, mostly to make deliveries for BCDD, but on Sunday my mom & I decided to continue with our shopping trip down to Bellingham. Here are some photos from our journey:

Fir Street, looking south toward 16th Avenue

Approaching the Blaine truck crossing

The parking lot at Bellis Fair

Returning via the Peace Arch crossing

All in all, the experience was incident free for us. But there were lots of people who had driven off the road. It seems that many people don't understand that you simply have to drive slower in such conditions, even if you're driving an SUV. Even more have little to no experience driving in the snow. So when something startles them - like hitting a patch of ice - they slam on the brakes, which tends to spin them around and often into the ditch.

Returning the Avis rental car was quite hilarious. I took it back to the West Broadway location where I had picked it up. I knew they'd be closed but was just going to drop the keys through the mailbox like I had done in times past. Well this time round the mailbox was welded shut! So I found a payphone and call their 800 number. They explained that I could wait until the next morning or take it to their downtown location. I opted for the latter.

Taking the Cambie Bridge downtown, the traffic was very light. I pulled into the parking lot underneath of the Hotel Vancouver and down to level B7, as instructed by the signs. I then took the elevator back up to ground level to return the keys. There was no one there! Nor was there a drop-off box! So I went into the hotel and called them again. They assured me there was a box somewhere, but they weren't sure where. Another elevator ride back down to B7 and I found the box, though it was nowhere near I had left the car.


The walk home was peaceful and pleasant. I had brought my portable radio along and listened to the coverage on CKNW. People were calling in from all over the Lower Mainland reporting the storm from their perspective. Many people had lost power. I felt very fortunate that I had not been inconvenienced at all by the storm.