Buried in snow

I know I've been complaining a lot about the weather, but sometimes there just isn't anything else to write about. And, like Pamela, I too like to write about the weather on my blog. Mike and i went home on Saturday for a wedding reception, and like usual, the weather went crazy. As we made the drive around Cameron Lake the first snowflakes brushed the windshield, and I thought, it's a good thing we left early to miss the snowfall. As we got closer to Port Alberni, we could see it had been snowing for a while, but not so much that it was hard to drive. We got into town and it continued to snow and snow the whole reception and all night while we slept at my mom's. In the morning the snow still hadn't let up and the car was buried. We were determined to make it home to Victoria though and Mike thought his soccer game might still be on as someone on his team told us it wasn't snowing in Victoria. (He must not have looked out the window as it did indeed snow here).

So, we made the drive in just under 4 hours through the snow and about 4 or 5 accidents. Even saw a guy trying to drive a motorbike. What kind of person drives a motorcycle on the highway in a snow storm? I don't know, but good old tercel made it all the way home with no problems. Except that we almost ran out of gas as it took us so long to make it to the first gas station we could actually drive into without getting stuck. Scary drive, but the irony is that when we finally pulled onto Richmond and were about 30 seconds from home, we saw home bad Victoria is at dealing with snow. I know we never get snow, but do you think we could hold onto at least 1 snow plow? PA has no problem when it snows. They plow the road, ppl shovel their driveways and sidewalks, and life continues. Even despite the fact that they still can't drink the water. But, oh no, not Victoria. Here, we don't plow or shovel, so that as we approached our street, which is a hill, I could see we weren't going to make it. The street was completely snowed in and ppl were parked all along Richmond. We sat in the car and watched 3 people get stuck on their way up the hill. The thing is, even if you make it up Mayfair, you then have to turn up the driveway, which is also a hill, and by then you've lost momentum. So, we decided to join the cars on the side of the street and walk our bags up to the house. After falling on my face in the snow a few times, we made it into our apartment only to discover that we had no power.

So, it was a lovely time. We lit a lot of candles and then discovered that for some reason two of our power outlets worked. Mike managed to stretch the computer and phone to those outlets so we would have something to do. After calling Sarah and Fraser we decided to brave the weather to all go see Casino Royale together. It was actually kind of fun going out at night in the snow to see a movie. And the theater was absolutely PACKED. I couldn't believe it. But it was fun. And shortly after we got home the power came back on. This, however, was after the fire alarm in our building went off. I'm pretty sure it was the people I could smell down the hall who were most likely hotboxing their apartment. What else is there to do in the snow? I guess that's what they were thinking.

Mike and I camped out in the living room though since we were worried the power might go off again and we needed to use the working outlet to set his alarm. Poor guy, had to wake up at 6 am on a snow day and then found that although last night after the movie we managed to get Tercel up the hill and the driveway (such a good little car :) the doors were frozen shut and he had no way to get the car out of where we'd parked in the guest spaces, worried we'd never get out of our undergroud parkade. So, he had to walk to work. Plus he was working at the Shelbourne store, so it wasn't exactly a short walk in the snow. Meanwhile, I managed to get my internet and keyboard working again, and have plans to do homework since classes at Uvic are cancelled. I have a reserve book out that I was supposed to bring back today but since the number 14 bus is currently stuck at the bottom of the hill, I don't think there's any way of getting to the school.

So I guess it's a snow day. Haven't had a real snow storm in ten years. Funny, too, because I was just saying this last weekend, and thinking maybe we were due for another. Ha. BC finally knows a little of what it's like to live in Canada. It's actually -40 in some areas of the province and is even going to get close to -15 on the island and in Vancouver with the wind. I know it's nothing compared to the rest of the country, but we're catching up. Too bad I don't own a tuque, boots, or winter gloves.

Well, it's back to work. I mean, to start doing work. Maybe school will be cancelled tomorrow too. That would be nice since Mike has the day off. We could have a real snow day together. Going to call my mom now, since she was stranded in nanaimo yesterday. Hope she's made it back to PA alright.

Maybe we will finally have a white Christmas?