Sunday, April 21, 2013

Another week, and slightly less snow

I have to say that not much of anything has happened in the past week.  Unless making major progress on upcoming presentations and research projects counts.  I have come to the conclusion, that there is no reason to ever come to Edmonton unless you know someone who lives here and you like them a lot and they have a intense fear over ever leaving this city.  There are a thousand places in which you could meet this friend all of which would be better than coming here to visit them.

As an outsider, I find it fascinating to discover the myths which locals will invent to explain why the negative aspects of their city aren't actually that bad. To further explain my theory, I must first describe in the detail the weather in Edmonton:

It is terrible; freezing cold and extremely snowy for 4-5 months continuously each winter, followed by a pathetic spring.  "Spring" consists of days where the weather is barely above the freezing mark, and there are gale force winds and dirty puddles of melting snow (really lakes, given the amount of snow there is to melt).  Since the city of Edmonton uses sand to provide traction on ice in the winter, as the ice melts, the city is left covered in a layer of dirt.  The unpleasantness of this is further compounded by winds which blow the leftover sand directly into the eyes of any hapless tourists who were foolish enough to come here!  The visitor is further insulted by fleetingly brief moments of blue sky when she may start to believe that spring is coming, but which are quickly replaced by swirling snow flurries, ice-cold sleet or rain and another 5 cm of snow.  

Going back to my original thought, the myth which Edmontonians have developed, is that although their weather is comparable to that of the Arctic, they have beautiful sun.  Well, I have news for them, sun doesn't count unless it is accompanied by warmth.  And it is also not that sunny here, if in doubt, see Southern California for details. 

Well, that is all I have to say for now.  I am so glad that I am going to Vancouver for a couple days next weekend.  

This is such a typically Canadian post; all about the weather.  In most countries they don't spend nearly so much time talking about the weather, mostly because it the same every day: warm and sunny.  Bring on the Bangladesh.

Muffins that Judy was making one morning when I came downstairs.  Delicious!

There is a significant reduction in snow, but still way too much is still there.





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