Don't Count the Chickens

The meterological rollercoaster that is Cochrane's weather continues.

Having been overjoyed at the sight of the grand Chinook Arch that curved its way across the sky last week, bringing with it balmy temperatures of 17 degrees or so - we were optimistically considering that Spring was poking its nose around the corner.

This is the Chinook arch taken rather haphazardly on the drive to work - it may not look like much, but it moves in from the mountains and stretches from one end of the horizon to the other. With it come winds with more umph than generator 3 at Chernobyl. The house gets rattled like a tin shack and the winds, being very warm, just melt all snow in the way. Chinook is some first nations word for "Snow Eater" - you can quite literally watch the snow disappear as the Chinook moves East.

So the road bike was delighted to get a run out on Friday afternoon, and then the first good ride of the year was a sunny pedal with Brad from Bragg Creek to Elbow Falls on Sunday in the aforementioned 17 degree temps or so.
I lulled myself into a false sense of cycling security, thinking that every night would now be a roadie night - seeing as though the clocks went forward at the weekend too.

How mistaken one Englishman can be when toying with the fickle Canadian weather! Lo and behold, this morning saw a good 4 inches on the ground as I stepped out of the door to head to work! So much for riding tonight!

Brina caught this shot of me looking like I'm heading home from the grocery store - rather than departing to work.

The other blighter of all of this though is that I thought shovelling the drive was done for this year!

And as for leaving the big ol' truck out in the drive (yep, I still got her), well, that was a no no!

This aint too bad for a few hours over night in March. I neglected to sweep a lot of the snow off the bed of the truck (I was in a rush to get to work - late for another meeting), and hadn't considered the amount of snow that was lying on the back. It was all pretty stable until I hit about 60kmph, at which stage the massive, thick slab of snow lifted off the truck and smashed into the windscreen of the car behind me (oops!!!) I don't think the feller behind was any too pleased - and neither would I be with a mini avalanche crashing into my car at 7am. I don't think there were any serious casualties.

Some got to stay at home today in their father Christmas uniforms;

Hoping you are all really fit, well and happy!

We'll be up in Banff this weekend to raise a pint of the black stuff to Brina's birthday - what a fortunate coincidence it's St Paddy's day too, although you should never need an excuse for Guiness!

Thinking of you all,

Always take the weather with you (whatever it is),

S&S.