Freak out

The drive to work this morning was brutal! I've never driven in such poor visibility in my life. Almost wondering if I risked it getting to work. Snow and gusting winds up to 60 mph. There were two times, about 10 seconds each, when I couldn't even see the front of my car. I cracked the door open to try and see where the yellow line was. No dice. I've never felt so odd. Driving (only 30 kph) and not being able to see anything but white. Is there a car stopped in front of me? Don't know. Some rig-pig in his jacked up 4X4 sailing up behind me? Don't know. I was glad to learn that the answer to both of those questions was no.

The picture below shows the average visibility I had, probably about 20ft. It was like this about 95% of the 45 minute drive. (I probably shouldn't have been going 80kph.) This was the best visibility of the trip. At least the car was warm, and the music loud! Eat that winter.

I Live in Heaven??

Nasty winds take their toll.

Rockyford Arena

This morning started early and interesting.

I woke up to a monster wind, rattling the house, blowing over the bar-b-q and sliding our glass patio table 10ft across the deck. Wow, that's what I call a wind. I walked over the the patio doors in the kitchen to see my neighbours wrestling a tarp from the power line going to there house. I laid back down just as the train started through town, at 3:30.

It wasn't more than 2 minutes later, I heard one of the loudest crashes of steel that I've ever heard. The noise rattle the house! Immediately I ran to the window, expecting to see the train noodling off of the tracks. It was still rolling along normally. What the, was that noise?? Couldn't figure it out, but I couldn't go to sleep either.

By this time(4am) we had been without power for about 1/2 hour. Next thing I noticed was the lights of fire trucks flashing behind the garage. I got dressed and wondered out to see what was going on. Seeing as I know most all of the firefighters, and many of them I had visited with several hours earlier at our Lions meeting, I went to ask what was going on.

Well I didn't have to ask to find out. The roof (installed only this past summer) had blown off and rolled itself up like a taco going from the roof to the ground. I was going to get my tri-pod and take some photos in the dark with the fire-trucks lights and blowing snow, but I think it would have been all most impossible to steady a camera in that kind of wind. I don't know if I've ever been in wind that strong.

I went back in the house and about a half hour later I get a knock at the door. "Hey Jeremy, we're going to have to evacuate." Oh yeah, just what I wanted to hear.

Upstairs, wake up the boys, gather a few things and off to the community center. We hung out there for about 3 hours until the fire department came to escort anyone who wanted to gather a few more belongings for the day. We went and grabbed some clothes for the boys, toiletries and off we went to the in-laws for the day?? As of right now,we are still not allowed in our house. There's no power, no water.

Engineers and lawyers are on the way.

I went and told my boss all that had gone on and that I might not be back to work today. He jumped in his truck to take a look for himself.

I snapped these pictures, and dropped them off at the Strathmore Standard. They did a quick interview and said they are going to use them in next weeks paper.

It's still windy as all get out right now. Looks like I might not be playing hockey for a while now. Crap!

U-Turn

That's what I did on the way to work this morning. Wind sucks! I hate it! Unless of course it's a nifty little tail wind pushing you along. I headed out and thought about turning around several times right away. I thought, no, I better give it a bit more of a chance. After I made the turn onto 564 west, the headwind sealed the deal and I turned around.
I'm not trying to be a hero or prove a point. I just like riding my bike. If there's a point when riding a bike isn't fun, why do it? The wind howling in my ears, struggling for 10 mph. I ended up riding about 7 miles altogether, so hey, I got a ride in today. What's more, the way home I obviously had a nice tail wind, so it was a great way to end.