10:51 p.m. - 2004-02-01
Winterlude
A week from now I'll be in Ottawa. I'm just trying to get all my ducks in a row now. Talked with my number two person tonight and we agreed that we'd book a cab to get us to the airport. I told him about the information I'd found on the airline's website. Neither of us have a lot of faith in their service - we've both had bad luck with them, but we don't have any other options. I have a list of questions now that I'll be calling them about tomorrow, just to make certain we don't have any hassles when we're trying to board.
My Dad is going to come by tomorrow with extra suitcases and such. I wasn't really worrying about that, but with regulations changing so radically I gues I'd better be over prepared rather than otherwise. Final shop for groceries and supplies for my guys will make me feel more comfortable too.
I checked the weather in Ottawa tonight plus the long range forecast. Their Winter Festival - Winterlude- runs over that weekend so we might take some of the festivities in - if the temperatures are reasonable. One of the most interesting events might be the Mardi Gras festival held at their Byward Market. Market. The other feature I'd like to take in is the ice sculpting competition that is held near to the Parliament Buildings. In Ottawa the biggest factor affecting weather is the humidity off the lakes and rivers. Dry cold - such as here - is not as debilitating as a damp cold that seeps right into ones bones - such as there.
Eastern Canada doesn't have chinooks either. On Thursday, one of the communities just south of Calgary found their temperature rising from -26 C at 11 am to -6 at noon. By 2 pm it was +2 C/ 36 F and then by 6 pm it was back down to -26 C. Becuase fo the laws of physics it is also often warmer in the mountains than it is down here in the foothills. On Thursday, the ski hill built for the 1988 Winter Olympics that sits on the outskirts of our city had to shut down because of the extreme cold. 60 miles away, near the mountain town of Banff, skiers were wandering around without shirts - well the males anyway - because it was so warm on the ski hills, about + 6 C /+ 40 F. Yes being that they are Canadians their definition of warm is somewhat different than in other places, but remember with the windchill it was -38 C here in the city. It's all relative after all.
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