Never-fail winter weather forecast

Here on Canada's "wet coast", our winter weather is pretty easy to forecast:

• If you can see the mountains, it's going to rain
• If you can't see the mountains, it's raining

After all, we do live in a temperate rain forest and down here at sea level, rain and winter are pretty much kissin cousins. A few meters up on the local mountains, however, it's quite a different story. Up there, the wet stuff is white stuff and we get great gobs of it most winters, providing a winter playground for folks who love the outdoors. They flock there to ski, snowboard, xc ski, toboggan, and snowshoe.

Long time xc skiers, we tried snowshoeing for the first time last year, on Cypress Mountain -- it was a blast! Pic, below is what I have as my desktop on my MacBookPro.

Hi, I'm a Mac ... but I look like a PC

Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads are legendary. http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/ At a user conference when these ads first appeared, a colleague and I were co-hosting a session and we thought we'd do the I'm a Mac, I'm a PC kind of shtick. Trouble was, we both wanted to be the Mac guy, but we both look like the PC guy. Sigh.

Snow geese

I live on Lulu Island in the Fraser River delta of BC, Canada. Each year, 70,000 snow geese fly here from Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, to spend the winter with us. They feed on bullrushes, grasses, leftover crops in the farmers fields. They stick together in very large flocks, cheek to jowl.

When they take flight en masse, it's an unforgettable spectacle -- their black wing tips and honking voices transform them into a shimmering cloud of life.

Alzheimer's

My mom has Alzheimer's and lives in a long term care home in London Ontario. Her memory is weak but her personality is still strong. She doesn't remember my name anymore -- I don't think she knows who I am, but she is very happy to see me. I don't get to see her as much as I'd like as she's a 5 hour flight away. I miss our weekly phone calls, it just doesn't work anymore.

She's always loved people and when I do get a chance to visit she's often walking hand-in-hand with a friend. And talking. She still loves being with people and she loves to talk. Her mannerisms, gestures, tone of voice and gleam in her eye are the same but the words aren't right, so most of what she says doesn't make much sense. But that's OK. It's still a pleasure to spend time with her.

Many things are new again to her. When we take her for a walk around the facility, she seems to see the world through the eyes of a child, rediscovering the beauty of the world.

She loves music, especially live music and she taps her toes and sings along. She walks a lot, but claims she doesn't eat. She's as beautiful as ever. I so love my mom.

Solar Energy

My wife Jan and I try to walk softly through life. Just our nature. Frugal, perhaps, not necessarily in terms of money, but energy consumption, carbon footprint, the environment.

We ride our bikes, walk or take public transit whenever possible. And we have a manual push mower to keep our lawn trim. We no longer water the lawn, no longer haul out our two hoses and two sprinklers on the two designated watering days per week for our street. What were we thinking?

When it comes to the sun's energy, we gulp it down extravagently. We've strung three or four clotheslines between the apple tree and our house. And try to wash on sunny windy days. It's great to see clothes hanging on a line, and in a few hours you have fresh smelling, sun-dried clothes.

And we have a solar-powered radio -- also a handcrank and powered by 120V -- that's great when we're outside gardening. It's also part of our earthquake kit.

For our week long wilderness canoe trip, I purchased a solar charger that allowed me to keep my camera charged. Nice unit in that it has a built-in battery so you can charge up the battery when the sun shines and then used the charged battery to charge up your device (camera, cellphone, ipod whatever). Bought it at my favourite store, Mountain Equipment Coop, here:
http://is.gd/8qAX


Thank you Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun. (Raffi song, I think).

In the beginning there was the blog

Not sure why I'm starting a blog now. But here goes. I've journalled with pen and paper for 20 years or so, usually in early morning, before dawn in the short days of winter, in a comfortable chair near a window with a hot cuppawhatever. Immersed in silence and thoughts.

For most of those years, Jan and the 2 kids were still sound asleep upstairs. Now just Jan. Both Scott and Kristen are in their own places now, probably sleeping just as soundly.

For most of those years, our dog Molly would wander over for a nuzzle, sitting just so. But not anymore. Ol' Molly died this year at age 13. She was a great dog. But that's another story.