Edmonton

And There is Still NO Snow


Bare

Image by *¦·sindorella·¦* via Flickr

So let’s all shout “hell yes” and fist pump a bit too.

As of today, Edmonton has reached some kind of snow less record. Not even a flurry. We are a barren island as the white stuff surrounds our little neck of northern Alberta. Better yet, it’s going to warm up to 11 C tomorrow.

If it didn’t snow until the New Year, I’d be just fine with it though Rob might be a little disappointed because the mother of all snowblowers is winging its way to the nearest Sears outlet for us even as I type. He loves him a powerful machine.

But it will snow. Next week flurries threaten and before you know it, the sky will shit white daily and the temps will hover stubbornly around -20 C  take or mostly give. It’s inevitable now that darkness bookends the waking hours, and the road construction crews are popping up everywhere in a frenzy to finish the work they dicked around avoiding all summer long.

I will take the brown bareness for as long as I can get it however. I am beginning to count fall as my second favorite season.

* Here’s the link to today’s NaBloPoMo at BlogHer and another to the Top Canada Mom’s Blog contest, and I hope you’ll take a moment to pop over and vote for me because losing really sucks and if each person who reads this votes (more than once is good), I won’t. Thanks.

If You Haven’t “Occupied” Yet, You Should


I went to the Occupy Edmonton event today with Mick, and if you haven’t gotten out there and participated in this movement yet – it would be worth your time to do so. And no, it didn’t “unjade” me. I still believe that even a large and growing group of concerned, thoughtful people are not a match for the corporate/political machine that currently runs the world, and therefore, controls our existences.

But it warms the soul a bit to see that the kind of innocence and enthusiasm that sparked great social upheaval and change in days gone by can still manifest in young people. Not enough to save us … not yet … but maybe a start.

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The Swarm


Mosquito

Image by Gravitywave via Flickr

If it’s not birds, it’s mosquitoes. The near constant rain has resurrected a long dormant type for double teaming duty with the regular bloodsuckers we normally have. The new variety though isn’t nocturnal. It likes sunshine too making it impossible to avoid being bitten.

The Fort’s soccer fields and playgrounds practically pulsate with them. Dee and I have been swarmed twice in the last week and it makes me wonder how people coped back in yore without pesticide deterrents.

By “swarmed” I mean literally covered. Remember those commercials where the guy sticks his arm into an aquarium filled with the little pests and it disappears under the creatures. That kind of swarmed.

I don’t even have to be bitten to itch. For some reason, just contact sets my skin aflame with intense itching that last for about 10 or so minutes after.

And with West Nile and encephalitis being a mosquito carried threat anymore, it’s hard to shrug the plague off as just a summer side-effect to be endured. It also makes me feel a bit guilty leaving Dee to fend at soccer camp this week, slowly eaten by mosquitoes all day.

Summer in Alberta is not as awesome as years past.

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