happylife

Sticky snow

I feel that we have more snow this winter than usual, but it wouldn't remain here for a long time if it snowed heavily. Because of the warm weather, it melts soon and the surface of snow fields look like this picture. This is the slope facing towards False Creek in front of my apartment. The snow of yesterday has already been melting partially and the grass surface can be seen just like holes. Though I tried to walk down the slope, it was so steep and slippery for me on skiddy shoes. No one except for a dog was playing there because it was obvious to get muddy. Anyway, it was really a fine day and I cloud enjoy the shining scenery after a long break. It might be an illusion but spring seems to be coming close and my feeling has become better. How much the weather affects our feeling!

The cancellation of a sailing

It was a windy day and I was enjoying looking out of the window. English Bay was covered with white-caps which are rather rare for the inland sea. I was watching an Aqua bus sailing against the heavy southerly wind. It was tossed about by the wave and wind. It didn't seem to move forward because of the wind power and finally it turned back to Granville Island, and then I couldn't see any more aqua buses on the day. It was for the first time that I saw an aqua bus canceled the sailing. When I drove to North Vancouver at night, I found the entrance of Stanley Park was closed again, which had been opened just a few days ago. I must have been additionally damaged. When on earth does this severe weather go away from this city?

Stormy night

It's 2:00 AM on Saturday in Vancouver. The windows in my room are clattering and vibrating hit by the strong southern wind. It reminds me of the severest storm last month which did critical damage to Stanley Park. Although this is my third winter in Vancouver, the weather is too unusual. Heavy rain, stormy wind, snow and sunshine. I have experienced the most weather variations in one day. It's like a department store of weather phenomena. I hear that Tokyo is also under a very strong low pressure called "bomb low pressure" right now. Has the weather balance started to break down all over the world? Long time has passed since the word of "global warming" was used and I strongly feel that the word is not no concern of mine any more. I shouldn't say such a thing but I can't help feeling that something more serious which is related to weather or other Nature phenomena would happen around me in the near future. Of course I don't like such an idea but I think I should prepare for it at least.

Scene at dusk

Yesterday began with a light storm which reminded me of the terrible damage all around Vancouver last year end. Fortunately, it has gone by noon followed by the sunshine. The light was so strong that I could do sun bathing in my room. This picture shows the scene at dusk. Street lights have just gone on under the dark blue sky. I was staying in my room all day long because my cough hasn't gone away perfectly yet, but I was happy because the view from the window changed every time I looked out. Anyway, what do you think the weather in Vancouver this morning is like? -- It is snowing! What a dramatic weather show!

Gradation

Today I could enjoy the great sunset for the first time in these past months. It was the show I had expected for a long time sitting in the special reserved seat in my room. I think the beauty of the sunset is coming from the natural gradations of color. Though we can create or imitate gradations using Photoshop or some other graphic software, the character of the gradations is totally different. The Nature is so complicated and smooth that even the state of art digital technology cannot make the same things; it can only imitate. This picture is only the imitation and the real scene I enjoyed was way more beautiful. As I had been staying in my room facing towards the PC display for weeks, I really felt that the real world is much greater than the digital world. I have recollected that my dream was watching beautiful things as much as possible in my life, and my daily life in these past months was far from it. It might be the right time for me to change air.

Damaged park

Stanley Park was seriously damaged by the severe storm last week. It has been partly closed for safety reasons. Fallen trees allegedly cut the power lines here and there, and it is said to be dangerous to get to them. Driving or cycling around the park was one of the few pleasures left to me in this winter season, but I can't enjoy it for a while. The forest was damaged so seriously that it is going to take for months before the park is fully recovered. Even the Christmas events which are held every year in the park might be canceled this year. I visited there for the first time after the storm and found lots of fallen trees as this picture shows. Some trees were rooted up and some were broken in the middle of the stem. What a terrible scene, but I think a bit that I wanted to watch how the trees get fallen by the wind. Is it indiscreet to think such things?

A ghost town

I drove to Save On Foods in North Vancouver last night and found a strange scenery out there. It was before 8:00 PM, but the supermarket was closed. The store was full of lights and lots of fruits were displayed on the outside shelves as if it were open, but no people were in there. It was just like a ghost town. The entrance was locked and I found on the door a piece of paper which said "STORE WILL RE-OPEN AT 6AM SATURDAY MORNING." I was reminded of that the traffic signals on the way were off. This area had been suffered from severe blackouts and it had not completely recovered yet. They might have got to close the store without tidying up items because of sudden blackouts. They might have had nothing to do without power and they might have decided to close the store leaving every item as is. They will have to deal with various fresh foods tomorrow morning.

The temporaly bule sky

When did I see the blue sky like this last time? Thanks to the storm last night, we had a blue sky after a long break. I went to the marina for the first time in this month. I though about enjoying sailing but the wind was too strong. It was not impossible for me to sail under the conditions, but simply I didn't like it. I pumped out the bilge water using a handy pump instead. I had to pump out five bucketful of water because my boat leaks badly. I know where are the leaks but I had been too lazy to repair them because it is not a critical problem. Leaking from the bottom is critical, but it is from the roof in my case. After drying up the boat, I was thinking about riding to Stanley Park but I couldn't because another cloud was coming to cover the sky. I wonder when I can see the next blue sky.

Storm watching

It was almost Friday morning when we had a very severe storm around Vancouver. It was so severe that lots of people were allegedly suffered from blackouts. Fortunately, I had no big damage except for that the plastic stool in the balcony was toppled down and the mat was flipped over though it was fixed with heavy bricks at each corner. As I had just got up when the storm broke out, I could fully enjoy the show in my room. As I had mentioned before, I love to watch storms from a safe place, but it was this time too fierce to enjoy. The wind hit the windows in my room so violently that I worried if they might be broken. Because of partial blackouts, Burrard Bridge was in the darkness while the lights in my room was not off but flickering sometimes. After a few hours, the storm has gone but the sky is still covered with clouds. It was the severest storm that I had experienced in Vancouver.

Snow again

It is now snowing again in Vancouver before the fallen snow melts away. The roads around Downtown are in dangerous conditions so called "Eisbahn" in Deutsch. It's almost crazy to drive in such days without wearing snow tires. I know it well but I drove tonight. I had to drive because I found I was running out of drinking water. I was thinking that I had one more large bottle of water in the refrigerator but I didn't. I'm not sure whether the boil water advisory was released or not, but the tap water in my room is still a little bit cloudy. I decided to drive to the supermarket in Kitsilano to get drinking water again. I chose main streets on the way to prevent being captured in the snow. Fortunately, I have completed this mission without any problem and came back to my room with four bottles of water. It was really dangerous because I couldn't distinguish the lanes covered with snow.