Daffodils and other spring flowers are out in Victoria. Cherry trees are in full bloom.
I may have to shovel some flower petals out of the driveway - they tend to blow in and form small drifts.
I had hoped we were done with the snow! In a few days, we will be. It has been a very mild winter; so not complaining as such.
There is still episodic programming on broadcast TV?
The snow we got yesterday is still on the ground – damn strange development for the start of spring after a nearly snow-free winter. And, checking the forecast just now, there’s actually a snowfall warning for tonight highlighted in red! Boy was I wrong when I said about a month ago that winter was pretty much over!
But we’re back to seasonal temps by Monday so it’ll all be gone by then if not sooner.
Well, if your links were intended to convince me in any way that he’s not a jerk, they failed.
I grant you, he’s a slick and dangerous jerk.
Well, in the last three days, we’ve had about a foot and a half of snow. By this morning, anyway; it’s likely daily totals after today will total about two feet since last Thursday.
I know that it’s late March, and we can expect snow. We just don’t expect this much. I need to go out tomorrow, and I’m not looking forward to taking a foot or more of snow off my car.
Biggest snowfall of the season in Toronto on Friday - no big whoop, Olivia Chow didn’t call in the army. It’s just weird that we’ve had barely any snow all year, record high temperatures, and now that it’s late March, the temperature drops and we get snow.
This whole winter has been odd. Fifteen degree (15C=59F) days in January. Twenty degree days in February. Daily temperature swings of 20C. Keeps dropping down to the wee negs. Rarely one week of consistent weather.
I’m not complaining. But I’m guessing some of my trees have budded five times or so.
And back up to 11 by mid-week.
I’m not in Canada but Kansas, and we had only one big snowfall, over a month ago. Today it’s chilly and raining, we really need it.
Ha! I was living in Toronto for that January 1999 snowfall, and I well remember Mel Lastman calling in the army. To a degree, I think he was justified—in an effort to open the main roads, the plows set up huge berms across the cross streets, effectively preventing people from leaving their neighbourhood. The Army, using shovels and people-power got rid of those berms.
My father lived in one such place. He was elderly, and couldn’t even get to the corner store without having to traverse a four-foot berm. So he called me. I could help, and I took one for the team, got what he needed and wanted from my local stores, and took the bus and subway to his place (no way I could take my car; there was a huge berm across my building’s driveway). Wearing a knapsack with the supplies that he requested, and some he didn’t, on my back, I traversed the four-foot berm that he couldn’t. So, no matter how much the ROC laughed at Toronto, I had no problem with the Army’s help.
I’m jealous! January was a cold snap here in southern Alberta, with temps at -30 to -40. Of course, my furnace decided to conk out. I had to replace it (made a thread about that), and I was fine. Thankfully, I had a well-stocked pantry and freezer that got me through, because the cold completely defeated the block heater in my car, preventing me from driving anywhere, much less the supermarket. I could walk the three blocks to the corner store for essentials, but when it’s that cold, you start to wonder if a bottle of Coke and a bag of chips are really essentials.
Not many surprises at the Juno Awards last night. I was very happy to see The Beaches win over Nickelback, and to see Tegan and Sara receive the Humanitarian award.
Link to the CBC news report here - Safe but slow Junos given life by Tegan and Sara statement, Talk and Charlotte Cardin wins | CBC News
I see so many of these damn unskippable ads on Youtube.
The Bonnie Crombie attack ads drive me nuts. Apparently the Ford family cottage is perfectly fine, but because Crombie’s aunt left her property in the Hamptons she’s an Establishment Carpetbagger.
Gods, this carbon tax horseshit is getting right up my nose!
What do all these protesters and politicians suggest to replace the carbon tax? How is their suggestion going to be better? And how long is it going to take to implement their suggestions, because we’re out of time to fart around!!
Meanwhile, the carbon tax is working - Canada's climate policies are reducing emissions, report finds | CBC.ca
It’s the same people bitching about the “Rain Tax” here in Toronto. Look, the storm water has to go somewhere. My driveway badly needs repaving and I will certainly look at a porous option when I do. Otherwise, the city will have more flooding, higher insurance claims, and I will pay for it in the end.
I did see an infographic today that the carbon tax is increasing the price of bread by about $0.0045 a loaf, so F Trudeau!
And how much is Galen Weston increasing the price of bread? Or decreasing the size of the loaf? 
It makes economic sense for polluters to pay most of the actual external costs. There are a number of ways to do this. The federal government doing anything is going to attract scorn from certain provinces.
I am not much concerned with a two-penny increase in the cost of gas. But I do think the government has done a poor to mediocre job of explaining the rebates and linking those to the tax in the popular mind. Of course the Opposition is going to make hay out of some parts of the country being treated differently than others when it comes to heat pump rebates and such. And the Opposition is going to use the word “tax” as much as they can, since this strategy seems to be working and many people aren’t au fait with the issues.
In most areas evaluated by objective measures, and by broad consensus, Canada is not doing well and has steadily declined since the start of the Trudeau era. If the Carbon Tax is working, it is working as a by-product of shutting down the entire economy.
Canada looks like a significant contributor to greenhouse gases (by GDP and population), but we are just trying to stay warm. Let the major polluters like China and India do something about it, Canada is destroying itself trying to make an insignificant contribution.
Winters don’t have the bitter sting they used to have here on the Prairies. If it’s 50+ Celsius in Saudi Arabia, then they should spend their trillions on fixing the problem rather than buying gold-plated Lambourginis and stirring up terrorism in the Middle East.
If my math is incorrect, that’s a 23% increase!!!