Stay safe! It’s nice to have food on hand, but the main thing is the critical liquor supply! I checked our forecast and there’s no sign of this storm moving east as such weather disturbances often do, just more snow and rain, which has been par for the course this whole winter season so far presumably due to La Nina. Ironically, tomorrow the high will hit a balmy 10°C ( 50°F) before it cools down and starts snowing again!
Thanks @Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela Things are okay here. High winds but the snow is forecast for later.
When I left my office tonight and was approaching my car in the parkade, I heard loud noises coming from across the street. Puzzling. When I got to my car and looked across the street, I saw half a dozen cars in that parking lot, with motorists scraping and scraping and scraping their windows. Has been raining all day and frozen hard on the windows.
I’m sure part of the noises I heard was some cursing.
They were still at it when I came down three levels to the street and drove away.
Stopped at PetroCan to fill up and at Safeway to get some food. Brought my computer home and will work from home tomorrow.
From CTV News Calgary:
Note that when the item refers to “the QEII,” it is referring to Alberta Highway 2, the main road that connects Calgary and Edmonton.
And it now has arrived here. Can barely see to the end of the street.
The # 1 was shut down by about 9:30 am today, west of Moose Jaw to Swift Current.
So we will have lots of fresh snow tomorrow, on top of the ice from the freezing rain today. Lovely.
My advice, @Northern_Piper , would be to just hunker down, and not go anywhere. I presume that you won’t, as you mentioned that you don’t need to go to the office tomorrow, and you got groceries and gas on your way home today. But if you get anything like we got earlier, you won’t want to walk even a few blocks to the corner store; conditions will be that bad.
I brought my laptop home and some files to work on. Not planning on stepping out. And, already had sufficient wine and screech to see me through. 
My haiku from an MMP last year, equally appropriate tonight:
Big black dog goes out.
Winter storm rages outside.
White dog comes back in.
I like it! Very appropriate.
I’m enjoying a beer right now, while watching an “Expedition Unknown” marathon on TV. But I have yet to eat dinner, so maybe a pre-dinner cocktail before that. I’m thinking a dry martini.
Great haiku, NoPi. Hope you and your family remain safe, healthy and cozy!
Looks like we’re into that seesaw kind of weather, where we’re above freezing one day, below freezing the next, and nobody quite knows what to do. Do we shovel the snow that has fallen, or do we wait for tomorrow’s chinook to melt it?
A walk to the corner store today had me wishing that I had worn golf shoes. Nobody had cleared their snow, which after the recent melt and refreeze, had become ice. Nearly lost my balance a couple of times, when my feet slipped out from under me on the ice, but I recovered. I ended up walking on people’s lawns, which at least had some traction. Nonetheless, I think that the next time I go anywhere in my car, I’ll stock up with whatever I need even if it’s not an immediate need. They are fine folks at the corner store, but I won’t risk my brittle bones, just to get a bag of potato chips and a Coke.
Wine is good, but screech?? I don’t think I’ve ever had it, but it’s always been my understanding that this is the sound that a drinker makes the first time they try this Newfoundland abomination! How about Havana Club Cuban rum or Bacardi Gold instead? (The Ontario government recently decreed that Puerto Rico is not really, technically, part of the USA proper, and shouldn’t be subject to the liquor embargo, so Bacardi Gold has been back in stock for quite some time. I swear I must be the largest consumer from the small local liquor outlet!)
Screech is just cheap liquor, but if you bought it (instead of drinking it out of a 4L glass jug), then it’s just slightly overpriced rum.
Just joined the Dope. As a Canadian, have been directed here by Spoons and Wolfpup. Greetings to all. Have nothing to add as a Canadian except to be happy to be one. And: The Montreal Canadiens are the best, the Expos will return, and Jean Leloup is better than Brian Adams.
Welcome…happy solstice from a Canadian expat enjoying much better weather in tropical Cairns.
Welcome! Nice to have another Canuck on board! 
I lost my baby, was one of the first songs I learned while playing the guitar. Leloup is a treasure.
We can disagree on that one, though being a Toronto native and having attended many Leafs’ games since 1966, and having watched the Toronto Maple Leafs sucking rocks for the past 58 years makes me say that. If you’re from Toronto, a love of the Leafs and a hatred of the Montreal Canadiens seems to be bred into you.
I’m much more invested in CFL and NFL football nowadays. Unless the Blue Jays are playing, of course.
And they last won in ‘67, have you ever thought this is all on you @Spoons?
The GENIUS Act
They tell me: “Sir! It’s not too late”:
Make Canada a northern state
Conquer Caracas, needle Nuuk
Give Panama a second look
Then take the prize that others spurn
Five extra armies every turn!
Play chess moves no one else can see
To make my foreign policy.
A tighter purse, but looser lips
My name! On sides of battleships!
And each so huuge and ixodid
They take four squares of ocean grid!
(The next step? I’m not unawares
That carriers take five full squares!)
You’ve got to keep opponents jumpy
Cantankerous and grumpy
To fulfill plans this smart. This trumpy.
(Capture Kamchatka? For what ends?
There’s politics.
But then, there’s friends.)
For you followers of Quebec politics…
(Author) Robert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of Côte-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.
"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
barely a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
There were in fact three, having trouble getting sleepy,
Pablo, and Legault, and PSPP.
Their minds were active, deep in reflection,
with less than a year now, before the election.
Pablo, reluctantly, made his decision,
his dream, being premier, won’t come to fruition.
His leadership blindsided, by his second in command,
when she fired her chief of staff, his former right hand.
Then allegations of vote buying, started to surface,
you could see on his face, how he looked so nervous.
He tried very hard, to extinguish the fire,
but every day, the flames grew higher.
The knives got sharper, as more news broke,
any gains his Liberals made, went up in smoke.
For most everyone, the writing was on the wall,
for the sake of the party, Pablo had to take the fall.
Will his successor be new blood, or from the old guard,
former MNA Karl Blackburn, or Charles Milliard?
Any new leader’s, first task at hand,
will be to cleanse, the Liberal brand.
Pablo had it rough, caught in a furor,
but he’s not the only one, looking in the mirror.
Legault and his CAQ, still languishing in polls,
a foundering boat, taking on more and more holes.
From the financing of Northvolt, and Lion Electric,
to a half billion wasted, on the scandal at SAAQclic.
Record deficits, tariffs, cost of living so high,
he’s running out of options, not much left to try.
Battles with doctors, unions, religious minorities,
all blowing up, as bungled priorities.
Education and health care, with no viable solution,
So he turns the focus, to a Quebec Constitution.
Even that won’t work, seen as an attempt to deflect,
as a Hail Mary pass, that just won’t connect.
Will his fortunes turn, after his backtrack on Bill 2?
Or is the damage done, that he can’t undo?
The CAQ’s only hope, may be for Legault to go,
but he seems to be held back, by his own ego.
PSPP, too, has been tossing and turning,
about how to keep, his momentum burning.
Every time he glances, into the mirror,
he thinks he’s staring, at our next premier.
But despite his poll numbers, being so telling,
Quebecers aren’t buying, what he’s selling.
He’s bent on holding, a referendum on separation,
which is still opposed, by two-thirds of the population.
But can he lead a government, if he really does win?
We’ve seen his temper, and his very thin skin.
He blasted the cultural milieu, as if they did something sinister,
for merely congratulating, Canada’s new culture minister.
He raves and he rants, about the federal “regime,”
trying to convince voters, to buy into his dream.
He’s unveiling chapters, in what’s called the Blue Book,
peddling how good, an independent Quebec will look.
Promises, assertions, and rose-coloured glasses,
he’ll try anything it seems, to hoodwink the masses.
But Quebecers have, other priorities these days,
they want competent leadership, and better ways.
We can’t afford a leader, who puts the province in disarray,
yet he may be elected, because there’s no other play.
Will Duhaime’s Conservatives, come up the middle,
and offer some hope, maybe just a little?
The CAQ and Liberals, big decisions to make,
in the coming year, there’s very much at stake.
If they choose the right leader, their parties they can save,
we’ve seen political shifts in Quebec, become a sudden voter wave.
Perhaps the sleepwalk, toward a PQ win,
might no longer be, as obvious as it’s been.
And it’s hoped Quebecers, from their dreams do wake up,
not to a third referendum, but a 25th Stanley Cup.
Happy holidays and health, to one and to all,
let’s not dwell, for a few days, on the election next fall."