A smile for Eastern Canadians

[Bograt]

I found this article on CBC site this morning. It made me smile. A little light earted ribbing to our brothers on the wet coast.
;D

Chilly Vancouver gives away salt, posts lifeguards at semi-frozen lakes
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/01/13/vancouver-cold050113.html
VANCOUVER - Vancouver is giving away rock salt to help people de-ice sidewalks because many stores have run out due to an unusual blast of wintry weather.

Municipal workers have set up a "drive-through" depot at which people able to prove they live in the city can pick up as much as five kilograms of salt each from the city's stockpile.

Ian Shaw of East Vancouver was one of the first people to pick up salt Wednesday morning, after searching the stores for days.

"It's great," he said of the free salt. "You don't know how many times I've gone to whatever store and there's nothing, so I really appreciate it."

Janet Ng drove up as well, carrying a large laundry soap bucket.

"It's very icy," she said. "Your snow boots help a little bit, but the ice you can't get rid of."

The city giveaway will continue until at least Friday afternoon.

[/u]Lifeguards posted at city parks

Meanwhile, lifeguards are being posted at frozen lakes and ponds in city parks to warn people not accustomed to frigid weather about the dangers of going out on the ice. [/u]

Vancouver Park Board spokesperson Terri Clark says there are already warning signs up banning skating because the ice isn't solid.

But to make extra sure people take no chances, the lifeguards will be on the job at places such as Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park and Queen Elizabeth Park.

The cold weather is expected to taper off late in the week.
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[Fruss]

Hey!!!  That's not funny!!!  :threat:

I left Quebec to a place without snow..  Since I got back from my Xmas vacation in Quebec City, all I see is snow everywhere in Vancouver...  Can it rain to make a change??

;D

To you guys on the east coast, you can laugh at us, but it's not -20 here!! 

Cheers!

Frank

 

[brin11]

It's not here either, Its 15 C today!

 

[Fruss]

DOH!!  ;D

It was -8 overnight in Vancouver....  Why did I move here???  WWWWHHHHHYYYYYY????????  :threat:

Cheers

Frank

 

[qjdb]

got this off an email last night, thought you might like it.   My favourite, personally, is 8:15 am.   Sorry, Victoria folk   ;D

Quentin

Subject: Victoria BC   --Wintertime Emergency

A Chronology:

-           5:35 p.m. Environment Canada predicts two to five centimetres of snow will fall on Victoria within a 24-hour period.   Television weatherman reads the forecast on-air,   turns white and faints.

-            - 5:40 p.m. Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe issues immediate appeal for federal assistance. Prime Minister Paul Martin promises to
send in the army.

-            - 8:45 p.m. Victorians begin queuing at tire stores, leaving vehicles in line overnight to be first served in morning.

-            - 10:15 p.m. It turns out B.C.'s last army base, CFB Chilliwack, closed in 1998. Martin promises to send in Navy instead.

-            - 10:20 p.m. Navy announces ship deployment to San Diego and Hawaii for "security reasons." Conservative Leader Stephen Harper
suggests Prime Minister call Quebec advertising agencies to shovel the snow, "since that's where the Liberals have spent all our money
anyway."

-            - 6:22 a.m. Temperature plunges. Word spreads that a man has found ice on his windscreen. . Curious neighbours gather to watch
him scrape it off with credit card. One motorist, a former Albertan, claims use of mysterious "defrost" switch on dashboard can aid in
process.

-           - 8:15 a.m. Terrified downtown skateboarders lose toques to menacing mob of balding, middle-aged men. "We tried to run," they say, "but these stupid baggy-assed pants made us fall down."

-            - 9:30 a.m. Hardware stores sell both of their snow shovels. Islanders begin cobbling together implements made from kayak
paddles, umbrellas, plywood, cookie sheets, boogie boards and heavy leather sandals.

-            - 10 a.m. Golfers switch to orange balls. Cricket players, anxious not to repeat the ugly "snow blower incident" of the Blizzard
of '96, switch to orange uniforms.

-            - 12 Noon. Word of impending West Coast snowfall tops newscasts across Canada. Saskatoon hospitals report epidemic of
sprained wrists related to viewers high-fiving one another.

-            - 1:20 p.m. Elementary schools call in grief counsellors.   Grief counsellors refuse to go, citing lack of snow tires.

-            - 2:30 p.m. Rush hour begins early as office workers come down with mysterious illness and bolt for home. Usual traffic snarl is
compounded by large number of four-wheel-drives abandoned by side of road.

-            - 2:50 p.m. Airplanes are grounded and ferries docked. No travel link between Vancouver Island and rest of the world. Victoria
Times-Colonist headline: "Mainland Cut Off From Civilisation."

-           - 3:22 p.m. Prime Minister Martin announces Canada's DART rapid-response team can be on the ground within six months.   "We can't leave Victoria to deal with 225 centimetres of snow on its own," he tells Mayor Lowe.   "Um, that's two-to-five centimetres, not
two-two-five," replies the mayor.   The prime minister curses and hangs up.

-           - 3:33 p.m. Provincial government responds to crisis by installing slot machines in homeless shelters.

-            - 4:10 p.m. At behest of Provincial Emergency Program, authorities begin adding Prozac to drinking water.

-            - 4:15 p.m. Fears of food shortage lead to alarming scenes of violence and looting. Grocery shoppers riot across the city, except
in affluent Oak Bay area, where residents hire caterers to do rioting for them.

-           - 4:30 p.m. Bracing for the arrival of snow, the city is gripped by an eerie stillness reminiscent of Baghdad on the eve of the
invasion.   Searchlights comb darkening sky for first signs of precipitation.

-            - 4:48 p.m. Panic ripples across region as word comes in that first flakes have fallen. False alarm. "Flakes" turn out to be
nothing more than anthrax spores released by terrorists. An uneasy calm returns to city.

-            - 5:40 p.m. Weatherman, shaking uncontrollably, tells viewers that snow warning has been extended. This weather pattern
could go on for days.   Mercury plummets to 'Calgary-in-August' levels. Martial law is declared.   Victoria-area politicians announce plans to establish emergency command centre aboard HMCS Regina once it reaches Oahu.....