Do You Like To Cuddle?

We were walking across the Walmart parking lot when we were approached by a CTV interview and camera team. They were on a mission asking us the very same question. Huh….?  Not an everyday question to receive I guess, but truthfully I answered “yes”. Their next question nearly blew me out of my socks: “Would you pay somebody to cuddle with you?”  Hell….no! Why not? There’s no need for Pete’s sake, we have been married for nearly 30 years. Background for this survey was a Vancouver-based company who had already offered their cuddly services in the western metropolis, now wishing to establish a branch office in Edmonton. Now, what would be YOUR answer? And here’s a CBC link to it. I don’t want to ridicule the idea of it. There might be situations when individuals are under enormous emotional distress with no friends and family around. But just to get a Wednesday evening cuddle….. I would certainly not enlist such services.

A Cold Snap

The continuing story is that Alberta is going through a sudden cold snap which makes even seasoned Albertans go cold – ice-cold! We just went from around –20 (-4F) to staggering –38C, (-36F)  even –40C (-40F) in certain places. Wind chill brought it even further down to –45C. (-49F)  Now, folks this is bone-chilling cold. Even short stays outside can give you serious frostbite if parts of your skin are exposed. Frost smoke is wavering through the city and the nights are frightening cold with a big round moon laughing to it all. According to Bea Molly started limping along on 3 legs, finally laying down with the freezing 4th paw under her to warm it up. No weather to even let your dog outside! How is camping in these temperatures? It is an ADVENTURE!  Our water line is now frozen, but we have 2 big water containers inside. Inside temps are staying around 20C (68F), and that is the max we get at these temps. Of course one has to watch the contents of the propane cylinders. Like last night Bea noticed the furnace didn’t work anymore. Tanks empty! But I have a two-bucket-wife. She got dressed (while I slept) and changed propane tanks on the trailer tongue. We were back in business! Our vans are still starting even without being plugged in. Not too bad! For further info stay tuned!

A Most Unwelcome Turn In The Weather

Over the past 24 hours we have experienced a drop of temperature from +3C (37F) to –20C (-4F) With the falling temperatures we also got 20cm (8Inch) of snow, which as of this morning was blowing across the highway, causing visibility problems. On my way to the city this morning I haven’t seen a single snowplow and city traffic is following ruts in deep snow. While Bea still has to make her way through to the other side of Edmonton, I have the day off. Luckily we decided to purchase new winter tires for her van, otherwise there would have been no way to negotiate through the snow. Alberta has been awakened to the new year in the most shocking way. Two multiple murders occurred, one in Edmonton, the other in Calgary, each with 7 people killed. It is hard to fathom what’s going on in our society. Many of these kind of incidents seem to have their roots in social problems, others happen in crime related environments. Some problems seem to have been imported with immigrants from other countries as they have cultural roots. We hope that YOUR new year will be peaceful and that you stay healthy.

2015

Hey, we did it again – sleeping into a New Year. Last time I can remember that we stayed up until midnight was actually 15 years ago. We were in some snowy hills of southern Norway way out in the boonies looking southward and seeing a few fireworks shooting up in the distance. We were facing a new century and everybody thought that the techno-computer-world would crash with terrible consequences for our entire civilization. Well we all know that this doom and gloom scenario never became reality. The world continued to exist happily ever after. Of course, on a day like this we think of our friends who are way down south in the Desert South-West. We miss their company and think longingly of all the good times we had with them. While January 1 2015 is an extremely warm day in and around Edmonton, we see that morning temperatures in the southern parts of California and Arizona are not so different of what we are having right here. In fact, it was above the freezing mark this morning. Naturally, we will not have a significant warm-up during the day. Temps will stay around the same level all day long. Long-time Albertans I have spoken to say that this winter marks itself as an unusual mild version  so far. This month will be our last month living in our trailer this winter as we will move into a house on January 17. We are looking forward to this, even though there have been very small problems with staying in the trailer. Many of our neighbours seem to have left their trailers and gone home for the holidays. Some of the rigs have not been in use for weeks. My back problem has all but disappeared. It seems that the continuous work has helped to mitigate the pain.  Let’s hope it stays that way. Best wishes for 2015 and thanks for keeping up with this blog.