[Quiet Man Cometh]

Heh. I definitely prefer to deal with snow when I'm up north. The people up there know how to to deal with it.

Everyone knows hot to drive in the snow. It's so light and fluffy you can sweep it of decks and things. Since it tends to be below 30*C often, road salt doesn't work so trucks go by with little rocks to add texture instead and people just drive on the packed snow instead, which is easier than on slush and tends to keep the ice down. It does mean that everything elevates by about 3 inches or so. One year the city decided to spend the snow removal budget on renovation for city hall since the last few years had been relatively mild. We then had so much snow that we lost two lanes on the main road as they got covered and the pile outside our old house reached the roof.

Spring on the other hand, sucks. Since the snow packs so hard when it's moved it melts from the inside out, so you might step on a section and then crash through into a mini puddle or river; there are rocks all over the place from the snow trucks (seriously, they get piled up by street sweepers and the city picks them back up again since there are so many. Our neighbour across the street used to run out and snag a couple wheelbarrow full each year. In three years he re-paved his driveway) and the dirt from the trucks and such that's been trapped in the snow finally dries out and flies in your face with each wind gust.

I usually say the seasons up there are sun, snow, and a couple months of brown in between.


Ari, I said in my last post that I couldn't really pick between the two places. :P. I'd say I prefer it a little more here, but it's not always an easy choice. I do prefer the humidity down here compared to the extreme dryness up there. My skins isn't prone to cracking and I don't have to get up and drink as often in the middle of the night. My hair is better too. On the other hand, my health is overall better up there. When I was on dialysis, the after effects were less, and my lungs were better (not that they're bad now but I could run further without getting a cough.) I never thought of Vancouver as being polluted really, until I started moving between the two places. The moisture could also explain the cough though, and I live in North Van so I'm not directly in the city.