Not so 'hot' right now... I hope you guys get your fair share of sunshine soon!
The temperature is 10°C (50°F), but it feels warmer. I was wearing just a T-shirt below a thin wind jacket, and I felt like I was going to start sweating if I walked too fast.
Not bad for a city that lies a thousand meters high, with a frozen river and a snowy mountain range in sight.
Actually we're just 7°C below Orinda, California. Allison and Aïda, when we go outside I'm pretty sure we all feel the same temperature.
Being in San Francisco I escaped the first really cold Canadian weather. While my co-workers were working outside in -30°C, I was on the plane back to Calgary praying for milder weather. Not because I fear working in -30°C (that's been delegated to my parents ;-) I actually hope I'll get to do that, but in due time, after my body's had a chance to adapt to the climate.
Lo and behold, followed 2 weeks of nice almost-warm weather (say, 0-10°C in the sun). Apparently Calgary has this unique climate where Winter is regularly broken by warm sunny periods ("Chinook", a.k.a. warm wind).
What follows are a few pictures from my last work trip to an oil site near Edmonton. Note how the weather changes on our way back from the site (snow & fog, -10°C, no Chinook) to Calgary (Chinook):
As most of you know, I was invited for Thanksgiving by family in ... San Francisco! It was good to see them back after over 2 years. It was a week of outdoor trips and delicious dining. Once back in Calgary, I had constant cravings for (similarly) tasty food. It's finally over now - after there were no more snacks left in my cupboard!
Guys, thanks for the wonderful time, and see you back soon!
I just changed the title from 'Hell breaks loose', which was a little too dramatic. ;-) But hey, I was doing groceries yesterday night, in the snow and the cold, and it was no fun.
Yesterday's warm and sunny weather changed into cold and snow, and it will continue all week, with temperatures around -12°C. So Winter's here, the brown prairies have turned white, and this place will never be the same again...
...at least until April next year. Glad I snatched those hikes last weekend!
It's -10°C tonight, I'm walking to the barber, and the moist, windy cold bites into my face and hands. The snowy city is beautiful, and for reminds me of "Home Alone" (the movie) for some reason. Only christmas music is missing (oh yeah, they had it at Sears yesterday night).
By the way, I live in the dark building on the right of the Calgary Tower (in the picture above).
Look at the breath of the land here! And realize this can't be caught in a picture. It's like this wherever you look.On to the pass:
Quite an adventure for me to be high up in the snow! Had to put cleats under my boots to have grip on the snow and ice.
First day on the job with a small company to put anti-leakage around oil installations. We drove the entire day through the brown, brown, brown prairies of Alberta, to Wabasca, a bit southeast of Fort McMurray. We're almost 1000km north of Calgary, and with Winter hour enacted yesterday, we were driving in the dark at 5PM! There's snow, and I saw the contours of the facilities, but it's too dark to see much - we'll have to wait till tomorrow. I'm now in a work camp - pretty cool! Ta ta for now because I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow.
The work is hard and dirty, but I love it! I'm really fortunate to work here:
I actually made that last (oops, unshaven!) picture to put on my resume (fake it till you make it!), but then I remembered you can't do that here (no personal info whatsoever because companies don't want to get sued for discrimination). By the way, don't expect too many pictures from oil sites like this one. Usually pictures are not allowed. A good thing I was persistent here...
So you all wanted to know what exactly we're doing here? We're building & spraying a surface below the huge oil tank, to catch any oil that may leak from valves...
That's all from me folks! ;-)
