Where's the little paper umbrella?

My spouse and I went to Maui, Hawaii many years ago and stayed at a wonderful hotel with a wonderful spa. At this wonderful spa they had a "water course" of about 20 different pools, baths and showers that you spent a half an hour playing around in before your spa treatment. I made it to about 7 or 8 of the different spots, including a shower that dropped water on you from about 2 storeys up - very heavy water, big splash, felt wonderful.

Today in Vancouver - and for the past 2 weeks - we have been experiencing a "Pineapple Express". A weather system of drenching rain brought to us directly from Hawaii. Very heavy water, big splashes, but depressing and not at all wonderful.

And the annoying part is, there is no cabana, there is no sun, there is no pool, except there are many many deep puddles. There are no pretty ladies coming around at precisely the right moment to ask if you want another fruity drink, as you sit in your cabana enjoying the sunny day without getting sunburnt.

This may be water from Hawaii, but the delivery mechanism is just wrong.

And the little paper umbrellas in the fruity drinks would just be wads of colourful paper spit balls...

Is it Summer again?

The calendar says October 7. This weekend is Thanksgiving - the harvest festival time in Canada. So why is the Cox Bay Beach in Tofino covered in surfers? (There are more in the water.)

This is a screen shot from Tofino today. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.) (See the Long Beach Lodge Resort website for the live webcam.)

I'm not there myself, and I can't surf (but would love to), but it's 15 degrees Celsius on the beach! For Tofino, that's balmy! It's cold in that water... but it's cold all year round. Dry suits are the clothing of choice at all times of the year when surfing Tofino.

I've just spent a warm sunny afternoon cleaning up the plants on my balcony, and I had to come back inside because it was too hot!

We missed having a lot of hot sunny days this summer, so are we having it now? This weather does not make sense.

Does a water tornado mean sushi rain?

Waterspouts or water tornados are a truly awesome thing to see. With the huge number of land based tornados in the US this year, it doesn't seem to be so odd that there are water ones around Australia as well.

But what about the fish?

Do fish get caught up by these water tornados? Well, yes, it seems they do! See this news article from the UK Daily Mail on the subject.

So what would you do if a whole lot of fish started falling on your head? They're probably dead from their flight... but they are fresh. Is it sushi time or not?

And what about the fish's take on this... just swimming around, minding their own fishy business, and whoosh, they're airborne! Flying fish. They probably think those silly fish that started walking millions of years ago were nutters, but now they're flying in the air.

There are fish that leap out of the water by themselves and attack people in boats in the US. Intentional flight, not just a gust of swirly wind.

Does this mean the fish are trying to take the next step on the evolutionary ladder? Is Nature trying to help? Should we sit them down and have a talk about this... is it really a good idea?

Is the surf really up?

It's been the coldest April on record here on the west coast of BC, but I was just watching my favourite webcam of Tofino - on the west coast of Vancouver Island - and there were two surfers walking on the beach with their surf boards! Even in the middle of the summer surfers need to wear wet or dry suits to surf Tofino, so that water is always cold, but it must OK for surfing now.

I've been hoping that summer would turn up sooner than later, so I guess this is good news!

Surfs up!

Is life really in full colour?

It has been such a slow Spring... I was wondering if my favourite webcam from Tofino, BC was actually still in colour, or if it had gone to black & white & a million shades of gray. This screen capture from a few moments ago shows actual colour on the right hand side! It's in colour! The world is in full colour again! Let the Celebrations begin!

Update: The screen shot I captured yesterday disappeared! And today we're back to monochrome... as you can see from the screen shot that I just put on this post (unless it disappears as well).

But there was colour, I saw it.

Of course, this shot is kinda cool because you can see little tiny people close to the waves about 1/3 of the way in from the left side of the picture. It's a big beach.

Won't those fried eggs get soggy?

It's been raining for um, when hasn't it rained? Oh yes, we had one day in a row of brilliant sunshine this month, so we went to a bird sanctuary to take photos.

But right now the weather forecast for Vancouver has these odd fried-egg like icons on it. They are round and yellow, and there is some white bits around the sides.

Won't those eggs get soggy in all this rain?

I don't believe it could actually mean sun is in the forecast, the icon shows up for about 4 days in a row!

Must be soggy eggs expected.

Is rain really breaking news?

It's October 25. This is Vancouver. It is raining. And this is news?

There is a rain warning out for Vancouver. And it's not the warning: "It's gonna rain until March" which, well... we know that. The warning is that it's going to rain more than 50mm today. OK, so it's a very wet day... yes, we have those.

The rain warning includes a request for people to keep storm drains clear of leaves and try not to put the wet leaves into the road, where it makes it slippery for cars. This is good advice any time it rains, and I can see where people new to the city need to be told this advice, but it's not just for today... until March would be the real advice - things other than leaves fall into storm drains after the fall is over!

For the average person living in Vancouver, this warning thing seems rather over the top... until you read that the Grouse Grind has been closed due to the heavy rain! Oh my goodness! The Grouse Grind! That's extreme! Think of all those people who won't be able to run up Grouse Mountain today! And it may be closed for a few days while they assess the trail!

Outdoor recreation curtailed by rain, that is the news that scares Vancouver.

I love this place!

Who are all those people?

While sitting in my local coffee shop, having my morning latte and reading a magazine, I saw a large group of people. They were wandering around looking rather aimless.

Eventually they came into the coffee shop, I supposed to get some coffee. This could have been a problem, because it's a small shop and most of the tables are for 2 people, and I would have felt the need to move if they were going to all try to sit down. I was almost finished my coffee, so, sigh, I prepared to vacate.

And then they were gone.

Wait a minute, where did they go? Did they all take their coffees outside? It's not bad out there today - it's about 8 or 9 degrees Celsius and not raining - but it's not really sit outside time yet - it's only January! But yes, they all went and sat outside.

A while later it donned on me... oh, it's Olympic time already! These must have been people who help the Olympic teams. I expect there are already some athletes here getting used to the time, the atmosphere, and the coffee in Vancouver. I can see non-locals thinking it's a good time to sit outside. These people did not strike me as athletes, but they were probably part of the team!

Wow! It's already started then! The pretty banners and the art installations are all set, so let's have some tourists!

Winter? What winter?

Yesterday I saw my first 2 trees with pink blossoms on my way to my yoga class. That was January 21, 2010!

What happened to winter?

The Winter Olympics start in about 3 weeks here. Unfortunately, up on one of the local mountains - Cyprus Mountain - they are going to hold some of the competitions. There really isn't any snow up there anymore. We're doing spring now, everyone! So there is a movement to save up shavings of ice from freezers and ice cream storage to collect enough to put on the mountain for the events. Actually, the organizing committee is fully prepared to air-lift in snow from other mountains for the events - that should cost a mint.

So where did the winter get to? Well, Europe is getting a wallop of winter. They aren't used to the amounts of snow they are getting. And the Sierra Mountains in California seems to be getting the snow we are supposed to get. (Yes, that would be in a region generally, typically, normally called the dessert.) So anyone want to dispute global climate change?

How hot is it?

After experiencing a rare electrical storm last Saturday - something that only happens every 5 years or so - yesterday we had the hottest day ever on record for Vancouver: 36 degrees Celsius or so. It's noon and 29 degrees Celsius right now, which feels like 35 degrees Celsius with the humidity, and it will get hotter this afternoon. The average for this time of year is 23 degrees Celsius, and we consider that a nice hot summer day.

I'm melting.

Vancouver is now populated by zombies. Forget the flesh-eating, slow-moving un-dead, we now have the cold-drink-guzzling, slowest-moving-ever, sleep-deprived, not-enough-energy-to-argue humans.

I want to shave my head.

Hair in Vancouver is limp and drenched with sweat. The bags under everyone's eyes, the sweat under their armpits, and the cold drink sweating in their hands is the defining mark of a Vancouver resident today.

BRB, I need to get some water.

It was 40 degrees Celsius on our balcony yesterday afternoon, it's enclosed, but we had the windows wide open. If there had been any air movement, it would have moved through, but there wasn't, so it didn't. The basil may have given up. The dill, coriander, and chervil have gone to seed. The mint may actually be dead! All of these plants are Mediterranean, but they can't take this heat either.

Maybe a cold shower would help.

Ever want to climb into your freezer? Ice packs are great, but they warm up too. Instead of an electrical heating blanket, does anyone make an ice blanket?

I like my winters rainy enough to make me miss the summer, and my summers hot enough that I miss the winter. Achieved. Check. Done. Move on. Get along little doggie. Mush. Off we go. Vamoose. (why does my spellchecker know how to spell vamoose?) Bring on the rain!

What is that sound?

It's been foggy here in downtown Vancouver for about a week now. It sometimes clears for an hour or two at a time, and the fog shifts in heavy and light pockets around buildings, but we've mostly just been socked-in. This has led to many weird sounds!

Just after midnight one night we were being kept awake by someone pounding plastic buckets. When I got up to find out what was happening I saw a man in the loading docs of the building across the alley from us pounding at these buckets - probably to empty them. I yelled at him to stop the noise - and he heard me! I don't have a booming voice and he was half a dozen stories below me! He said something like sorry, and I heard him! It was like we were in the same room!

We are very close to the water in the Straight of Georgia and Coal Harbour which has many ships sailing into it. We've heard fog horns sounding many times... but there have been many times that we've noticed that we don't hear any fog horns! I'm sure they've been going almost constantly for a week now but we don't always hear them.

There seems to be more police around during this fog - which makes sense, when you can't see more than a block in front of you, you know people can be doing illegal things almost anywhere - and probably are. The sirens from the police cars are either incredibly LOUD or tiny little sounds even when they speed by!

Fog is cool (downright cold, actually) and it really distorts sound.

I've been surfing around the web looking at fog related items. It seems that fog is quite the subject to study for people interested in sound. I just gotta say, wow. I grew up on the prairies so ocean related weather is fascinating for me.

This is a neat link - Open Source Audio has recordings of fog horns on Ferries going through Howe Sound from Bowen Island.

How many English words are there for precipitation?

The snow has finally gone away from Vancouver's West End! Three Cheers for the warmer weather! It's amazing how many people are swearing they will never complain about rain again... at least for a few days anyway (of course that lasts as long as the average new year's resolution, we do love to complain about the weather). So how many different ways can weather forecasters describe precipitation? This is the list I've come up with so far:

• accumulation
• blizzard
• blowing snow
• cloudburst
• deluge
• downpour
• drizzle
• electrical storm
• endless rain
• flood
• flurries
• fog
• freezing drizzle
• freezing rain
• gale
• hurricane
• ice pellets
• light rain
• lightning storm
• maelstrom
• mist
• monsoon
• periods of rain
• pouring
• precipitation
• rain
• rain showers
• rainfall
• raining buckets
• raining cats & dogs
• rainstorm
• relentless rain
• severe thunderstorm
• showers
• sleet
• slush
• snow
• snow dump
• snow showers
• snow squall
• snowfall
• sprinkle
• storm
• storm surge
• thunderstorm
• torrent

Are clouds darker when the sun is out?

It's getting late in the summer and the rains are slowly, but surely, coming back to Vancouver. So when it's sunny here now, there are often big dark clouds in the sky as well. It may just be a trick of the light, or an emotional reaction, but are these clouds darker than the average clouds we get in the winter?

Sometimes when you can see the clouds in the distance between buildings they are very dark and have little white clouds in front of them. If you didn't know better, you'd think the mountains were getting closer. Of course, if the mountains were sneaking up on you your other senses, beyond just vision, would be screaming out warning signs and shaking your very existence into a new view of the world. It's very unlikely that the mountains are stalking you.

If every cloud has a silver lining... the silver needs polishing, dear. These clouds are dark and angry.

But when the sun goes behind one of the clouds, the clouds don't seem as dark. Is this just nature's way of showing you that the upcoming months of clouds and rain are not nearly as scary as they could be if the sun was always coming out? Are we supposed to be happy about the days of flood-fill gray with no detail in the sky?

I think the clouds are darker when it's sunny. I also think I think way too much about the rain that is coming. Could it be that after 10 years of living in Vancouver the rain is getting to me? Hmm, I guess that's better than having mountains sneaking up on you when you don't expect it, she writes, looking over her shoulder.