Winter in Kelowna

February 7, 2012

Yes, it has been a long while since I have last posted, but I have not left the old homestead much, leaving me without much to report on here in Kelowna.  And while many of my previous posts have been dedicated to a seething hatred of life here in Canada, there remains one aspect of living here that makes me smile - the natural beauty of this place.  So let me share with you some photographs taken around here this winter - though they honestly do the actual beauty justice...

Christmas Lights!

November 21, 2011

We have put up our Christmas lights!

We were going to wait until the weekend after American Thanksgiving (November 24th) to do it, but two factors led us to jump on it a little early:  neighbours and weather.

The first of the neighbours' lights went up aboot a week ago.  A few icicle lights here, a string of twinkle lights there.  Once 3 different hooses on the block had some lights up, I decided we should go ahead and get going on ours.

Plus, the weather was not getting any better.  As you have seen from the last post, we have been getting snow on an almost daily basis these past 2 weeks, and temps have not climbed out of the 20s (F).  So, instead of risking more snow and more frigid temperatures, Lisa and I decided that this last weekend would be a good time to put up our lights.

And we have quite a few to put up.  I personally LOVE Christmas lights - the more the merrier. I like to fancy myself Clark W Griswold of the movie "Christmas Vacation."  You can never have too many Christmas lights up on the hoose.!  And like Clark, I'm prone to hurting myself when I tackle this yearly project.  This year, I sprained my wrist and smashed my finger with the hammer.

Last year, in Portland, we had an ice storm near the end of December that knocked out 3/4 of our lights, forcing us to start from scratch, for the most part.  Taking advantage of the cheaper cost, we loaded up on 8 boxes of lights in Los Angeles back in October - and yes, Christmas lights ARE more expensive here in Canada (about 30-40% more!).  Combined with the strands that did make it, we thought we'd be set.

So we bundled up, made ourselves some travel mugs of cocoa, put on the holiday tunes, and went to work, trudging through 5 inches (or 12.7cm) of snow and ice. I had to laugh when Lisa got upset that we had to walk through her "pristine and pretty blanket of snow" in order to get things done.  After nearly 5 hours of work, our backs were aching, our hands were numb, and our noses were snotcicles.

And we had run out of lights.

So we decided to call it the "end of phase one" and spent Sunday afternoon (after the Packers game, of course) shopping for more lights.  Luckily, one of the budget stores here in Canada, Zellers, had a great sale on Christmas decorations, and we were able to grab an additional 10 strands of lights, plus a 6' tall inflatable snowman.  BTW, my American friends, to picture a Zellers, picture a Venture or Zayres, or the crapiest, scariest Kmart you can.  Lucky for Kelowna, in 2013, the Zellers will be turned into the Interior's first Target!

Anyway, today I finished putting up the lights and the inflatable snowman.  It took me an additional 3 hours of work.  Lucky for me, it was almost 30F today, and sunny, so a more comfortable work day (though my fingers were still numb and my nose still a snotcicle by the time I was done).

There are over 30 strands of lights (including those that top the entire fence), 4 lighted metal reindeer with automated head movement, a 6' tall inflatable snowman, candy cane lights along the driveway, lighted garland around the portico column, a moving Santa on the garage wall near the door, and lighted snowmen in front of the bushes.

I'm not sure what my neighbours will think.  If they didn't know before that we are Americans, they certainly will now...

I think Clark W Griswold would be proud.

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Winter Wonderland

November 17, 2011

Winter has arrived in the Okanagan, my friends.  And like the winters I remember growing up in Chicago, it came on like someone had flipped a light-switch.  One day, it was in the 60s (F) and the next, it was snowing, and since that first snow, it hasn't gotten above 40F here, with this last week being in the low 20s.  Having spent the last 10 years living in Florida, Las Vegas, and Portland, Oregon, temps like that were extremely rare.  Even in Oregon, the winter average was in the 40s, with snow being a (maybe) 3 times a year event.  Though, in Portland, even 1/16th of an inch would cause the city to literally shut down.  Since it rarely snowed there, there were only 3 plows for the entire county, and it appeared that there was only one person who actually knew how to drive them.  So the reporters would all gather on the top of Sylvan Hill (the highest commuter point on the highway system) and coverage of Snowmaggedon would commence.  These reporters would stay up there until they saw a single flake of snow, and then, they'd click into panic mode, warning motorists that certain death awaited them if they drove.  Schools shut down, as did all city and government services.  And the local tv stations showed nothing on air, for the entirety of the day, but those intrepid reporters camped out on Sylvan Hill.  All for 1/16th of an inch of snow.

This being Canada, and Kelowna being sandwiched between the Cascades and the Rockies, we knew we'd be getting snow up here.  We had been told, though, that it was a more mild winter area than most of Canada, and that we'd have a winter more like Portland than Chicago.  But in the last 10 days, we've had 5 days of snow, my awaking this morning to a full inch on the ground.  The temps are in the teens this morning (F) and the snow is thick, packing snow - meaning that as people drive on it, it will turn icy and slippery.  Considering how fantastically flummoxing an excursion in a car can be here in perfect weather, I shudder to think of what happens when Kelownans drive in the snow.  So, instead of venturing out among the toque-topped Canucks, I'll just stay home and take in the exquisite beauty of the Okanagan from my back porch.

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