Starbug
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Posts posted by Starbug
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It's amazing how tiring it is to walk a few blocks on unshoveled sidewalks. Especially going uphill. It always catches me off guard because I don't expect it to be that much more difficult.
But the bus ride over to the mainland was quite pretty, as were what I could see of the islands in the poor visibility. I LOVE the look of snow on trees.
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So apparently buses in the Victoria transit fleet don't have snow tires, according to one of the drivers I had today (see story below - it was quite amusing). When they're telling people to stay off the roads, how can the buses not have snow tires??
Anyway, I had the awesomest bus driver on the way into town today. I've had him before - he likes to chat over the PA while driving. Starts off with the usual "Welcome to BC Transit. My name is Dan and I'll be your driver today. Time is <time> and we're currently on schedule to arrive at <place> at <time>. The current weather is..."
Today he followed the current weather with a weather forecast. Got to Sunday and it went something like this:
"We're expecting lots of snow on Sunday, and you know how that makes us transit drivers feel with no snow tires on our buses...about as nervous as Stephen Harper in a gay bar."
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This city really does go crazy when it snows. From one Times Colonist article,
http://www.timescolonist.com/Technology/So...9909/story.htmlPeople have been flocking to Big O Tires on Quadra Street to equip their vehicles with snow tires, said owner Kevin Jensen as the snow lingered yesterday. He said the garage has installed snow tires on 800 cars in the last five days, leaving him with a pile of nearly bald tires that reached the ceiling."The supply is not keeping up with the demand," he said. "Usually you can't sell more than a few hundred [snow tires] in Victoria."
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Some people are putting chain-like grips on their shoes to combat the icy sidewalks. Mountain Equipment Co-op was completely sold out of Yaktrax, a contraption that slips onto your shoes and bites into the ice with tiny metal teeth.
Hats, gloves and even heavy down jackets are flying out the door, said Sarah-Jane Chilton, the store's general manager.
"We've sold more [boots] just last week than we would in a regular Victoria winter," she said. "It only takes a couple of days of cold to get the masses out purchasing winter items."
And the best letter to the editor ever (it's even being read on the radio)
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/lette...9997/story.htmlGet out of my way -- I'm driving my SUV in the snowIt has been two years since we have had a decent amount of snow and the first since I bought my large four-wheel-drive SUV.
Now that I have a great SUV, I will be an amazing snow driver. Never mind that the average Victorian only averages a day of snow-driving practice a year, I will be able to drive the snowy streets of Victoria at full speed.
Yes, I will be that SUV that passes you in the unplowed lane, as you barely keep control of your own car.
Trust me, I am not in a hurry, just allowing everyone to admire my superior snow-driving skills.
If you slide into another lane, don't do it around me. I will be driving at normal speed, and will be not able to react fast enough.
Most likely I will hit you, and you will be at fault, because I have the great snow-driving SUV and you don't!
Check both ways before going through the green light. I will be going so fast I will not be able to stop as usual and will just plow right through the red.
For pedestrians walking on the street because no one shovelled the sidewalk, don't worry if you see me coming at full speed around the corner with my wheels spinning. I am a great snow driver!
No need to jump out of the way. I will not hit you! Someone else might, but not me!
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What about the radio? Doesn't Victoria have a station that would air the games?
I have PVR so I didn't miss any of the game. I won't get to watch the Linden ceremony until another day though.
I just would rather have been home than traipsing through town, wondering how the heck I was going to get home.
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Everybody stay home and watch the Canucks game. :D
But that requires getting home. And the buses were running 30+ minutes behind, then stopped running for most of an hour, when I was trying to get home.
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Arg!!!!
I hate how unprepared this city is for snow.
I left work at 6:30, took me 2 minutes to walk to the bus stop. Got on a bus at 7:15. 4 stops later, bus stopped and the driver said all buses in the city were shut down for at least half an hour. So I walked from Oak Bay Junction to downtown, waited around there a bit for the first of a cab to come by or my next bus to start going. Ended up taking a cab.
I wonder if I can get some sort of refund from work for needing to take a cab home when having to work late...
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METRO VANCOUVER - The City of Vancouver continues to work around the clock salting and plowing major roads following today’s ongoing snowfall that has resulted in hazardous driving conditions in some areas.
Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and portions of Vancouver Island Wednesday, predicting between five and 15 centimetres to fall today, followed by freezing temperatures overnight that is expected to see the mercury plunge to minus-8 on Thursday. A snowfall warning has also been issued for the Southern Interior, while further north toward Prince George it's clear but "bitterly cold," said meteorologist David Jones.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Environment Canada issued a blizzard warning for the western Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford.
Murrary Wightman, manager of street operations for the city of Vancouver, said the city has crews working 24 hours to clear the major commuter roads and bus routes, such as Granville, Knight and Kingsway. The side streets, however, are still piled with snow and likely won't be dealt with until the city has the major roads under control, probably tomorrow.
"The major roads are either slushy, which is still driveable, or the salt's working enough that many of the heavily travelled streets you're driving on wet pavement," Wightman said.
The heavy snowfall led to gridlock, delays and accidents across the region this morning as drivers tried to navigate the snowy streets. West Vancouver Police are dealing with several motor vehicle accidents, including a jackknifed tractor trailer westbound on Highway 1 near Eagleridge Drive and a four vehicle accident at 15th Street and Inglewood Avenue. Highways maintenance crews are actively plowing and sanding, but have advised police that the current heavy snowfall is resulting in very slippery conditions on even major roadways such as Lion’s Gate Bridge.
The heavy snowfall was affecting transit service system-wide early Wednesday afternoon, TransLink reported.
Buses were delayed on routes throughout Metro Vancouver, particularly to higher elevations, such as North and West Vancouver, Burnaby and Coquitlam.
Highways ministry spokesman Jeff Knight said drivers should be prepared for winter conditions with good winter tires. He warns visibility is poor in the Fraser Valley as a a result of high winds and blowing snow. A section of Highway 1 eastbound at the Herrling Island turnoff near Chilliwack was closed early this morning after a collision and traffic is being diverted to Highway 7 via Highway 9. A section of southbound lane of the Coquihalla near Hope has also been closed as a result of a collision.
SkyTrain has moved to Stage 2 of its Snow Plan, which means all stations are being attended by staff to respond to any weather-related issues and crews are de-icing the doors at the King George and Waterfront Stations. Managers are monitoring the situation in case any further action is needed. HandyDART service is scaling back to essential-services in all areas, only taking priority medical calls like kidney dialysis appointments. Albion Ferry is still shut down because of the ice.
At Vancouver International Airport, crews are busy removing snow and de-icing aircraft as well as clearing the runways. Flights were able to take off early this morning but the snow led to several delays and cancellations after 10 a.m. Flights to Victoria were cancelled this morning while travellers heading to Calgary and other points east as well as Comox and Yellowknife are facing delays.
Airport Authority spokeswoman Alana Lawrence suggests travellers check the website to ensure their flights are on time or call the general inquiry line at 604-207-7077.
Meanwhile, highway crews continue to salt the roads but warn travellers to expect compact snow on all routes.
The City of Vancouver was warning residents to expect garbage-collection delays due to icy conditions on many roads and alleys and the prospect of more snow. If garbage or recycling or yard trimmings are not picked up on their appointed day, the city is asking residents to bring containers back onto their property until the next scheduled pickup day. The city also asked residents to clear sidewalks of ice and snow and help neighbours who find this difficult.
Because of deteriorating road conditions Wednesday, Surrey school district cancelled night school at Queen Elizabeth Secondary School (4 p.m. and 7 p.m.), Surrey Connect (4 p.m. classes), Learning Centre evening classes (Cloverdale, South Surrey-White Rock, Newton) and Surrey College.
http://www.timescolonist.com/Snow+snarls+M...6673/story.html
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It's snowing again in Victoria. Not sure how long it's been snowing for - haven't looked out the window in a while.
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It's a freaking mess in Victoria. Warm and pouring rain, and every streetcorner is buried under two feet of filthy slush. Supposedly this is all going to be locked into glaciers of mud when the temperature goes down to -5º tonight. Nasty.
It's terrible! To cross a street downtown, you've got to wade through a 6 ft wide swath of slush to get off the sidewalk, then another 6 ft swath of slush to get back on the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
As horrible as it looked having my dress pants tucked into my boots, I was glad I did it. My pants would have been soaked to the knees if I hadn't. (I changed into different shoes once I got to work.)
I love snow, but I hate the slushy mess it leaves behind here.
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Why are the older double-decker buses so cold??
That's 2 mornings in the last 2 weeks where the coldest part of my commute was not waiting for a bus anywhere but sitting on the lower level of a double-decker bus. My feet were frozen by the time I got to work this morning, despite not being cold while waiting for that bus. Last week, the driver decided to turn the air on shortly after I got on the bus, then there was really cold air blowing around an already cold bus.
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It's days like this that I love having a heated bathroom floor. Especially when it's just been on before I get in the door. I threw my slippers under the bath mat to warm up, changed into fleece comfy clothes, then put on my nice toasty slippers to finish warming up my feet.
And I know the roads aren't great, but I don't think they're bad enough for chains - I saw a couple vehicles driving around with chains on the way home from work.
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man...is it just me or did everyone forget what happens when it snows from last year's experience? I know that there will be SOME people that moved here within the last year...but dammit people get some snow tires on your vehicles already.
Saturday night was too funny for me. I'm putting around on my snow tires without any problems, and laughing at 50k$ + BMW's and Mercedes and other such vehicles stuck on the side of the road, snow wiped off the window (but not off the hood, roof, etc) and the people inside looking very very confused.
I mean, come on people, have your snow tires on a few weeks before the snow, deal with the pain of having an extra set of tires, and quite possibly save money not having to deal with your car in the ditch.
My dad's biggest complaint with driving in the snow was always about the fact that a lot of westcoasters think all-season tires are good for snow because they're all-seasons. All-season tires =/= snow tires in the snow.
He also complained a lot about drivers slowing down before an uphill section instead of speeding up to get up the hill. One time I was with mom, we went by people who had got out of their cars and were trying to stop other cars on a hill to tell the drivers someone got stuck on the uphill and cars were having trouble getting through. Some guy was waving at her to stop and she said there was no way she was going to stop and just ignored him and went up the hill.
Personally, I don't drive in snow. Did it once, didn't much enjoy it. These days I'm more than happy to let others do the driving, but if I needed to, my brother has snow tires for his truck (it's not stealing if he's given me a set of keys, right?).
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Dress warmly today everyone. Layering is your friend.
Yeah I should have put on a second pair of socks. But then I'd have had to take them off when I got to work and that'd just be annoying.
All of a sudden I'm not quite so excited about going to Ottawa in February.
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Some F'ing retard in a PT cruiser just backed up the malahat for 2 f'ing hours. took me 4+ hours to get from parksville to Langford...normally a 1:45 min ride.
A snow plough may of went into the ditch too.. those fools have no clue. so un prepared this place is for snow.....
My favorite "vehicle in the ditch" was still the one I saw I think 2 winters ago. The 'hat, of course, had lots of snow on it, and there was packed snow on the roads (plows couldn't keep up). Some semis had pulled over because they couldn't go any further with those road conditions, and there were a number of cars parked on the side of the road or in the ditch. So dad's driving us along, and the parked vehicle that really caught our attention was the motorcyle, partially buried in the snow. Who tries to go over the Malahat in the snow on a motorcycle??? Unfortunately we were on a bit of a hill so dad wouldn't stop for me to take a picture.
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What you can't see is the blowing snow from all the wind...
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It's really coming down here in West Richmond. And I'm only 1 km from the water.
I'm closer to the water than that (1-3 blocks depending on which route you take), albeit in Victoria, and the snow is coming down quite heavily. Or it was a few minutes ago when I looked.
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There's finally snow on the ground at my place!
This would be only the 3rd time in the last 2 years (3 if you count the winter just now starting) that I've seen snow on the ground at my place.
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this picture is just stunning.
amazing to see how even the most brutal war grounds can turn peaceful
rip
Indeed. This was also the scene of much fighting (Menin Gate is off to the right of this photo):
This wall has stood (if I remember correctly) since the 1100's or 1300's. At one point along the wall (beyond the cylindrical structures) it curves back into itself and there's a tunnel that goes down to the water for boats.
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Ypres
The lone tombstone in the first post was at the Essex Farm cemetery, right next to the bunkers where McCrae wrote his poem.
Each of those bunkers shown in the first post open into a tiny little cave that looked like this:
Some more photos of the Menin Gate - you should be able to get an idea of the size of the monument from these (those are 3 storey buildings in the first image)
If you look really carefully in this image, you can see a city worker in yellow and black picking up trash (right where the embankment meets the Menin Gate).
The lines you see on the walls in this image are inscriptions of soldiers' names. What is shown here is only the top portion of the Menin Gate; there's another storey or two dug out of the embankment I was standing on when I took this.
More inscriptions on the stairs on just one side of the monument:
Somewhere on one of the staircases (one on each side of the gate) was a section of wall dedicated to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
And in addition to what's listed on the sign next to the monument,
Soldiers who died in similar circumstances after Aug 15, 1917 are on the Memorial Wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery - that wall contains another 35,000 names of fallen Commonwealth soldiers.
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After going to the Vimy Ridge monument, I then visited the cemeteries and the trenches.
The first cemetery is where the visit really started to get emotional. There are 746 graves here, and many of them read simply "An unknown soldier of the Great War" and "Known unto God" (same as the tombstone at Essex Farms shown in the first post). Couple that with the names I read on the monument...I got teary-eyed.
At the end of the cemetery:
I was there 3 weeks after Remembrance Day, and the wreaths were still present. The poppy wreaths had hand-written notes in plastic bags (for preservation) and that is where I got the title for this thread: You gave your today for our tomorrow. Thank you. Reading that was when tears started to fall.
Much of the grounds haven't been landscaped since the war, and the craters from artillery shelling are still very much visible:
The trenches have been cleaned up and maintained over the years. It's amazing how beautiful they look now, given what they looked like during the war. The Canadian and German front lines were marked, and I'd had no idea just how close they were. I could have thrown a baseball between the two without any difficulty.
The only indication of how the trenches once looked:
Here are the nearby French and German cemeteries. The French and German soldiers were moved to large cemeteries, while British Commonwealth soldiers were buried in smaller cemeteries scattered all over the countryside.
French cemetery, 45 000 graves (right next to another British Commonwealth cemetery):
German cemetery 50 000 graves:
I saw these last two places because I got a ride back to town from a local man (retired, I think) who feels so strongly for what Canada did that he spends his days going by the Vimy Ridge train station (knows the schedules by heart, according to the girl working at the interpretive centre) and offering Canadian tourists a ride to the memorial. On the way back to town, he stopped to show me these two places.
So many travelers make use of the fact that Canadians are well-received in Europe but have no idea as to why that is so. It's because of what our nation accomplished in WWI and WWII. Sadly, I think they (Europeans) may have a better appreciation of that than many Canadian citizens do.
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More photos, or in the case of a few in the first post, more explanations. Some of this is recycled from last year's Remembrance Day thread, with the photo links updated.
Vimy Ridge
Starting with the monument itself, designed by Canadian sculptor and architect Walter Seymour Allward:
Carved on the walls of the monument are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France and whose final resting place was then unknown. Standing on the monument’s wide stone terrace overlooking the broad fields and rolling hills of Northern France, one can see other places where Canadians fought and died. More than 7,000 are buried in 30 war cemeteries within a 20-kilometre radius of the Vimy Memorial. Altogether, more than 66,000 Canadian service personnel died in the First World War.Designed by Canadian sculptor and architect Walter Seymour Allward, the monument took eleven years to build. It rests on a bed of 11,000 tonnes of concrete, reinforced with hundreds of tonnes of steel. The towering pylons and sculptured figures contain almost 6,000 tonnes of limestone brought to the site from an abandoned Roman quarry on the Adriatic Sea (in present day Croatia). The figures were carved where they now stand from huge blocks of this stone. A cloaked figure stands at the front, or east side, of the monument overlooking the Douai Plain. It was carved from a single, 30-tonne block and is the largest piece in the monument. This sorrowing figure of a woman represents Canada—a young nation mourning her dead. Below is a tomb, draped in laurel branches and bearing a helmet and sword.
They've been restoring the monument over the last few years, and I believe they went back to that same limestone quarry and opened up a new seam to get materials for the restoration - the plates containing names were removed from the monument and new ones were hand-carved.
The land the Vimy Ridge Memorial is on (monument, cemeteries, tunnels (closed when I was there), trenches, and interpretive centre) has been granted "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes":
It's hard to get an idea for the size of the monument from photos, but it's huge; the 11 285 names on the monument are all inscribed on the base (the widest part) alone. I think the base was higher than I am tall (I'm 5'3"), or comparable in height.
Here's a close-up of the base of the monument
Some of the names were difficult (emotionally) to read, in particular the areas where you'd see the same surname written 10, 12, or 16 times (Cameron, Campbell, David were common last names).
The back side of the monument is pictured in the above photos. The light made it difficult to get a good, detailed picture of the front, so here's a close-up look. The wreath is resting against a tomb of an unknown soldier.
The sorrowful woman above the tomb is there to represent Canada, "a young nation mourning her dead." Here's a close-up of her, and also a bit of the view from the front side of the monument.
The monument was built on Hill 145, the highest point in the 14km long Vimy Ridge. It was the last part of the ridge to fall. Despite the haze, you can get an idea of the view and why it was such a critical point in the front line.
This is a close-up of the top of one of the pylons:
Each of the figures on the pylon has a specific purpose; more information on the symbolism can be found here.
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There is already a thread, and frankly, its way better than this one: http://forum.canucks.com/index.php?showtopic=214673
Aww thanks!
Please share your stories as well so that the lives of the men and women who served our country live on.I have a different sort of story. I have family currently serving in the military, but none who served during the world wars (that I'm aware of). But my grandmother's family played a huge role in the Dutch Resistance.
General Sir John Winthrop Hackett might well owe his life to my great great aunts - they took him in and nursed him back to health over a period of 4-5 months. He was smuggled out of a hospital in German territory by my great uncle ('Piet van Arnhem' in the WWII section of this page) and to the home of the de Nooijj sisters. My grandmother stayed in that house for a short while, though never actually met this man as she was quite young and he was a HUGE security risk to the family. Being caught harboring low-rank 'underdivers' (ie jews) would lead to one's house being blown up. Harboring a British officer was grounds for death. Yet they cared for him anyway, despite the fact that their house backed onto the German police headquarters in Ede. Although he had contact with Allied Forces special agents during his recovery period, it was the Dutch underground that got him out of Holland and back into Allied hands. Hackett has written a memoir, I was a Stranger, on this particular experience and I finally got hold of a copy to read a few months ago. It was a fantastic read, and really interesting to see some of what the Dutch Resistance movement was able to accomplish.
One of my great uncles earned a medal for his part in the resistance. Unfortunately, he had also been captured during the war, and tortured in an effort to gain information about the resistance; he was never the same person after he returned from that. I never met him, only his widow, but I was told that in later years "his mind had started to go." From what I gathered, most of the family considered it a blessing in disguise when he passed because it meant he could finally be at peace.
Setting aside time in my trip to see Vimy Ridge and Ypres was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I only had 4 months in Europe, 3 of those working, but once I found out I was going, Vimy Ridge was the first place I put on my list of places to see, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. The monument and surrounding park is amazing, and it's impossible to not be affected by it. I'll post more photos in a bit, once I find the little brochure that's got some info I want on it.
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That sounds interesting you have a link to the storyThe magazine After The Battle published a photographic history of the site following the repatriation of Canada's Unknown Soldier in 2000, which included a ceremony at the Vimy Memorial. One of these photographs depicted the memorial's most notorious visitor: Adolf Hitler. On June 2, 1940, as his armies were conquering France, Hitler personally toured the Vimy Memorial and its preserved trenches. Hitler had been twice decorated for bravery as an infantryman during the Great War and saw combat in the general vicinity of Vimy, often against Commonwealth soldiers in similar trenches. While the German leader had no qualms about destroying culturally significant locations in France including many French war monuments which were torn down by the Nazis, the Vimy memorial carried no messages of Allied triumph over Germany. So it was protected by Hitler, who assigned special units of the Waffen SS to guard the monument from defacement by regular German Wehrmacht soldiers. University of Ottawa historian Serge Durflinger notes that "Hitler admires it immensely, he says so at the time. As a result, the Germans respect[ed] the memorial all through the war."
edit:
from http://www.harrypalmergallery.ab.ca/galwar...galwarvimy.html
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Excellently done. I'm definately dressing up this year.. had to last year, but this year it is voluntary.
Don't have a poppy yet, as I have no means of acquiring one, but I choose to show my appreciation with words.
I'm definately watching a couple of documentaries during 11/11.
Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell is a good one. It first aired 2 years ago. The tunnels they show in the film were closed to the public when I was at Vimy Ridge.
I watched Passchendale last night.It was tough to watch.
That monument was one of the ones that Hitler did not allow anyone to defile during WW2. Sacred place.
Great thread starbug. Great thread.
I know - that's pretty amazing. The monument (and grounds) is definitely worth the trip if you're in Europe; it can easily be done as a day trip from Paris. The Menin Gate, in Ypres, is pretty impressive too. In amongst the 55k names, I actually managed to find the section of wall dedicated to the Princess Pat's.
The first two stops in my 3 week tour (post co-op workterm in Geneva) were Vimy Ridge and Ypres - those were two rather emotional days. I wouldn't trade them for anything though.
OMG Snow?
in Off-Topic General
Posted
More snow and more snow and more snow...
http://www.timescolonist.com/respite+sight...2079/story.html