Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

Tomorrow, or today... you know how it works, the Us & Them family is supposed to be heading off to the Republic of Dumbassistan to share Christmas with my family. We try to rotate one year here and one year there, but because of holiday schedules it's been two years since we've spend it up there. As I write this it is only the second official day of winter and we have already had three major snowstorms in the past two weeks. Guess what is forecast to start tonight?

The drive itself, from Richmond to Kamloops is not that bad most of the year.


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Unless it's winter. And snowing heavily. And freakin' cold. Here in the greater Vancouver area it does not snow very often, so when it does, everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Most people do not have experience driving in snow so they continue to drive like it's the middle of August and they are the only ones on the road. So first off we're facing a Mad Max/Escape From New York get away out of the city. Then it's out into the Fraser Valley which is strangely flat as the prairies. Winds out there can literally blow large trucks over and cause frequent white outs. If we manage to survive all that then we get to cross a fairly sizable mountain range. But is the fun over yet? Hell no! Because later on Christmas Day we are supposed to drive even farther north to where my mom lives. I just checked the temperature and it's a balmy -21 C(-5 F), which is warm compared to what they've had for the past few weeks. Our van doesn't have a block heater. (Dear friends from Florida, Mississippi, Arizona & Texas, at these temperatures your engine will freeze up. Block heaters keep your engine warm, for reals)

Am I whining? DAMN RIGHT I AM! I want to see my mommy! Shut up. Anyway, the trip is not looking good right now. We were worried about how the kids were going to take it, but the mountain of presents around the tree seems to be easing them through these troubled times.

On Sunday, Church Punk Mom tagged me with that 'take a picture of yourself RIGHT NOW' meme and even twittered me to tell me. Um, ya. I found it today as I was leaving the house. I only cheated by getting out of the house since I was supposed to be out there anyway and not checking email.



I know I'm supposed to be passing this on like most memes, but I'm not good at this part. And it's late.

Merry Christmas and happy rest of Chanukha.