Monday, March 19, 2007

Blizzard (and travel) days

Well, we're having another blizzard here in Iqaluit. And if Environment Canada is to be believed, it's going to continue into tomorrow. The city has effectively shut down. No equipment on the road, no taxis and very few businesses are open. The notable exception is Arctic Ventures, which I'm not certain would close even if the apocalypse were happening.

It's hard to get a read on how bad the blizzard is. I really think we live in one of the more sheltered places in town. There have been times we thought the weather wasn't too bad, but colleagues have told us that it was impossible to move around in their part of town. The gauge we've used is that if we lose sight of the Northwest Tel Building, then it's a fairly bad blizzard.

We can't see the building today, so I'm guessing it's a genuinely nasty blow-up. In Newfoundland this would be known as Shelagh's Brush, the last blow-out storm of the winter. One last punishment for those who thought winter was over. This isn't Newfoundland, although there are certainly enough Newfoundlanders here to make a run of it. And I sincerely doubt this is the last blizzard of this winter. Still, it feels a touch like home today.

So it's a lazy day here at the Chateau. Cathy took a nap after I put in the DVD of The Tick (the cartoon, not the short-lived Fox show). "It's not that I hate the show," she said. "I just don't see the point of it." Several my friends are no doubt picking themselves off the floor after fainting. I don't think this is a cause for divorce, but my lawyer friends can let me know one way or another.

Other things happening for those family and friends who care - we've booked our plane tickets home for the summer. First Air had some retarded two day sale last week where a return ticket to Ottawa was $950, taxes in. I appreciate that seems like a ridiculous price for most people for a three hour flight, but that's as cheap a plane ticket as I've seen since moving here. Cathy is flying out July 1 and returns August 20. So catch her while she's home. I'm back for a considerably shorter period of time. I fly out August 3 and return the 20.

The deal was good enough that we considered buying our tickets out at Christmas, but we haven't completely decided what we're doing for Christmas yet. "A cruise of some sort" is as far as we've planned, so we've held off.

Oh, we've also cleared up a small racket with Aeroplan and have finally figured out how many mile we have. We are more than half way to a pair of first class tickets to Australia. So the plan on going to Australia (or possibly New Zealand) in 2009 appears to be locked in nicely.

We're also flying out for a week in Ottawa in less than three weeks. Mireille, I'll drop you a line and we'll figure out lunch, supper or something for when we're there. Ottawa is going to be very low key trip. About as exciting as it's going to get is a lot of movies, lots of nice restaurants, several hours at Chapters and, God help us, Cathy wants to make an Ikea run.

Then again, I'm hitting three or four comic book stores, so I can't complain too much.

Anyway, I think I'll go put on a movie. Something to tide us over while the

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spoon!!

No, it's not grounds for divorce, unless she objects to you watching Tick. Has she read the comics? You really need to read the omnibi to appreciate the Tick. The cartoon is ok, but the comics are so much better than ok.

"Wet One? You look like the kinda guy who could use a wet one..."
I still say that to Little Man almost every time I change a diaper. Hubby thinks I'm nuts. He could be right.

Of course, after Andrew's recent allusion to the DM's LotR comic ( very funny, btw) I've been wandering around the house quoting Monty Python. Hubby gets about 75% of the referencs, and mostly just shakes his head.

What does Cathy think of MP?

Oh, and Milk and Cheese? Has she read Milk and Cheese?

God, I'm such a dork.

OM

Anonymous said...

There's a LoTR comic?!

towniebastard said...

Cathy, for the most part, doesn't go for comic books. I doubt she would get the Tick comic.

And get ready for the real piece of horror. I should almost do this as a "Conversations with Cathy."

(Watching an episode of Monty Python on PBS.)

Cathy: Do people actually find this show funny?
Me: (A look of utter bewilderment). Of course they do. It's quite possibly the most important comedy show in history.
Cathy: But it's not funny.
Me: (Stunned silence)
Cathy: But it's not funny. It's kind of stupid.
Me: That's the whole point!
Cathy: Ehhh. It's just not funny.

So clearly you understand my concerns here. Perhaps I should have done a more thorough job in the vetting process. Then again, if she had done a more thorough job, I suspect she never would have married me.

And no, Milk and Cheese is well beyond her grasp.

"Gin makes a man mean! Everyone booze up and riot!"

Hey, do you still have that t-shirt with Milk and Cheese on it?

And Colette, it's not a real comic. Someone took scenes from The Two Towers and put dialogue from The Princess Bride in word captions. Kind of amusing, but there is no LOTR comic for you to read.