Commuting
A little while I moved a little further away from the office. This has some advantages as well disadvantages. My new place has a partial view of the Ottawa River and is twice as large as my old place. One of the disadvantages is that the commute is a little longer. But it satisfies one of my goal of being able to run, blade, ski, snowshoe and cycling to work depending on the season. My commute recently has been a little more challenging over the last two weeks. I had only been living in my place for a few days when the transit company decided to go on strike just as our first major snowstorm descended on the city. This created major havoc as the bus drivers decided to protest in front salt/sand depot in unplowed and unsanded roads. I’ve considered this situations as a bit of an opportunity as it has allowed my to explore my new neighborhood on foot, something, I otherwise would not have done. Each day I hike 6 miles/10 kilometers round trip to the office using I can in about an hour depending on the footing. By bus this commute would normally take about 15 minutes. Each day has been different as I’m making good use of my iPod as some days I listen to swing music, jazz and occasionally a string of symphonies. I have learned about the various plows and sanding trucks the city uses to keep the roads clear. I’m starting to see familiar faces and can sort of gauge who is late and who is early. I have been able to recall what black ice looks like and what consistency of snow is the most and least slippery. As you can see much goes through my mind on my hour to and from the office. I’ve been comparing notes with my briefer as to who is loosing the most weight as a result of our extended commutes. My daily adventures will most likely end soon as I head home for the holidays at the end of the week and the city will eventually have to settle with the strikers. While the drama continue I still have to see what it us like to winter run to the office. I also openly wonder what expressions I would get as I visibly stow my snowshoes in my cube after a commute through the hinterland along the Ottawa River.
Innovations in snowplows
On my morning commute, I saw something that got me excited and that is, the latest innovation in snowplows. The traditional setup is to have a concave blade that can plow straight ahead, plow right or plow left. The new plows have the blade split into two sections each which can be independently angled. What this means is that at a twist of the joystick the blade can change to a “V” shape or the shape of an arrow or one part at a 90 degree angle and the other straight ahead or whatever combination meets the needs of the situation.
Snow
Late last weekend we had our first major snowstorm of the year. Over the course of 24 hours we received a foot of snow. I went around town wearing my Sorel Snowlion boots which can conquer even the toughest snow drifts. A couple of days later one of my favorite toys appeared on the scene. Every time I see it I get excited and recall my childhood days. The mystery toy is an a href=”http://www.citysnowblowers.com/machine_specs.htm”industrial grade snowblower/a. Once the snow starts to accumulated on the curb and becomes a hazard out come the a href=”http://www.championmotorgraders.us/content/ourstory.html”graders /awhich move the snow into the middle of the road where a snowblower blows the snow into a passing dump truck. The snow is transport to a snow dump which sort of looks like this a href=”http://www.citysnowblowers.com/gallery2/pages/DCP_1389_JPG.htm”picture/a with the color inverted. The snow sits in huge mountain until in melts in the spring. One of these snow dumps is located near where I live so I usually take a moment to see how to has changed from day to day.
