I really shouldn’t keep writing about the snow, white, crisp, clean, and beautifully cold — but, alas, when I have managed to score yet ANOTHER day off (what is this? three now?) because of the… ahem… winter weather, I can’t quite help but wonder at the white stuff. Sure, people can’t drive through the hilly streets of this city when all they have are summer tires, and lead-feet, but c’mon… it’s a few inches of frozen rain, for cryin’ out loud!

Making things even worse, there was a fire just off Broadway, near Main — two major traffic arteries into the work-a-day world. My bus, crammed so full of cold, anxious commuters this morning that I couldn’t even see out the windows, took a convoluted detour through the sidestreets to bypass the blocked off Broadway. It took me over an HOUR to get to work this morning.

And then, shortly after walking through the door, I was called into an impromptu staff meeting to be told that since so many folks were driving in this “terrible weather” and should be the office might be closed for a while, and then sent home — because I might not be safe to travel later.

It’s shortly after noon, and having taken my own little detour, through Starbucks, then Chapters, then MEC and the new SportChek on Broadway — and finally to snap some photos of the infamous church fire (which I just now added to my gallery) I am yet again home, tempted to do some work, but generally just kind of hungry.

Now I wait for Karin — sent home early, too, and due home soon. But at least she has an excuse!

As as side note of interest, as I write these words there are two interesting milestones circling around this blog:

1) this is entry number 667. Meaning, yes, the previous entry was an EVIL entry, and

2) these words are either “approaching” or “just passed” the one-hundred and fifty-thousand TOTAL WORD COUNT for my incoherent ramblings.

It may seem insignificant to YOU — especially since you can look up in the corner of nanosmurf.net and see a live count — but it’s a big step for a little blog like mine. 150000! Especially on a cold January day in Vancouver.