Went for a Run

[danalwyn]

I just came back from a run.

Outside.

In January.

It's supposed to finally start snowing tomorrow. Does someone have their seasons confused or what?

Comments

[silverjackal]

It's been an exceptionally mild winter -- almost an un-winter -- here as well so far. Mind you, next week we're due to get proper cold temperatures. But as it stands the high country is very dangerous, avalanche prone because it's been so warm.

[danalwyn]

It's been ridiculous down here. Usually the highs are below freezing, but so far we've had days in the fifties here. It's unreal.

[silverjackal]

Heh. We've had a bunch of above-freezing as well. And when it is "cold", it's a few degrees below freezing. Pfft. Not cold, and very odd for here. The warmth actually has made the avalanche risk worse. When it warms up an ice crust forms on top of the snow, and then more snow falls and doesn't bond to the lower level because of the ice. So the whole thing is like a precariously balanced layer cake -- one trip, and the whole thing goes sliding. But people *will* ignore the risk and go into the backcountry where there's no avalanche prevention work, and so we've had more fatalities this year already than in a whole regular winter. I admit I've been tempted to go out myself, because the weather is so very beautiful, but I'd stick to safe areas, yes?

[danalwyn]

I'm sorry that you get stuck dealing with people with avalanche problems - people are foolish at times, and in the wilderness that has much more drastic consequences. A lot of people around here are also going out, including myself, but Chicago is much more benign in good weather, and after all, Illinois is so flat we could probably see halfway to Churchill if the Earth wasn't curved.

Up until last week people here were still mowing their lawns. Hopefully today's snowfall will relieve them of that duty, but it's January and the grass is still semi-green. That's pretty disturbing to be honest.

(Obviously Canada needs to invest money in cargo planes that can fly over avalanche country and let tourists throw lit sticks of dynamite onto the terrain below. I bet you could make ridiculous amounts of money - at the cost of leveling a great deal of Canada's backcountry and anyone who happened to be standing on it. And you would have to worry about pilots getting lost...).

[thesharedself]

Yeah, it's raining here and I'm not at all worried about ice. That's absurd for January. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, so we'll see. It's still 50 today, though.

I can't decide if true winter is just late or if it just decided to skip out on this year.

[danalwyn]

Blizzard is finally moving in today, so that probably signifies the start of winter. Maybe. The weather reports say it might get back up to forty degrees by Monday.

[thesharedself]

Time to stay home and play video games and read books, y/y?

I am admittedly skeptical. Central PA got 4 inches of snow right before Thanksgiving, after all, and it's hit 60 a number of times since then. I hope it sticks this time, though. False winter is way more unnerving.

[danalwyn]

Unfortunately, the snow won't be moving in until about midday at which point I will be stuck at work. If I'm lucky this will not be a night spent in my cube.

I wish I could stay home...I do have some days off I could use (seems a waste because we get a long weekend).

[thesharedself]

I'm the kinda of person who will always enable potentially gratuitous use of vacation time, so...that's all I have to say on that count.

If you do get snowed in at the office, you could spend the time booby trapping the office. Or create a tent city. Either/or, really.

[danalwyn]

You are clearly a bad influence.

Also if I get snowed in at the office I'll probably spend all my time taking advantage of our internet speed. It's not really that much fun booby-trapping cubicles. Besides, the only things I have to booby trap them with are pretty much dangerous or wildly impractical.

I suppose I could go hide down in the Proton Booster...

[thesharedself]

Oh I dunno..."dangerous or wildly impractical" sounds about right to me.

*whistles, scuffs foot on floor*

[silverjackal]

Oh, I'm not directly professionally involved with the avalanche searches (unless I get called out for volunteer S&R). It's just a stupid waste of life, yes? And also of taxpayer's resources. They've finally started charging the extreme sport yahoos for when they need emergency extraction, and it's about bloody time. There's a difference between "avoidable" and "idiotic risk", and when people do the latter I don't have much sympathy if things go sideways.

Your scheme for fixing things is alas impractical, no matter how appealing. The plane routes tend to go over passes so far as I know (but I could be wrong), so those are already being managed, and they'd mostly just blow up people and put inconvenient holes in the roads.