So Far, Snow Good

The threatened blast of winter weather that was supposed to hit the lower mainland this week hit with more of a fizzle than a bang.  Now if you live in the Valley that’s an entirely different story, but Vancouver made it through the impending storm fairly unscathed.

The first forecasts said it would start snowing Saturday night; we would see a major dump on Sunday; and then the wintery weather would continue into the early week.

Then they – they being the meteorologists – said the snow would begin Friday night.  It did, although it didn’t do too much.  Most of what fell throughout the night was gone by Saturday morning.  It snowed again Saturday night, as forecast, but it was much the same as Friday night.

So here we are on Sunday waiting for the massive dump of snow to arrive, however you didn’t need to be a weather expert to know it wasn’t going to snow.  It was cold enough, but it was a brilliantly sunny day.  The snow predicted for Sunday night didn’t come either.

Depending on where you live in the Lower Mainland, the Monday morning commute wasn’t that bad.  The heavy snow predicted for Sunday started falling Monday morning, but then the sun came out and melted the snow off the roads.

We weren’t in the clear yet – they were predicting 5-10 cm to fall last night.  Nothing.   Today?  Sunny.  And the even bigger dump we were expecting for tomorrow has been called off.  Instead the temperature is going to plummet to a daytime high of -8 with wind chills of -15.  WTF?!

Perhaps now would be a more prudent time to go to Hawai’i.

Delivering Frustration

When I arrived back from my trip to California there was a postcard from UPS saying they had a package for me to pick up. Only problem was I had to pick it up by December 28 and I hadn’t received their notice as of December 27. This is not the first time I’ve had problems receiving packages from UPS – this is the fifth – out of five times.

I personally don’t use UPS because of their lack of good service and I usually tell people sending items to me to choose another shipping service if possible. The issue is due to the fact that I don’t have a buzzer or building directory, so they won’t deliver the item. Instead they send a postcard in the mail which usually arrives after the deadline to pick up the package.

I called UPS today to see if the package was still around – of course it had been sent back. I tried to relay my frustrations to the person I was chatting with. I know they can’t do anything but I asked them to pass along my complaints. From talking to others, I know I’m not the only one fed-up with their useless delivery system. I also know that my complaints will make it nowhere either.

In the end I had to call Apple. This whole delivery headache started from a recall of 1st generation iPod Nanos. The whole process seemed fairly simple. Request your new iPod, Apple sends you a box to ship your old one back, and then they ship you a new one; because they used UPS they now have to re-send me a new box and I’m still pretty much a square one in this whole recall process.

This time I have asked Apple to send the package to my work address. That way there is a greater likelihood I’ll receive my package, but I’m not holding my breath.

What a Difference a Year Makes

I received the mother of all surprises for Christmas this year: a trip to Disneyland, plus tickets to the Canucks games in Anaheim and LA.  This is where it pays to be on top of things.  Luckily I accomplished most of my organizing and cleaning during my first week of vacation, since my second week was spent in the warmth of the Southern California sun.

It is atypical for either of us to put together a gift like this.  We usually poke around for ideas and set a budget; but Colin felt we had both worked really hard to overcome the financial and emotional setbacks of 2010 and that we deserved some fun in the sun.  He received no argument from me.  Disneyland plus Canucks road trip – that is a dream vacation come true, and another item crossed off the bucket list.

During the day the weather was warm and fabulous.  It felt so good to get away from the dark, wet, and grey for a few days.  However the evenings were very chilly and I regret not having warmer clothes with me to bundle up in.  And I would suggest you never go to Disneyland between Christmas and New Year’s.  I was expecting it to be like the summer: busy with longish line-ups for popular rides.  Instead it was a whole other level of busy.  There were days were you couldn’t even move through the park because it was so jammed packed.  They even closed Disneyland a couple of times because it was so over-crowded.

My first taste of a Canucks away game was versus the Anaheim Ducks.  We went for dinner at a bar across the road from the Honda Centre – along with all the other Canucks fans.  The game was a ton of fun, and it was easy to drown out the fair-weather Ducks fans.

The Honda Centre is a very nice venue, but the beer line-ups were far too long.  And the beer is more expensive than the beer sold at Roger’s Arena.  However, the tickets are bargain basement prices compared to a ticket to a Canucks game.

We spent NYE at Disneyland and then headed to LA in the evening to go to the Kings game.  It was the same deal as Anaheim – Canucks and Kings fans gathered at LA Live in the ESPN Zone across from the Staples Centre for some pre-game festivities.  Although this time it was a lot harder to be a Canucks fan.

While Ducks fans don’t really give a who-ha, Kings fans do; some were impressed by the mass Canucks showing, but most taunted us.  And it didn’t help that the Canucks didn’t play a great game and eventually lost.  I tried, but I couldn’t yell loud enough to drown out the Kings fans.

After the hockey game we returned to Disneyland to ring in the new year.  The next day we flew home to the dark and dreary weather.  Oh well, I just have to put up with it for six more weeks then it’s off to Hawaii.

Aloha.

So Far S’Okay

My Christmas vacation is off to good start, despite being somewhat sidelined with a cold.   That cold I felt coming back in October finally made its appearance late last week as my body and mind went through a state of great stress release.  It was a pretty nasty cold but I didn’t let it affect me too much.  Christmas shopping when you are all bunged up is no fun, but I persevered and got it all done last weekend.  By Monday everything was wrapped and under the tree.

I kind of used the cold as an excuse to not get started on my big clean-up on the weekend, but I also just needed a couple of days to take it easy and recoup.  One Monday I went to Curves, had lunch with my Grandparents and started tackling the great clean-up.  I was able to complete the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  To be fair though, I had done a mass clean-up of those rooms just last year, so there wasn’t too much to go through and organize.

Tuesday was a day of socializing and running errands so I didn’t get to anymore organizing.  Yesterday I went to Curves again, had a bit of a lazy morning, but then really dug my heels in later in the day with the clean-up.  We now have a very organized bathroom and airing cupboard.  Today I plan to tackle the front hall and if I feel up to it, maybe the bedroom.

A lot of the information in my book on organization is quite obvious, but there are some really neat tips and tricks in there that I would never have thought of.

All in all a good vacation so far.

Tis the Season

I thought I hadn’t written an entry since August, so I was quite happy to see that my last update was just over a month ago, although where and how I found the time to write it is beyond me.

As I predicted as soon as November ended things would settle down for me – at least work.  The last couple of weeks I have been playing catch up trying to wrap up all outstanding items for 2011 projects and events before Christmas break; but now my personal life has exploded – in a good way though.

As soon as December hits it’s always a calendar explosion of social gatherings and about a billion things to do.  Luckily the tree is up, Christmas cards are in the mail, and most of the presents have been purchased and wrapped.   I do have to take some time over the holidays though to contend with my apartment.  It is a disorganized, disastrous mess!  I think I would feel a lot less harried if everything was neat, organized, and in place.

In order to tackle this very daunting task I have purchased a book called “What’s a Disorganized Person to do.”  Very fitting I think.  It’s a valuable tool in helping one get organized: how to start, where to start, how to tackle such an overwhelming mess.  I’m actually looking forward to it, although we’ll see what happens once my vacation starts.  Maybe I’ll just be really lazy and spend it on the couch catching up on PVRed episodes of Dr. Phil.