W-Interlude and Sn-O-M-G

As I write this it was +5C yesterday and +3C today - a taste of Spring! Mind you, we'll be back to -8C tomorrow but the temperatures are definitely trending upward. While winter was off to a late start this year (which caused no small amount of angst), it came roaring in during late December. True to form, my bad luck with winter driving continued. It seems like whenever I am traveling in the winter the weather is usually bad during my drive to/from Deer Lake. Coming back from the Xmas break, my plane landed just as a heavy Nor'Easter was about to pull in. The snow and wind was picking up as I was driving through Gros Morne. The snow was so heavy in spots that I couldn't use high beams because of the reflected glare off the snow. Well, it was deja vu all over again when I went off the highway as a result of a temporary whiteout. Fortunately, I wasn't going very fast but I wasn't aggressive enough on the brakes. Next thing I knew I wasn't driving on asphalt anymore. I went about 6 feet off the road onto a relatively flat field and I was just inside town limits at Sally's Cove. Thanks to the help of some locals I was able to get my car back onto the highway again. I drove for another hour or so until I pulled into the halfway point at Hawkes Bay. It was 9 pm and at the speed I was going I wasn't going to get home until well after midnight. The snow was still heavy and visibility was still poor. So, I decided to check into the motel for the night. The lady at the front desk confirmed that my decision was the right one: the gov't just pulled the snow plows off the highway north of Hawkes Bay because the conditions were too dangerous. I spent the night at the motel, waited until noon the next day for the highway to be cleared, and then headed out without any further problems


This is a shot somebody took at the airport during the storm. The visibility of my drive was 2x worse.

My next escapade through winter wonderland was during my trip for Chinese New Year. Now, actually, the drive wasn't that bad at all but there were 2 storms that were going to affect my travel - one pulling out of Toronto and arriving in Halifax and one pushing into Newfoundland. Air Canada was issuing travel warnings and was allowing people to rebook their flights. Now, usually, you rebook your flight until after the storm -- but not me! I fired up the Weather Network's website and checked out AC's flight schedules. Using the hourly forecast, I found that if I switched to an earlier flight, I could leave before the storm arrived in Nfld. and arrive in Halifax just as the other one was arriving. In addition, I was hoping Toronto would have dug itself out by the time my flight left Halifax. I was totally expecting this plan to fail and be forced to layover in Deer Lake or Halifax due to cancellations...but, it worked! To my amazement, I made it into Toronto on time with no weather delays! Unfortunately, AC lost my luggage so it wasn't a complete success....

All this heavy winter weather means that we have a good amount of snow on the cross country ski trails this year. Happily, I'm skiing much more than I was last year. I'm hoping to do 19.5 km but my ski partners are sort of reluctant. There won't be many more weeks of skiing if this warming trend continues.

The job search isn't going very well. There was one possible position at Cochrane but it was only until June 2012. In addition, it was a solo spot and only General Surgery which wouldn't be professionally satisfying for me. I sent them my CV and kept them in mind should the locum market open up a bit. However, at this point in time I'm still a little selective about the type of place I want to work. If this job shortage continues for the long term I may very well change my mind. Fortunately, there's no huge rush seeing as I 'm still enjoying my present job. For now, I'll just bide my time.

I'll be in Toronto again in April for a conference. I'm also trying to get things organized for my Tibet trip. One other thing I miss about Toronto was how much easier it was to get things like visas. I'm forced to either spend money and courier in the applications or relying on family members to handle the visa process for me. In addition, Tibet is a sensitive area and, although I did not put Tibet as a destination on my Chinese visa (all the internet forums recommend you leave Tibet off), I did put Xining down because I figured the communists would know I booked a flight there. Well, that must have set off a few alarm bells because the lady at the consulate then asked for my old passports! Ooops.

Anyhow, I Xpressposted my old passports over and hopefully they'll be satisfied this time. After the Chinese Visa I'm going to need a Nepal Visa *and* an Indian Visa. (More details later...)