Comparing a storm path & strength

<sup>This first infra red satellite image is over the New York City area, Saturday afternoon

This second image is over Nova Scotia early Sunday morning</sup>

It's - 30 º C in the shade (if you can find it)

Notice - My ladies' afternoon tea exceptionally won't be held in the garden today.

^{Don't you see Jesus Christ in that frosty window? Maybe I should have it auctioned at e-bay.}

I carry my culture along with me...

Like the snail, I carry my house with me. Not only the furniture but the cultural background. Can't hide away from that one. To radically change in a sort of tabula rasa is futile. The main difference to this personal culture is the addition of some aspects of me that where kinda oblivious in town: working on the house and taking care of the land. I was much missing those activities in town, though I always made a point of doing some.

Winter is a great moment to slow down. It's a period I like most. In the city, one is unaware of the changes of rythms of seasons. Everything is so linear to the point of oppression. I wish I would once and for all be totally detached from the city in terms of work. Yet I came here because I was working from home. Long hours during the weekdays, as in the city. The way back home is the shortest possible. The 9 t0 5 routine was becoming impossible to me. Over and Out! It's a standpoint for good... unless I can do something at my conditions.


I only came here to spend time thinking! The clinical look at society is this one. One could almost say hygienic look, for I am far away and ever so close... Too many activities, noises, constant interruption, difficulty to sit and reflect...

I am not thinking out of nothing though! In my isolation, I decided to subscribe to a few mags such as (Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Parabola), to the weekly edition of The Christian Science Monitor and to a french daily (Le Devoir) - on line, 'cause the snail mail is too slow and too expensive. I also read books! I also read a lot on line: feature articles, academias. I am again pretty much aware of what is going on daily on the planet after having tried to avoid it for months. But I mostly brush through the daily stuff. It doesn't touch me except for debates that go on and on day in, day out.

There are many ways to handle the timeline. Each days moves its weigh in dust and it's hard to see through the turmoil, put thing into perspective 'cause there is none. I'd rather have this retreat, this physical and mental distance. I hold on to my refusal to go back to the citis. After all, I lived in 'em for 28 years!

I can now spend more times on my favorite subject matters: alternative sources of energy and the relation between sciences and religion/spirituality that is gaining much momentum lately. To me it has become paramount to develop my thesis on those subject as well as read a lot about them.

We have a public library out here! No bad for a little town of 750. Mind you, it's opened only 4 hours a week. Incidentally we have the interlibrary loan service which is great 'cause there ain't much in there. Thus at mid-september I ordered a book and guess what? It just arrived! What a performance!

I also listen to radio quite a bit, namely: VPR (Vermont Public Radio), France Culture, la BBC (en ligne) et CBC and... sometimes Radio Canada, if there is anything worth listening.

To the village on bike ''@v@­­­¯

I went to the village by bike... It'a about -10ºC and the windshield must bring that down to -20ºC. I ride my bike during the winter months as long as the roads allow. So was the case, this afternoon. Yesterday, the temperature was such the road was almost out of use even to cars. It was a bit like the permafrost that thaws. Then the temperature went down. The snow plower came by at just the time the temperature changed. Also equipped as a grader the snow plower levelled the road surface. The road is smooth today in its frozen state.


The icy base is no trouble. One has to go slowly. The 9 km ride, back and forth is nice and it is faster than walking... Once the village approaches the scenery is rather cool.

At 2000 feet (610 m)(this photo) ND des Bois is the 2^nd highest village in Quebec. At 3650 feet (1112 m) the Mount Megantic range might not look that high when your are not at sea level, like on this shot of Cypress Mountain in Vancouver on the left at 3300 feet (±1000 m)...

Everything happens @ NDB!

It's snowing again as if it were November.
Yesterday most of it melted away. Last night, the wind was as powerful as a seastorm. Here is a good spot for windmills. One only needs to get batteries to store the energy. It's a long term project for me. Mind you, it doesn't wind that much all the time. Today is quiet on that front.
My 73 years old neighbour just called me: she's got water in the basement. What's new. "Don't forget your rubber boots", she told me as if I would go in sandals.
I gotta go see the result and what I can do or not about it. The people who built the basement did a nasty job by not draining properly and preparing the surface before pooring the concrete. There are many defaults one can see from a simple visual inspection.

12:30

I just come back from the old lady's place to check her flood. Well, it sure is not
great to walk in there and heat the woodstove with 2½ inches of water. Somethin' is clugging that drain for sure. I went back home and got the plunger. It didn't work out. I went back and got a long plastic pipe that I inserted in the drain, only to hit something a few yards outside the house. It will take a plumber syphon to be able to unclug the damned pipe, though what I did helped a bit.

The snow is magnificent. On the way back home, I took some photos. This is the north entrance from the road:

The apple tree along the eastern wall:

View at the neighbours' house:


Then I entered home and drank my coffee while looking through the patio door:


Yesterday it got to 8ºC/48ºF and the gravel road melted down. Today with the snow fall and still wet, it became quite a mess!

It snows in the TV

I spent the whole spring, the whole summer and fall not watching TV a bit. It was snorting in the living room. Then came winter and watching the stars at -30ºC is not as pleasant. The television has now a new role: filling in for the stars. Here in the mountains, very few channels apparently gets through easily. Very few stations make it that far without a little help.

I am glad to report that Vermont Public Television can be watched from that far. I'll bet the transmitter is on Mt Mansfield, some 100 km away! The signal is rather weak though. I don't mind to much for I still can watch Nova, Frontline and the BBC World News, though in the snow...


CBC with its 14,000 kw transmitter somewhere around Sherbrooke arrives poorly as well but is still watchable and a must in TV out here, let alone anywhere in this country.

Yoyo weather

We are having our share of nasty weather lately. Monday was great:

Then tonight we are having ice falling off the sky:

and the next days are amazing...
In the meantime it stopped snowing in Vancouver:

You can check this one out anytime you wish. This is a good webcam. Vancouver remains one of my favorite cities...

Bernard Buffet

This afternoon my roomate came down with a reproduction of a Buffet painting that she meant to show me

since she noticed my framed Buffet poster showing a Buffet rooster:
. She could not remember where she found that or knew anything else about it. So we kinda stayed there for a while trying to figure out what to make of it. Tonite I decided to see if I could find some info on the net. What I found out was that she had only a cut of the real thing, for it is quite bigger and means something else in its whole

and is titled "20,000 leagues under the sea: the giant porthole in the Nautilus", painted in 1989. To see more of Buffet's work and a bio go to the Musée Buffet...