Working in Montréal today --Météo

Good morning folks,

I will be working in the Montréal office today, and just when you think you have figured out my repeating schedule and have confidence that you can predict where I will be next week, I will not be in Ottawa next Thursday, but instead will first be in a few Alberta cities and then off to B.C. to have dinner with my grandson.

Speaking of predictions (scroll back up, I nestled it in there to help in this segue), Toronto weather, or should I say, the recent Toronto meteorological predictions have reaffirmed my belief that the only accurate predictions are those made afterwards.  Much like the backward decodings of the scribblings of that drunk doctor, Nostradamus.

"look!  He wrote about Hister!  He must have meant Hitler.". Nope, sorry Sparky, he actually meant Hister, the common name of the River Danube.  Have another drink.  "No.. he did that to hide the predictions in shrouds of mystery.". Really?  Go away.

Back to Meteorology.  I'll take another segue (and tighten my seatbelt, flight 402 has encountered some turbulence), ever wonder what Meteors and Weather have in common?  I'll save you the etymology research (although how will you know if I am just making this up?  Better do your own), Meteor, Meteore, Meteorum.. Middle Fr., Greek, Middle Latin all refer to stuff that falls out of the sky and may land on you.  Meta + Aorus. Over, high up + In Air.

So Rain.. Aqueous Meteors. Rainbows.. Luminous Meteors.. Lightning and shooting stars, Igneous Meteors..

Back one segue, oops.. we're sitting with Nostradamus, too early for a drink, let's go back another, yes.. The Weather predictions.

Last week they (they, the somewhat unidentified group of individuals that are responsible for all things.  i.e. Why don't they make the tab thingy longer, it's too short to fit in the slot thing.  I hate Ikea.  --They), yes they predicted the winter snow storm of the year, the snow storm by which all others would be judged.  A snow storm that you could tell your grandchildren about (I won't be mentioning it to Ethan when i see him next week).  A storm that would remind us of the insignificance of man, a reminder of the awesome (here is is folks, the only valid use of the word 'awesome' in the last two years) power and wonder of nature.  I printed up t-shirts, "I survived the most awesome snow storm of February 2012!".

So there we were with extra bags of Cheetos!(tm) and beer (one should always prepare for the worst case --Pizza and Chinese food can always be delivered even in snow storms, but it's hard to get someone to drop off beer and Cheetos!(tm)) yes, waiting for the snow storm.  There were a few drops of rain.  Some breeze tickled through the leafless branches of the trees bringing back memories of past summer's green leaves shimmering in the warm sunlight (yeh, I know -had a certain poetic pleasantness) but no snow!  Oh wait.. There was a few flakes that almost landed in the backyard but they became caught in an awesome updraft and didn't actually hit the ground.

And then this morning.

I think that the report was for two degrees this morning; I don't remember the call for an icy driveway.  As I slid backwards down the driveway I remembered how much Nostradamus annoys me.


Have a good day.

Oh, btw, if eating veal is wrong, is eating baby carrots also wrong?