Christmas Eve. 2016

After two weeks of extreme cold finally the temperature rose in a way that the coldest in the past 10 days was probably not less than -10 ℃ which is considered warm for Calgary and Alberta in general! Yesterday though a beautiful snow started in the morning and was going down non-stop until when I came home from a small shopping around 20:00.

I tried to talk The Chef into a hike possibly Malagne Canyon or Star Mine Suspension Bridge but our experience in extreme cold last time, has not been so pleasant to him and he kind of hesitated. Furthermore he is in such a bad shit now and in the verge of losing his home. So he cannot quite think of an entertainment! That is in fact his own fucking fault. He bought a house about a year and half ago with this African friend of his and the guy got into some financial problem a few month ago. He had been paying the mortgage since or better to say, according to him, he paid for a few months by himself and nothing has been paid in the past two months. So what he is going to do is not to pay for the third month. So the bank can take over. There's no doubt that he is a fucking idiot! They had three tenants. One in the basement and two in two bedrooms of the house. They all left about a months ago one after another and that is because the house is a fucking dumpster! But seriously who would live in the house that The Chef lives?! Two of them were Africans brought by The Chef's friend and there was a Latino small family of three in the basement!

Partially frozen and snow covered Bow River. The thickness of ice slab is near 35 cm at some spot. This remind me of that stupid movie The Revenant! The guy falls in a frozen river and swims in it for as long as 20 min. What a goof off! Anyone who swam in such water, would be dead in the first 5 min.! I will write about this silly movie later

Anyways I checked the condition of the roads which would take me to those two places and they are all covered in snow or are icy. So I think it would not be such a good idea to go to either hikes particularly Malagne Canyon which is about 5 hours away! The closest place to go and should be nice is Lake Louse and Grotto Canyon. I've been to Grotto Canyon in spring and it can't be as nice as Malagne Canyon and Lake Louise is nice of course but it's too far, I would have to pay for admission and it should be busy. If I go anywhere I will post about it here.

Today though I had a pain in my left foot again but decided to have a walk. So I popped up a pill(!) and went to the Bow River Pathway. It was so much snow that I could barely walk. I guess as much is 15 cm. Most of the pathway had not been plowed but then I saw the small vehicle at the other side of the river when I was leaving. Then I headed to North Glenmore Park. It was cold and there were not many people around. I just went and sit in the nearby McDonald's for a coffee and returned to the vehicle and went home! That was it. Nothing especial or exciting! 

(Photo: One of many cameras installed by Government of Alberta on the major road. You can see what's going on there. This one as you can see shows just a few minutes ago Highway # 2 or QEII north just south of Road 581)