I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

APRIL SNOW...

The rare April Nor'easter that dumped a lot of very late season snow on New England, upstate New York, Quebec, and the Maritimes also brought snow to Ottawa... nothing Ottawans aren't used to, but it was a good five to seven centimetres (around 2 inches), easily enough to re-whiten the ground without too many blades of grass sticking through.



And also enough to make the sidewalks in Nepean kind of icky (especially along Merivale Road).




On one hand, I don't mind getting snow in mid-April, since I always feel more comfortable in cool weather, so I fully approve of winter overstaying its welcome.

But, on the other hand, starting Wednesday, I will be working in a supermarket parking lot and wet, heavy snow and supermarket trolley wheels are not too happy a combination, seizing up the wheels and making pushing around one shopping cart almost like pushing around a Smart Car with the parking brakes on. And I'll have to push whole trains of carts around, so I kind of hope that we don't get a repeat performance this spring, at least not on the nights before I work.

Speaking of the job, I went to the Mark's Work Wearhouse (L'Equipeur) store on Merivale at Hunt Club Road with my mother to get a few pairs of black jeans, a belt, and some plain t-shirts... we split the expenditure between us, so I spent over $100 on two pairs of pants, and they weren't even Levi's 501, just Denver Hayes, the Mark's Work Wearhouse store brand. But they were "Made in Canada", so I'm really hoping that they stay a dark shade of black at least as long as the $25 Mexican-made Wrangler "comfort fit" jeans I usually buy at Wal-Mart. And it's an investment... I'll make back what I spent in less than a week.

And now that I'm working and am making a small amount of money the respectable way, I'm am thinking a lot more seriously about taking that weekend trip in June to Mont Tremblant, Quebec to see the Ferrari F430 Challenge race, as I mentioned that I wanted to do back in February. Even though I am bringing in a income now, I'm not Daddy Warbucks, Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich, or any of the male members of the Ouran High School Host Club and won't be walking around with my pockets bulging with huge stacks of pink-and-red Canadian fifties or used-toilet-paper-brown Canadian one hundreds, and I have to be very mindful of costs, and would only be staying the Saturday night, if I go. I can get to Mont Tremblant by Greyhound/Voyageur bus, with a shortish layover in Montreal both ways. The Saturday trip is reasonable... I'd leave Ottawa at 2 p.m., spend an hour in Montreal in the late afternoon (probably killing time at the main Archambault book/music/video store on Berri, since it's only a block away from the central Montreal bus station), and get to Mont Tremblant a little past 8 p.m., which is great for me as I prefer eating supper after 9 p.m. anyway. The trip back is a little more problematic... since the whole point of the trip is for me to photograph as many Ferraris as I can, both on the track and on display, I wouldn't want to leave Mont Tremblant at 4 p.m., but the only option after that is at 9 p.m., getting back to the Ottawa bus station past 2 a.m., meaning I'd have to get a cab from the bus station to Nepean as there's no night bus that covers the Meadowlands/Merivale area of Nepean which is well-serviced by the 86 and 111 buses in the daytime, and it's at least a two mile walk to where I live from the OC Transpo Baseline Transitway stop.

The more painful part is the hotel rates... I want the most no-frills-other-than-normal-television-and-an-in-room-bathroom-and-shower accommodations available, and even the Comfort Inn starts at $79 a night, and I somehow doubt that's the rate for a Saturday night in June. And the Hostel International Mont Tremblant hostel isn't that much more reasonable... $67.50 for a private room. I could spend just spend $27.75 for a dormitory bed, but I don't know if that's such a great option if I don't want both of my cameras and my tripod to mysteriously vanish during the night. I'm not stupid enough to bring anything else electronic, but the cameras are kind of necessary for photography.

Let me say, my prior offer to split the gas and the hotel costs to anyone with a car in the Ottawa or Gatineau area who also wishes to attend the Ferrari Challenge race, plus draw a Ferrari picture based on any photo I take that weekend, still very much stands.



And, I must say, like everyone else, I'm horrified and saddened by the murderous rampage at Virginia Tech on Monday morning, but I don't have much else to say and to write a paragraph about it that's longer than this one merely for the sake of registering an opinion would just be trite.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 1:20 AM