Crazy weather

Statistically, the third week of January is the coldest of the Canadian winter. So for most of last week, the temperature was floating around -20 or so, before we took wind chill into account. It was, let's say, a little nippy out.

This week, it's been considerably warmer. Well, relatively - Monday we had actual rain, and since then it's been about -5 or so, so it's positively tropical. It's gotten to the point where quite a lot of the show has melted, so I can walk along the pavement without worrying about going head over heels; and I'm sure I saw one place where I could see actual grass through the ice and snow.

In related news, I got back this evening to discover a snow shovel and a bag of deicer on the front step. My downstairs neighbour slipped on the ice on Monday, and I think this is my landlord's subtle solution to the problem. The roof is south facing, so it gets sunlight for quite a lot of the day, so the snow there melts quite quickly - indeed, there were some spectacular icicles until a couple of days recently. Unfortunately, where the water is dripping off is right onto the stairs that go into the downstairs apartment. The side of the staircase that's furthest from the house is one solid sheet of ice, and half of each step is covered in ice. It's not easy going up and down them. So I think I'll have a busy couple of hours tomorrow clearing some snow.

Well, assuming it's not warm enough over night that it all melts away, anyway.