- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,237
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
The missing person report slid across the sergeant’s desk.
Last name: Winter. First name: Snow. Date of Birth: Dec. 21, year unknown. Description: Caucasian, tall in parts, icy blue eyes, wild white hair, of no fixed address, ancient-looking. Last seen: April 2015. Languages: English, French, uses 17 aliases for Snow. Occupation: Drifter. Personality: Flake.
Sarge put down his doughnut. Out went the APB.
Seriously, someone really ought to call the cops. We’ve lost a season.
There are two camps in town right now. Those who love this wet, mild weather and real Canadians. Look, we need snow. The Christmas decorations look off, those little reindeer on the lawn look like goats grazing on the grass and the outdoor lights refuse to glow.
We put up the tree last week. It didn’t need thawing — with a little water, it just kept growing. This isn’t right. Green Christmas? Oh, yes. Green New Year’s? Looks like. Valentine’s Day? Could be a picnic. It’s like we woke up in Vancouver.
Snow is the clean, perfect blanket we wear to cover the dirty streets and acid-washed lawns. It tucks in the calendar, it puts a year’s losses to sleep, it lets us start fresh with spring. Snow is the most exquisite decorator we know; it puts the wonder in winter wonderland. So yes, actually, plus 8 and rain is for wieners.
I had an email from a buddy last week about a golf game on Christmas Eve. This is not a prank. The forecast is for 9 C. There are still a handful of courses still open, like Falcon Ridge, off Bank Street south, not far from Findlay Creek.
Open? They’re taking bookings for Boxing Day. With the long-range forecast for plus temperatures until the end of the month, it is conceivable golf will be played here in January. And these aren’t just nuts, guys a couple of wedges short of a full bag. On a busy day, Falcon Ridge will run 160 golfers through the two layouts.
“When the sun is shining and it’s plus 3 or above, we’re busy,” said Steve Spratt, co-owner of the 27-hole course. “Packed.”
He said the normal closing date is about Nov. 20. The latest the course has been open in 18 years is Dec. 12.
While Falcon Ridge has a reputation as being the first-to-open, last-to-close, it is not alone. The popular Canadian Golf club, near Carleton Place, closed this year, only to reopen with the greeting “Winter? What winter?” on its website.
Outdoor skating rinks? Are you kidding? The city has more than 250 natural ice outdoor rinks — not a single one is open. But it’s worse than that. There is a group and website called RinkWatch, which monitors the effects of climate change on outdoor ice surfaces across North America.
It is hardly exhaustive, but do you know how many rinks are shown open, east of the Manitoba border? One.
Al Arseneault, 59, a retired public servant, operates one of the best outdoor rinks in the city, in Lakeview Park, in the Carling Avenue and Corkstown Road area. He’s usually open between Christmas and New Year’s, though he has opened as late as Jan. 5.
He figures he needs about 10 centimetres of snow as a base, then hours of watering on cold nights — about 70-man hours in all before the first blade hits the ice. He also has a side rink that contains three curling surfaces, the site of two bonspiels in mid-January.
“I’m thinking of hooking up my boat and going fishing,” he joked this week, but expressing mild worry about the late start. “I tell people, ‘Look, we’re going to get winter. I don’t think the axis of the earth has changed.'”
Ski hill operators wake up to a fresh hell everyday.
Camp Fortune, which likes to be the first open, managed to get skiers on the slopes Nov. 26, then closed, then reopened. It now has two of 20 runs operating, one at half-width, thanks to snow-making — even that’s dicey on too-warm nights.
David Smith tries out one of the two runs that Camp Fortune has managed to keep open with snow-making equipment. Other resorts are in similar straits as the warm weather continues.
“We are trying very hard to stay positive,” said marketing and media specialist Erin Boucher. “But this is the most difficult start to a season that we can remember.”
Camp Fortune plans to open Saturday and stay open through the holidays, a critical period when young people are off school and anxious to ski or snowboard. Other resorts are in the same boat. Mont Ste. Marie and Calabogie are working with limited hours and struggling to keep a couple of runs open; Vorlage is closed.
Can’t skate, can’t ski, but can play nine holes in a Santa hat. Somebody call the cops.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
Last name: Winter. First name: Snow. Date of Birth: Dec. 21, year unknown. Description: Caucasian, tall in parts, icy blue eyes, wild white hair, of no fixed address, ancient-looking. Last seen: April 2015. Languages: English, French, uses 17 aliases for Snow. Occupation: Drifter. Personality: Flake.
Sarge put down his doughnut. Out went the APB.
Seriously, someone really ought to call the cops. We’ve lost a season.
There are two camps in town right now. Those who love this wet, mild weather and real Canadians. Look, we need snow. The Christmas decorations look off, those little reindeer on the lawn look like goats grazing on the grass and the outdoor lights refuse to glow.
We put up the tree last week. It didn’t need thawing — with a little water, it just kept growing. This isn’t right. Green Christmas? Oh, yes. Green New Year’s? Looks like. Valentine’s Day? Could be a picnic. It’s like we woke up in Vancouver.
Snow is the clean, perfect blanket we wear to cover the dirty streets and acid-washed lawns. It tucks in the calendar, it puts a year’s losses to sleep, it lets us start fresh with spring. Snow is the most exquisite decorator we know; it puts the wonder in winter wonderland. So yes, actually, plus 8 and rain is for wieners.
I had an email from a buddy last week about a golf game on Christmas Eve. This is not a prank. The forecast is for 9 C. There are still a handful of courses still open, like Falcon Ridge, off Bank Street south, not far from Findlay Creek.
Open? They’re taking bookings for Boxing Day. With the long-range forecast for plus temperatures until the end of the month, it is conceivable golf will be played here in January. And these aren’t just nuts, guys a couple of wedges short of a full bag. On a busy day, Falcon Ridge will run 160 golfers through the two layouts.
“When the sun is shining and it’s plus 3 or above, we’re busy,” said Steve Spratt, co-owner of the 27-hole course. “Packed.”
He said the normal closing date is about Nov. 20. The latest the course has been open in 18 years is Dec. 12.
While Falcon Ridge has a reputation as being the first-to-open, last-to-close, it is not alone. The popular Canadian Golf club, near Carleton Place, closed this year, only to reopen with the greeting “Winter? What winter?” on its website.
Outdoor skating rinks? Are you kidding? The city has more than 250 natural ice outdoor rinks — not a single one is open. But it’s worse than that. There is a group and website called RinkWatch, which monitors the effects of climate change on outdoor ice surfaces across North America.
It is hardly exhaustive, but do you know how many rinks are shown open, east of the Manitoba border? One.
Al Arseneault, 59, a retired public servant, operates one of the best outdoor rinks in the city, in Lakeview Park, in the Carling Avenue and Corkstown Road area. He’s usually open between Christmas and New Year’s, though he has opened as late as Jan. 5.
He figures he needs about 10 centimetres of snow as a base, then hours of watering on cold nights — about 70-man hours in all before the first blade hits the ice. He also has a side rink that contains three curling surfaces, the site of two bonspiels in mid-January.
“I’m thinking of hooking up my boat and going fishing,” he joked this week, but expressing mild worry about the late start. “I tell people, ‘Look, we’re going to get winter. I don’t think the axis of the earth has changed.'”
Ski hill operators wake up to a fresh hell everyday.
Camp Fortune, which likes to be the first open, managed to get skiers on the slopes Nov. 26, then closed, then reopened. It now has two of 20 runs operating, one at half-width, thanks to snow-making — even that’s dicey on too-warm nights.
David Smith tries out one of the two runs that Camp Fortune has managed to keep open with snow-making equipment. Other resorts are in similar straits as the warm weather continues.
“We are trying very hard to stay positive,” said marketing and media specialist Erin Boucher. “But this is the most difficult start to a season that we can remember.”
Camp Fortune plans to open Saturday and stay open through the holidays, a critical period when young people are off school and anxious to ski or snowboard. Other resorts are in the same boat. Mont Ste. Marie and Calabogie are working with limited hours and struggling to keep a couple of runs open; Vorlage is closed.
Can’t skate, can’t ski, but can play nine holes in a Santa hat. Somebody call the cops.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
