I posted a photo, two days ago, showing a picture of some nice pleasant weather we were enjoying here in Calgary. I knew it was too good to last. As of 9:30 this morning, this is what the culdesac looked like. By the time I finished shovelling and taking this picture, and went back inside, the snow was coming down three times heavier, and all my shovelling efforts were for nought. Worse, this is that heavy wet snow that you expect to see in Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal, not the light fluffy snow we normally get here in Calgary.The white blobs on the photo is the photo-flash reflecting off of the falling snow.
The American Consulate and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce both report that there are roughly 80,000 Americans living in Calgary (although some vociferously disagree). Whatever the true number, for you ex-pats, and the rest of my American readers, I give you Why Celebrate Thanksgiving Early, Reason #4:
4. Because you can never get too much turkey, celebrate both Thanksgivings. If you are an American, celebrate Canada's Thanksgiving "as a sign of respect for the Canadian culture." If you are Canadian, tell people you are American, and celebrate both Canadian and American Thanksgivings. Other Calgarians will believe you, since there are so many Americans living here anyway.
Are there a lot of gamers in Calgary? It seems like gaming would be a great social activity in a place where it snowed so much.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the turkey. Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year. No gifts and no religious debates - just gorging.
Calgary has a surprisingly large gaming contingent, due (in large part) to the existence of The Sentry Box, a war and role-playing store that, as of 2009, has been around for 30 years. I have been going to that store since it first opened at the corners of Kensington and Crowchild.
ReplyDeleteThe Sentry Box is touted as the largest gaming store in Canada, and I don't doubt it. It occupied a high visibility location for the first years of its life, and, at its present location has lots of gaming space, including an after-hours gaming room (how cool is that).
Oh man, that's awesome. I read about Calgary on Wikipedia and I learned that you have a diverse population of 1 million people. That's massive! With a great game store to attract gamers, well, you have a lot of great things going for you. I'm going to see if Sentry Box has a website I can check out. I love learning about different gaming scenes.
ReplyDeleteWent to a kid's party in Mackenzietown today. By the time I hit the Deerfoot, there wasn't a speck of snow to be seen anywhere, seems the NW got the brunt of it.
ReplyDeleteChristian, check out www.sentrybox.com
There's often a difference of temperature between north and south Calgary. Our south Calgary friends often tease us about living at the north pole.
ReplyDeleteWhen you posted that changeable weather post I thought, "yeah, whatever".
ReplyDeleteBut, holy schmoly! That's some crazy before and after.
Just wait until I post tomorrows's weather picture. To put it mildly, we have schizoid weather here. We get winter in the middle of August, and summer in the middle of February.
ReplyDeleteClose to the mountains and far from the ocean means our weather is never dull.
ReplyDeleteI was in Calgary once, back in 1970. I was a young kid and we were on our way to Banff. There were a lot of Americans back in Canada back then, too.
ReplyDeleteSomething to do with all the oil.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of Americans who were in Canada trying not to be an American in Vietnam. I still remember a French-Canadian barber in Banff giving me a buzz cut so I wouldn't look like those "hippy Americans living in the bush." We have a lot of vacation pics with me wearing a baseball hat--I didn't want a buzz cut.
ReplyDeleteYes, that other oil.
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoyed Banff. The whole Banff National Park is spectacular, though I was surprised, in a recent visit, just how popular it is. We went on a hike, which we did several decades ago. Last time, we passed a few other hikers on their way down. On our recent hike, it was a stream of people. You couldn't go 10 steps without passing another group.