Chief Ten Bears: January 2008

Winter is a Cold Bitch

For perspective's sake, let us zoom out a bit from these north facing icicles hanging from my house...

... a bit more...

Aargh, that tree is in the way. The longest one is half way down to the ground. I affectionately call them 'guillotines'. That snow on the roof is at least two feet deep.

Dry, cold weather of late has done funny things to the south facing icicles over the porch.

They resemble translucent deep sea crab legs.

I haven't seen the sun in a month. Armchair mountain is lookin' great from the backyard today.

Tree upskirt! I think I see some camel toe!

Big Ones

One night after a snowstorm two weeks ago, I snapped off the worst offending overhead icicles before shoveling snow from underneath them. I worry about one of these bad boys dropping down, and you know, uh... killing me.

Bear Fruit Salad

Bear Fruitsalad
Originally uploaded by von_brandis.

Right To Arm Bears

A Bear with a Gun
Originally uploaded by Jacob Krejci.

I'm Stuffed

American Museum of Natural History 01
Originally uploaded by von_brandis.

Momma Wants Respect

Katmai Female Brown Bear
Originally uploaded by MarkWells.

Smarter Than Your Average bear

Sun Bear
Originally uploaded by guppiecat.

If Mickey Mouse Had Teeth

If Mickey Mouse Had Teeth
Originally uploaded by Azaz the Unabridged.

Babies

Watch more videos on this little guy's official site here.

Sweet Jeezus, No!

Girl, you might not directly burn your house down but heating up the metal stair rails may just melt the vinyl siding, singe hidden wood studs and electrical wiring. (click on image for Boing Boing link)

Little Known Whistler

My house is not the most funky place in the neighbourhood (Emerald North).

That distinction belongs to Mushroom House (click on photo for direct link), about a five minute walk uphill from me. I was pleasantly surprised to see it blogged in Netorama... which reminded me of this:

A photo Dave published while working for a local newspaper almost 20 years ago. Out of the ashes of Mushroom House 1.0 came an even better 2.0 version. The truly amazing story is of the fact that this place was built twice by Zube, and with his own hands. (click on photo for Dave's blog)

There's a Park Underneath all that Snow

Dave has taken up cross-country skiing on set tracks at Rainbow Park, so I asked him to take pics of anything blog worthy on his next trip. Judging from the scoop shaped piles, the Municipality plowed the parking lot and buried the park trail. Folks compacting the snow with their boots have made an ersatz path beyond the entrance sign (see arrow).

No swimming today. That's the lake behind those trees. No walking on the surface either. It hasn't been cold long enough to make a thick ice layer out there.

Someone was nice enough to dig a pit around the pay phone. You'll have to squat down to use it.

I think it's safe to say anything done in four feet of snow is a huge inconvenience at least, a stupid risk at most.

Chief Ten Bears

Chief Ten Bears
Originally uploaded by carletaorg.

While locked out of my Flickr account last week, I surfed for my own photos and found none other than the real Chief-Ten-Bears himself. He was a great negotiator and leader; only considered war if everything else failed and to my knowledge, never had to.

What A Fu*king Mess...

... my Flickr account that is. I accidentally 1) lost access to it after trying to renew it for another year and 2) made a useless duplicate pro account in the process. And I thought the last Pineapple Express that swept through last Friday was messy.

At the rate this winter is going, that snow wall will triple in height by the end of February (a conservative guess). See the little perpendicular pile beside it?