A4 - Wednesday, July 11, 1984 - North Shore News

And it rains a lot in the
spring.

I hike weatherman Norman
Penny’s comment: ‘“‘If you
can see the mountains, it’s
about to rain. If you can’t see
the mountains, it’s already
raining.”’

The North Shore, of
course, is a wetter place than
most. At the Upper Levels
Highway (about 985 feet
above sea level) there is more

than twice the amount of
rainfall that you get in
Tsawwassen.

] just know this will cause a
real estate boom in
Tsawwassen and a collapse of
land values in British Proper-
ties. But the truth has to be
spoken. It is WET here,
folks! WET! WET! WET!

Sorry. | didn't mean to get
hysterical.

Wither the weather? That's
the big question. We = ab-
sOlutely have to know
whether the weather is wet-
ter, or what.

Especially in view of En-
vironment Canada’s rating of
Vancouver as having the
‘‘most depressing weather’’
of any large Canadian city.

The cheek!

The bureaucrats
out a system of ‘‘severity
ratings’’ to determine the
psychological effect of dif-
ferent weather conditions.
The mid-winter diamond-
sparkling skies of Edmonton,
Winnipeg and even
Whitehorse were rated as be-
ing better for the human
spirit than the grey shroud
than hangs over the Lower
Mainland for so much of the

worked

Start
vetoed

PREPARATIONS for this
years Vancouver Interna
tional Bay Swim are not pro
ceeding as organizers might
have hoped.

A request to
Cove in

use Sandy
West Vancouver as
the launch site was denied by
mumcipal council Monday as
there is not adequate parking
avatlable to accommodate
the 100 to L500) people cx
pected on the morning of
August 19

So far 30 participants have
signed up to cross English
Bay and organizers hope for
a total of SO, cach to be ac
companied on chem swim by
an attendant in an inflatable

boat

Last year nine swimmers
successfully navigated the
Bay starting from © aulfield
Cove and landing on Spanish
Banks

The swim was designed to
tac moncy for the 8 ¢
Special Olympres ane
years goal is) $50,000

But unless the group ope:
for an Ambleside oF Dun
darave launch site, and ad oOo
am
1) oo
International

thas

start aS
am. the

opposed te
Vancouver

Bay

won teven get its feet wet

Swim

Strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

Hysterically damp

HEN I first moved to B.C., I was told
there were two seasons on the West
Coast. Early spring. And late spring.

year.

Who am I to quibble with
Environment Canada? But
somehow it struck me as
almost a perfect illustration
of the problem with weather
forecasting in this country
that some idiot in Ottawa
could conclude that rain was
worse for you than ice, snow,
Minus Zero, and the dreaded
Wind Chill Factor.

To say nothing of the risk
of getting your tongue stuck
to a frozen metal railing.

1 don't want to. get
hysterica! twice in one col-
umn, but good grief , doesn’t
the stress ratings team realize
that come spring on the
Prairies, the local sport 1s
waiting for missing people’s
bodies to be revealed by the
melting snowdrifts?

These are folks who got
lost on the way to the garbage
in a White Out.

Then there’s this somewhat
depressing phenomenon call-
ed Frostbite. Frostbite isn’t
too bad when it’s happening.
In fact, one of the nicest ways
to die is probably lying down
in a snowbank in a blizzard
and drifting gently off...

It’s when you start (o
thaw, if you’re still alive, that
the really depressing stuff
Starts. It’s called pain. P-A-
I-N!

As a refugee from
50-below-zero surface condi-
tions in Winnipeg, | feel
driven to throw myself in
front of the panic-stricken
hordes fleeing Deep Cove for
the psychological joys of
winter in the subarctic, to
warn them that the real hor-

ae? oderbi He

ror is ice.

Underneath the snow, you
see, there’s ice. Everywhere.
Even the water, no kidding!
Sometimes the air, actually.
And ice, well, it makes you
fall. The technical term is
‘*‘skidding,’’ but we won’t
lapse into jargon.

Driving a car on ice can be
a definitely depressing ex-
perience. You put on your
brakes and so what?

But enough of
nostalgia.

The point is that weather is
becoming more important
than ever. It keeps changing.
First, they blame E] Nino.
Then the Greenhouse Effect.
Then Mount St. Helens.

But here on the edge of the
Coast Range, gently fanned
by roving bands of tepid air
masses, we are privledged to
know 164 days of rain a year.
At the most, maybe two
weeks of snow. (And that’s
only ABOVE the Upper
Levels.)

I know you need gumboots
if you plan to step off the
sidewalk. | know there is a
serious risk to the destiny of
the country if John Turner
suffers melancholia as a
result of stomping through
the ferns, squishing slugs,
like the rest of us.

But | recall, oh so well,
stepping off a jet at the Van-
couver airport in the middle

this

of a nearly infinite flat
glacier, and immediately
throwing my ear muffs,
galoshes, scarf, mitts and
overcoal away.

It doesn’t rain. here,

anyway. There’s just a fair
amount of morning mist.
Sometimes all day. For days.
Months.

Centuries

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a

EVERYBODY — AND everything — is waiting for the weekend as Ambleside sailin
school vessels wait to return to the water.

Extension backed

From page A3

Streets as Princess,
and Osborne.

The traffic study follows
Taanths of discussion on the
Montroyal _ extension with
input received ftam an ad
hoc citizen committee, as

Bramar

well as from council
members.

Mayor Marilyn Baker told
Council Monday that the

study has already been cir-
culated to the ad hoc com-
mittee, with further Council
discussion to be held at the
July 23 council meeting.
Copies of the report are
available to the public for a

tai

eh

GUARANTEED

slight fee.

In a related issue, sup-

porters of the rezoning of six
lots on Prospect Road from
RS-1 to RS-3 urged Council

G

and Aerobic Fitnes
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location,

/
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at a reconvened Public Hear-
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rezoning application, ending
years of delay on the ap-
plication.

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