It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

[Lanmark]

Makes me wonder what the advantages are to living in Calgary or Edmonton.

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Hardly any bugs survive our winters. (Except the damn mealies of course).

 

[Lanmark]

Hardly any bugs survive our winters. (Except the damn mealies of course).

I HATE mealies!

So.... no spiders? :clap: I'm scared of spiders. :sob:

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

I HATE mealies!

So.... no spiders? :clap: I'm scared of spiders. :sob:

Yah mean like this "little" fellow I found in the garden a couple years back? (that's about natural size on my monitor)

 

[Lanmark]

Yah mean like this "little" fellow I found in the garden a couple years back? (that's about natural size on my monitor)

Aaaaarrrrgggggh! I hate you right now, Tom. oke:

:wink: (not really)

OMG what is that thing -- one of those huntsman spiders? Jeez we used to get those things down in Florida, and I would nearly die of fright!

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Send it here right away - I have just the thing to fix it up. :fight:

I hate spiders. Hell, that's not even a spider, it's a monster.

 

[parvi_17]

Makes me wonder what the advantages are to living in Calgary or Edmonton.

I often wonder the same thing! We have a pretty high quality of life and standard of living in both cities, though we often don't realize it. Both cities are big enough that shopping, services, etc. are really good and available, but small enough that they are, for the most part, not jam-packed. We have some breathing space . You also don't have to pay like a million dollars or $2000/month for a modest condo/apartment downtown. In Edmonton at least, most people live in the suburbs or communities outside of downtown, and commute to work (usually by car - we don't rely too much on transit like they do in bigger cities like Toronto and New York). Jobs are readily available here, and we have a number of really good and respected post-secondary schools.

To give you an idea of how people live, you usually see ONE PERSON driving to work in a great big Lexus or Mercedes SUV that seats seven or eight. No one car pools here, and people love their gas-guzzling luxury vehicles!

BUT, none of this is enough to keep me here with the weather we have!

I HATE mealies!

So.... no spiders? :clap: I'm scared of spiders. :sob:

Yeah we have spiders, but they're small and not mutant freaks like the one Tom posted!

 

[Lanmark]

To give you an idea of how people live, you usually see ONE PERSON driving to work in a great big Lexus or Mercedes SUV that seats seven or eight. No one car pools here, and people love their gas-guzzling luxury vehicles!

With the economic downturn here in the past couple of years I've had to make some drastic changes in my lifestyle. Gone are the large luxurious living quarters with plenty of gardens to plant and design. Hello townhome. Gone are the two automobiles (one really nice). Hello big slightly used Buick. :rollhappy: At least everything is paid for, I have a liveable income, a nest egg remains stashed away even if it is smaller than it once was, and there aren't any big debts hanging ominously over my head. I'm just wondering now, though, if I'll still be able to take up residence in France someday when my official retirement age finally come rolling around. :sob: I might have to settle for something less.

 

[parvi_17]

With the economic downturn here in the past couple of years I've had to make some drastic changes in my lifestyle. Gone are the large luxurious living quarters with plenty of gardens to plant and design. Hello townhome. Gone are the two automobiles (one really nice). Hello big slightly used Buick. :rollhappy: At least everything is paid for, I have a liveable income, a nest egg remains stashed away even if it is smaller than it once was, and there aren't any big debts hanging ominously over my head. I'm just wondering now, though, if I'll still be able to take up residence in France someday when my official retirement age finally come rolling around. :sob: I might have to settle for something less.

Some people were hit pretty bad by the recession. Interestingly though, in my little city I didn't really notice a difference in how people have been spending their money. All I hear about is people building new million dollar houses, buying new cars, and the stores are very crowded on weekends. I sure as heck haven't been moving into a new house or driving a brand new car! But, my family is doing pretty well.

 

[Lanmark]

I still spend too much money but hey, life is short. I've got to spoil myself sometimes.

 

[SlipperFan]

Looks like some kind of horror movie!

 

[alexta6]

wow.. snow in late may?? i thought that only happens in the souther hemisphere.

 

[Lanmark]

Looks like some kind of horror movie!

Which, Dot? The snow or Tom's spider? :evil:

 

[toddybear]

We often have snow in May in Newfoundland...in fact we did have a skim a week ago. Newfoundland and Alberta do not have much in common EXCEPT for this feature! We just grin and bear it.

 

[SlipperFan]

Which, Dot? The snow or Tom's spider? :evil:

As far as I'm concerned -- BOTH!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

As far as I'm concerned -- BOTH!

Honestly, there are worse things crawling around, even in the house sometimes. There is a huge centipede that I find in the house from time to time called mukade. These are highly poisonous and can send a grown man to the hospital with high fever and intense swelling. The average size is around 4 inches, and I've seen them up to 8, but thankfully not in the house! Nasty buggers...

Snow in May :rollhappy: that is just too antithetical. The joke in Montana is that it can snow any month of the year!

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

OMG, monster centipedes too??? I will take snow in May over all your creepy cooties any day.

 

[Lanmark]

Yeah, snow sounds much better to me too. I wonder if Japanese style creepy crawlies or those massive venomous Japanese hornets reside in a place like Bora Bora? They don't have snow in Bora Bora!


My parents have traveled to Newfoundland a number of times, Toddybear. They seem to like it there.