tow truck blues

On Saturday morning, the residents of Cambridge Bay woke up with the realization that they should have plugged their truck in last night.  At -45°C with the windchill and with the 60 km/h winds, it was too cold for the engines to start. All right, who's got the jumper cables?

Of course the bad weather would fall on a weekend, when there was no work to be cancelled. I've been doing a blizzard dance for weeks now, for the hopes that we'd get the day off work.  It would figure that the intense winter weather would finally hit on a Saturday, continue on to Sunday, and then clear up by Monday.

The winds were strong, blowing the snow in from the tundra, which made for poor visibility, less than a kilometre at times. All of the flights were cancelled at the local airport.  Luckily, the residents of Cambridge Bay know how to survive through these things.  Time to bust out the real snow pants. We limited our use of water, because who knew when the next time it would be that the water and sewage trucks would be able to make it through?

Giant raven on a garbage can

We got a call from our friend telling us that he got his truck stuck in a snow drift that had blown across the road.  Could we help him out? Sorry, we don't have a chain.  My husband hung up. "Boy, it would really suck to drove your car into a snow drift."

And then my husband drove his car into a snow drift.

(Photos by Christine Aye)

First, he called the hamlet.  The hamlet sent a guy.  "Do you guys have a chain?" the guy asked.
"No," replied my husband. "Are you saying you don't have a chain?"
"I don't have a chain."
So Rob called everyone we knew for a chain.
"Do you have a chain?"
"I don't have a chain."
Eventually, the RCMP came by and saved the day.

ploughing the snow around the truck

Meanwhile, I was at home wishing I could take a bath.  On the bright side, I had an excuse not to do the dishes.

my friend B, disappearing into the landscape