New Beginnings

As this is a new year, and I have been advised that because of the name of this blog, I am blocked from some people's computers due to the, um, alternate meaning of Ponygirl, I have decided to take a step sideways and start a new blog.

Please be advised that henceforth, I will be travelling about the Blogiverse as Ponita from http://ponitaslife.blogspot.com. Ponygirl has now been retired out to pasture.

Please check out the new blog and if I am on your blogroll, a change of address is required. Thanks so much!

Ice Fog and Sundogs

From Wikipedia:

Ice fog is any kind of fog where the droplets have frozen into extremely tiny crystals of ice in midair. Generally this requires temperatures at or below −35 °C (−30 °F), making it common only in and near the Arctic and Antarctic regions. It is most often seen in urban areas where it is created by the freezing of water vapor present in automobile exhaust and combustion -products from heating and power generation. Urban ice fog can become extremely dense and will persist day and night until the temperature rises.

Here in Winterpeg, we have experienced ice fog from all the cars during severe cold weather when there is no air movement. Now, we like it when there is no wind, but it does create rather adverse driving conditions when you can't see the car in front of you and the road is polished to pure glass by the spinning of tires as people try to get moving once the light turns green. The exhaust from the cars just hangs in the air, obscuring your vision and creating plenty of work for the local body shops.

From Wikipedia:

A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, for "beside the sun") is a common bright circular spot on a solar halo. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two sun dogs can be seen (one on each side of the sun) simultaneously.

Sundogs cause us Winterpeggers to cringe. When we see those, we know that is is f*cking cold outside! They only seem to occur when the temps are well below -20C. They are quite beautiful, though, especially when they are rainbow coloured like they were today.... it was -33 when I was driving to work just before 11:00 a.m. The sundogs were large on either side of the sun, quite colourful, with a rather elongated (up and down)shape.

From Wikipedia:

Radiation frost (also called hoar frost or hoarfrost) refers to the white ice crystals, loosely deposited on the ground or exposed objects, that form on cold clear nights when radiation losses into the open skies cause objects to become colder than the surrounding air.

I love hoar frost! It dresses up all the trees and fences, and anything else left sitting outside in the winter. When the sun shines on it, it glitters like diamonds in the light, giving the world the look of being coated heavily in fairy dust.

I could, however, totally live without the temperatures that drop below -15. I love four seasons, and I do enjoy the snow.... but when it is colder than a witch's t*t, it really makes me wonder how we puny humans survive this crap.

Isn't it spring yet?

KANGAROO

Captive Camera

Christmas Day afternoon/evening was spent at my niece's house, with family gathering to visit, have a wonderful potluck dinner and exchange a few small gifts.

My brother-in-law and his girlfriend were in from BC, so it was great to see him again and to meet her. My nephew and his wife came from Calgary, where they had moved in September.

My youngest sister and her hubbie were there. My niece's in-laws as well. Plus the two great nieces, ages almost six and just past two. Twelve of us all together. A lovely size for a gathering.... not all the family to be sure, but those in Winnipeg at the time.

Seeing as how I had worked 14 of the 16 days prior to Christmas (up to and including Christmas Eve), I was dead dog tired by around 8:00 p.m. and toddled off home to crash. And forgot my camera on the table next to the couch. When I got home (all of a three minute drive), there was a message on my answering machine that my phone was being held captive.

WTF? I looked at the cell phone in my hand.... thinking, 'someone had a few too many pieces of fruitcake or something.' So I called and my sister answered. It wasn't my phone.... it was my camera that was being held captive. Okay... whatever.... I would come back and pick it up in the next day or two.

So I did. And then, once I got it home, I had to look at what was on it, as everyone was laughing and giggling in the background when I had called about it that day. This is what my family does on Christmas Day, in the presence of small children, with their toys:

Needless to say, I chuckled out loud when I saw these! Gotta love a family as warped as this!