Montreal!

psyched for woody allen's fallen angels

starring kristen stewart and jeremy renner

*swoons*

ubiquity and lovability of k-stew and j-ren

it's genius really

and they both play the allen character

What a beautiful day to be a Montrealer (unless you live in the suburbs I guess).

Love: ducking under the weighted-down tree branches
Crossing the slushy streets, not so much

Actually, i went for a walk and just fell head first in a huge puddle on St-Denis.

aw man

this time of year is so nice. everyone has me so spooked about winter, here, but it's so good right now. it's like those days at the end of summer where, if you're out in the day just wearing a t-shirt, it's just-about too cold to walk home in the same clothes. but you can almost celebrate the season by doing that & just dealing with the fact that it's fine to be only-just too cold. everyone is all wintered up but it isn't bad, yet. i am walking around with my coat open. it's okay. i guess it will be bad soon, but at the moment it's just pretty & brisk & you feel very conscious of any exposed skin & you get home & warm up.

favourite thing today is seeing people walk those huge elliptic curves to get around the puddles under sidewalks

least favourite thing yesterday: total inability to gauge where the sidewalk ends/road begins

I can tell you about that. :<

so the world is practically gonna end on wednesday huh

weather was ridiculous today.

in a nice way

i am getting pretty into the realfeel weather forecast element on my phone & can't decide whether to be freaked by tonight being -8, real feel -23 WRT wednesday being actual-minus-twenty-three at its warmest.

oh geez now it's just getting real again. I remember for the first few years I lived here (starting 2002) the whole week of my birthday (this week) was -20 to -35, usually on the colder end, often with worse windchill. The -42 windchill days I just didn't leave the house.

The wind tonight was blowing in all the directions.

oh gawd

on the bright side happy bd rrrobyn

i am still kinda grimly intrigued by it getting so crazy, just because this week is gonna be the first time that it is like ... transcendently bad. i have seen snow before so seeing lots of it is just part of a scale, like dreaming about snow. but i feel like minus forty or whatever is like a whole-nutha-sport. tonight was super cold & i kept putting my gloved hands in my mouth for warmth, but the brightness of the afternoon sun was so nice too. i was on a bus, it was strobing.

this is, even for montreal, pretty fucked up

i was driving back from nb through this! so scary

i was driving back from nb through this! so scary

Stocking up on groceries, no plan to leave house this week

this morning i walked for 35 minutes from home to a warm place where i stayed for 30 min and then walked 35 minutes back and i was fine with only moderate grumbling about my face being cold.
so just wear thermal tights/long johns over yr pants, a warm coat, two scarves, a hat and put your hood up when the wind blows, and it's fine. i think the worst is having to stand at a bus stop or something. always be moving.

vrai canadians don't complain abt cold iirc

Yeah, jeez, just get good boots, good socks, a good coat, some plain ole longjohns and the weather's no big deal.

the other worst is having to walk over the rosemont overpass to the metro - always windy. oh how i recall the (supposedly dangerous) heyday of walking across the tracks.
xps
yep. i got good warm boots last year and wear two pairs of wool socks when it's this cold and everything is fine. except my nose gets cold and when i put a scarf over it, my glasses fog up. but hey.

longjohns OVER your pants??

then another pair of pants on top

then a pair of shorts

i wouldn't be caught dead in good boots

Bah, -40 windchill is a way of life on the Prairies, I tell you.:P

but it's a dry cold!! ;)

i walked downtownish and back again this evening and it felt like it was warmer out but apparently it wasn't, so i guess i just became hardier.

I felt the same way too

Regina: 71% humidity
Montreal: 72% humidity

The 'dry cold' business is something Prairie folk say to make themselves feel better.

haha i always figured...

guys guys, look what environment canada says:
Tuesday night A few clouds. Wind west 20 km/h. Low minus 25. Wind chill minus 36.

i walked home, about a 25 minute walk, just now, and it wasnt so bad. no wind.

i moved to boston from mtl years ago and i get (srsly) frostbite nostalgia. i also become very obnoxious to the locals, as in: "this is what you call winter? pshaw!".

i recall the days of toes brick-numb in my bauers through a haze of imaginary breath vapor.

or vapour, if you will.

The 'dry cold' business is something Prairie folk say to make themselves feel better.

Plus it's bullshit anyway:

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?product=help&pagecontent=weatherlore#Q2

planning a family trip to montreal for early july if anyone has tips for places to stay or things to do appropriate for 2 adults and an almost-3-year-old. we're looking at hotels but also might do an airbnb, possibly in the plateau area. we'll have a car with us.

try not to have to rely on yr car; if yr kid can handle the bus/subway, try to stay near Parc Avenue, St-Laurent blvd, or the Laurier, Mont-Royal or Beaubien metro stops.

^ this is correct

you might want to check out casa bianca, a very nice little hotel/inn-like place right facing the mountain.

otherwise, i can help advise you on airbnbs/locations/etc... feel free to msg me

thanks dudes! i'm pumped for this trip (obv. since we're planning it 6 months in advance). i've never been to canada.

if you come early july, you may overlap with the jazz fest, which is a mixed bag but there is a TON of outdoor kid-friendly free stuff.

(accoms might be harder to come by though, so planning early is smart.)

do you think it would be better to avoid those dates if we don't care about jazz?