'Canada Post customer requests apology, free stamp, over snowed-in mailbox'

[momcqueen]

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/new-brunswick/canada-post-mail-snow-1.3928731

Canada Post customer requests apology, free stamp, over snowed-in mailbox

Got mail?  

Ted Boothroyd didn't get any last week. 

The Fredericton resident, who lives in the Rosewood subdivision, said the public mailbox was hidden behind a large snowbank, making it impossible for customers to retrieve their mail for almost a week.

• Canada Post criticized for poor snow removal around mailboxes

"You could not argue with it," he said. "You could not get through.

"Obviously, the people who normally deliver the mail could not get through either."

[momcqueen]

I want someone to apologize for winter and snow in Winnipeg in general. I wrecked my bumper (broke it into 25 pieces) driving through a snowdrift. My front bumper shattered. It was -38 degrees celsius not counting the windchill that night. Pulling into my own driveway. If that's not an insult, I don't know what is. 

[i.am.vivian]

Good article!  I don't really like those mail boxes, even though I believe they are the way of the future and we can all just darn well get used to them.  This demonstrates one of the things wrong with them, imo.  Even for young agile people this would present a challenge, to say the least.  Imagine if an elderly person hobbled over to get the mail and found this.  Terrible!  I don't blame people for being annoyed. 

And what about your car bumper?  Can you get that fixed "on the house" because automobile parts should not be as fragile as glass just because of extreme cold.  Everything is plastic these days.  50 years ago it would have been metal.  It might have dented a bit, but hubby could always take the hammer and bang it back into shape.  But now you have none at all.  Can you get a replacement through the vehicle warranty or auto insurance?  

[momcqueen]

Warranty long expired, I've had the car for nine years. I'm simply going to have to save my money to replace it. Opening an insurance claim would be short-term gain and long-term pain. I'll wait until spring. It was bitterly, bitterly cold that night and the drift I drove through had been wind-sharpened for two cold days and nights before I came along. Still, the bumper should not have shattered. Neither should I have tried to drive through it, obviously, I should have known better. It's not like I just woke up in Winnipeg, I've lived here my whole life and driven in Manitoba for 26 years. Our snow doesn't melt, it just gets tougher and angrier as the season wears on. The windrows caused by snowplows are taller than me at present and we've only had snow for a month, there's another four months to go. At least. 

[i.am.vivian]

I don't see there is any fault of yours at all, no matter how long you lived there.  Who on earth would ever imagine snow could shatter a car bumper?  I remember life on the prairies and how the wind would harden the snow until you could walk on it.  Spring would soften it eventually and you'd find out by falling through to thigh-high sometimes.  Just life in a wintery place in Canada.  But its still snow!  Not ice.  An iceberg can break up a ship, but the whole point of a bumper is that it is supposed to protect the vehicle, not shatter on impact.  You didn't hit a concrete wall.  But its that plastic.  Plastic breaks down over time, so even though the car isn't very old the molecular components of the material are not strong enough to withstand contact at those temperatures.  If cars were designed by and for Canadians issues like that wouldn't exist.   😞  

[i.am.vivian]

I just checked your weather (can't help reminiscing) and it'll feel like -39 C tonight but next week it is supposed to heat up by at least 20 degrees by day, more by night.  Which is still not hot, but better.  It'll be more fun for the kids I would think:

[momcqueen]

The long-range forecast is more promising than the short-term forecasts: 

Extreme Cold Warning in effect for: City of Winnipeg
A prolonged period of very cold wind chills is expected.

A fast moving cold front is expected to produce light snow and blowing snow as it sweeps across southern Saskatchewan tonight and southern Manitoba overnight and Thursday. Behind the cold front, more extreme wind chills in the -40 to -45 range are expected as temperatures drop. Extreme wind chills will redevelop overnight in Saskatchewan and throughout the day on Thursday in Manitoba as the cold air deepens. Conditions will begin to moderate over western Saskatchewan Thursday night.

[i.am.vivian]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

more extreme wind chills in the -40 to -45 range are expected as temperatures drop

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Wow, that's cold.  And all those poor farm animals.  The livestock really suffer when its that cold.  On eBay there are chicken sweaters for sale!  How do the kids feel about it?  It's Winnipeg, so I doubt the schools close or anything, not like they do in some places when there's a bit of snow & cold.  Too frigid to play outside, I would think.  Most kids like to play in the snow but there is a point where it is too cold and its not fun any more.  

[momcqueen]

At a certain point, the school children aren't allowed to play outside for reasons of safety. I think it's -28 with the windchill when they call then indoors. With the white-out conditions across the province today, many main highways were closed and rural schools closed as well. Within Winnipeg, the schools stay open but school buses don't run so parents are responsible for getting their kids to school if they want them to come. We drive 20-km round trip every day three times so bussing isn't an issue. I'm a farm girl at heart so it takes quite a bit of poor weather for me to consider it too bad to travel. I have, unfortunately, been that person driving blind down the highway in a wall of white in my youth. My employers at that time allowed no excuses whatsoever for missing a shift. 

Here, it was so cold and windy, I couldn't see my neighbour's house across the street. It was fairly miserable. 

Oh well, only four more months to go!