Potholes are emerging. Traditionally potholes develop in later winter / early spring when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above freezing. The temperature cycle results in several freezing-thawing that causes potholes.
So our mild winter is like spring, and we can look forward to an extended pothole presence. In 2019, the City of Toronto fixed a record 110,595 potholes in time for spring. The "Pothole Promise" is that the City will repair potholes in four days from the date they are reported on the busiest roads.
There are large potholes in the landscape. I found a picture of a large pothole at Foster's Flats in the Niagara Glen. "This Pothole was formed in the ancient Niagara River Bed, now Wintergreen Flats. Later the rock layers around it were undercut causing it to fall to the terrace below." The most famous is the Devils arch.
Claims of the largest glacial Pothole comes from Eynon, PA - found by miners in 1884. It is located in the Archbald Pothole State Park. It is 38 feet 11.6 m) and 42 feet (12.8m) wide. Right near WilkesBarre are the Seven Tubs - a series of potholes.
Back to roads, I went looking for the largest potholes ever. Britain' Guardian led the headlines with a pothole so large that the council road repair van became stuck in it. It was 10 feet long. Then there's Detroit's claim of Pothole patrol: We find the biggest and deepest. They sent junior journalists out to find and measure the biggest.
A novel approach to potholes comes from Russia a few years ago with Russian activists painting mocking caricatures of local officials over gaping potholes. Here's the link HERE. They call it "road shaming".
Our pretty picture comes from my workshop a few years ago, learning to do macros of water drops.
In our water droplets workshop, we were using tiny seed heads to hold water droplets. The plants were hydrophobic - so the water formed droplets - they would aggregate into little water balls. It was fun to watch.
This was interesting and I looked up hydrophobic on Google and found a wealth of scientific information shown visually - all that knowledge in an instant. It showed the opposite - hydrophilic - when water coats the surface. Then it is flat and spread out.
It shares a common word with the story in the weekend paper - Hydro, or the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario - Ontario Hydro. The Globe and Mail revealed government accounting practices that are creatively covering up large debt. The story is HERE.
Ontario Hydro las loomed large and problematic in our social and economic landscape in Ontario since I can remember. The story of Ontario Hydro started in the late 1800's. It started out generating electric power on the Niagara River. In 1900, there was a capacity of 400,000 horsepower in development in Niagara.
But by 1922 the quality of Hydro's management was such a concern that Douglas Carmichael quit his position as Commissioner because he thought that the Hydro organization was either inefficient or dishonest.
I remember controversy in the 1970's - the largest related to its expansion strategy. In the 1980's there were large increases in rates due to cost overruns.
In 1998, the Legislative Assembly passed the Energy Competition Act to establish a market, and reorganize Ontario Hydro into five companies. In 1999, it it had long term debts of $26.2 billion - reduced over time with a taxpayer rate surcharge.
I've highlighted only a few of the milestones that mark its difficult history. There's a listing in this article by Justin Greaves HERE.
The recent Globe and Mail story is a story of how the government (rather than Ontario Hydro) has used creating accounting to conceal the debt that has accumulated because the government charged less for electricity than it costs to produce.
There seems to be a persistent cloud over Ontario Hydro - the continuing subject of issues and problems - even when it doesn't create them directly.
So we are now in the month of May - it is May 1st - May Day. Our spring weather is about 3 weeks behind, so we're just now seeing the first spring-blooming shrubs starting to show colour. This is Winter Hazel - Corylopsis. It is considered a 'winter garden' shrub in warmer climates, but here it is an early bloomer in Spring.
