Five Months Away

I was born at Saint Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Well, that is what I was told, I was too little at the time to remember and my parents were for the most part truthful. The hospital did burn to the ground a few years after I was born so there are no records to prove it one way or the other. It doesn’t matter to the blog, but at times I think I could be an offshoot (bastard) of some Eastern European royal family. According to my wife the “bastard” part is certainly correct.

I grew up in Southern Ontario and spent most of my adult life delivering mail and living in Alberta. Suffice to say I am no stranger to cold weather.

As a child I spent hours and hours shovelling the longest driveway in the history of driveways only to have the plough dump more snow at the end shortly after I finished.. Well, it seemed that way to me. My brother and the neighbour kids and I would spend a good portion of that time making forts, snow angels and having snowball fights. I should say that since I was one of the younger kids I was on the receiving end of most of the snowballs. It was all lots of fun though.

I fell into a job at the Post Office that required me to be outside for the better part of my workday. Most of the year it was a fantastic job, but during the winter I learned how to stay warm in spite of the weather. In many ways I was and am very proud of earning a living while it was too cold for most others to even venture outside unless they had to. I was involved in scouting and took the kids on a few winter camps. I can’t say that I enjoyed tenting in the snow, but it was an experience.

So, I am able to weather the weather.

Having stated my qualifications, I want to register a complaint with Mother Nature.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?

It is just the beginning of November; we should have cold nights and brisk days. I should have time to rake up those last few leaves that have blown into the hedges. I should have a nice sunny day to put the Christmas lights up. I should be able to talk to the neighbours in the alley for another month or two. I was planning on doing a few November bike rides. It would be cool, but refreshing. I had plans for November!

Instead I get winter! Today I woke up to about 15 CMs of snow and a -12°C with the wind chill of -23°C. There is no respite for at least seven days and the weatherman said that the snow will be on the ground until the spring. Well, unless we get a few fantastic Chinook winds. The best I can hope for is that when I put up the Christmas lights I will be used to cold weather and -10 without a wind will seem balmy. No bike rides; no talking to neighbours; no raking last minute leaves and no slowly getting acclimated to cooler weather slowly.

Ah well, spring is only five months away. Sigh...