Weather is still the topic du jour – temperatures have been in and out of the minuses for days now and ‘they’ are forecasting more of the same. ‘They’ being a group of fortune telling weather gurus who seem to relish delivering foul weather news to us candy-asses on the coast – ‘they’ appear downright gleeful watching us try to cope with the stuff they are tossing our way. Us B.C.-ers are featured on daily blooper reels during national newscasts – we are entertaining the entire country.
I’ve grown soft in my old age – snow covered landscapes are for Christmas cards and skiers. I have all-season tires on my car and I’m pretty sure all those seasons didn’t include this Polar Vortex – I have no intention of testing their traction. We have a fresh dusting of snow over yesterday’s frozen slush and it’s scarier than ever on the roads. I’m staying put again today lest it be me that makes the news tonight.
This winter wonderland was pretty for a day, even fun for a minute – I felt a bond with my fellow Canadians, I felt like I was part of the club. I’m ready to step away from that club, to hand in my membership card – Canadian-ness be damned, I’m a west coaster and proud of it. I am not used to being chilled to the bone or walking on slippery sidewalks. I’m old, cold and cranky – I’m done of it!
I remember my youth on the prairies and my mother dressing us kids to go out to play in the snow – by the time the last kid was sufficiently bundled the first one would have to pee, and so it would go until we were all successfully pushed out the door into a drift that easily went over my youngest sister’s head. Those were the good old days – days when the snot from runny noses froze instantly on the itchy wool scarf wrapped around your neck – the days when playing in the snow was fun. I’m not tough enough to face a winter like that anymore, (hell, my dogs aren’t tough enough to face a winter like that) – I don’t play in the snow, I persevere.
I feel a little guilty complaining about the weather here on the coast when Edmonton is wearing the ‘coldest place on the planet’ crown and Newfoundland is being hammered by a blizzard of humongous proportions – but not guilty enough to just suck it up and tough it out. I’m a west coaster, a candy-ass, and I’m okay being mocked – in a few days the rain will return and bulbs will crown in the garden – the dogs and I will dawn our gortex and brave the weather we are accustomed to. It is winter after all and that’s how we do it here on the coast.