Fine. So winter is back. I take back what I said in an earlier issue about the balmy winter. I won’t complain anymore about the warmth.
Two weeks later, a perfect winter storm arose from the northwest and settled in with a vengeance (an expression I’ve heard quite often these days, from those who are either out to impress me or the guy went to school, either way, I was impressed). It’s made the last 72 hours a heaven-sent playground for the consistently sweaty people who suffer from the heat.
Making sure that winter is back, a little hockey tournament transpired for dwarves (or was it the midget league?
) over the weekend, making it even more memorable since I had some strangers over to spend a few nights as guests at my humble abode. They, being of short stature (or is it just the midget league?
) swiftly conspired to root out all things noseworthy, including my ultra private computer residing on my new hutch (strictly off limits to those who dare).
Quickly settling in for a weekend of hard hockey games, they quickly rose to instant fame, winning the tourney even without one particular Rumpelstiltskin (who slept 20 hours a day and lived on toast) and without one wandering coach, who we luckily latched back onto on the way to the plane departing south.
Was it just the sheer delight of an easy win or was it the local environment that influenced the team to play hard? Or, was it the fact that the local girls needed impressing? After a tearful departure, they were homeward bound, leaving our frigid neighborhood to ready themselves for another bout in Chisasibi. Good luck guys!Speaking of storms, other communities felt the strong winds of alow-pressure system that wouldn’t be pushed out in time for work and school, shutting down entire towns in squalls worthy of the worst of storms. Driving around town in a white space where shadows are nonexistent and snow slides sideways in winds that take your breathe away makes it even harder for hardy pedestrians to get around.
I wondered if these extreme conditions are covered by the insurance plan as a shifting figure popped out about 15 feet away at twelve o’clock, far enough for the ABS to kick in and save the health board the cost of a medi-vac.
Whoosh, that was close. I offered the unsuspecting walker a ride; he could come in handy to get me unstuck from some hard-to-see drift. Arriving at another spot in town to pick up some prescription pills, a snow bank higher than I arose to block off the daycare, another enterprise affected by the ideas of the Valentine month. Funny, only the places that made their income with cash stayed open, making me wonder again…hmmm… what gives here?
Too dangerous to go to work but not enough to shop and play? Anyways, who wants to work in those conditions? Some people, feeling guilty from not working, made themselves busy and cleaned up their homes. Really, I asked around. Surprisingly, some felt so guilty; they even cleaned out the tool shed and wandered out to the local garbage dump to dispose of their wastes, only to find an impregnable barrier of hardened snow in the way, making all that effort for naught.
For those who have not the will for the frosts of nature, go south young lads and lassies. Aye, ‘tis the season to fraught not, and chill.
