Man, I hate winter.
No I mean it, there is very little good about winter to me. I know, it is sacrilegious in this part of the world to not have love for the snow but it just don’t. I have spent far too many of my formative years in the Prairies with frozen hands, snot icicles and seven layers of clothing for anything we want to do. I grew up playing hockey, indoors and outdoors, and loved everything about it except the cold. Skiing was also a blast. Couldn’t get enough of the thrill of swooshing down the hill, except for freezing my bloody face off. Who doesn’t love Christmas? Everyone loves the holiday season, travelling through the city, seeing all the lights, hitting the malls. Everything is magical, except the cold.
Thankfully, I have met a woman who shares the hated for the cold. Mary and I often discuss the desire to move to a warmer climate once the kids are moved on. We have this silly fantasy where we are sitting on the lenai in some fictitious Hawaiian home while the boys and our grandkids hang off of our every word. Do you what the key ingredient is to the entire dream? Warmth. When is the last time you heard of someone tell you their latter years story including a snow drift. Um never, is the answer. Who knows if this warm climate dream will ever actually happen but it literally warms me up thinking about it.
Back to reality. Friday was a shock to my system. You knew it was coming too. Colder and colder mornings, the grass stopped growing, baseball playoffs started. I miss the summer already. Normally, I love the fall and all that it offers the 403. One of the great things it offers is a chance to catch your breath from a frantic summer of BBQ parties, camping, car trips and endless cool drinks. Not this fall!
Friday morning, it was ice fog leading into light flurries that turned my normally easy trip to Red Deer into a skating rink. Yeah, I’m the guy that was trying to milk the last legs out of his balding all-season tires. The same guy that won’t put a jacket on until Thanksgiving. The same guy that won’t put the patio furniture away until snow covers the cushions. All of that went out the window on Friday. I was thrown quickly into my own personal snowy hell. I’m not sure I can handle a long winter.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend and it sucks out. For those who long for the snow, this is awesome. For me, I will dig my sweaters out, find my snow brush and change the ole’ furnace filter while I long for the days of sunshine and cool beer.
Happy winter everyone.
Marco