As some of you may know, we get a lot of snow where I’m from. Southwestern Ontario gets dumped on pretty bad in the winter and we’re pretty much used to it. I remember tonnes of snow days back when I was a kid, but I lived in town, so I’d get to go to school and play in the gym and watch movies all day because the country kids couldn’t make it in on the buses.
As I got older, snow days got further and further apart until, eventually, they really stopped occurring altogether. No matter how many feet of snow there was outside in the morning, I always just got up, got dressed, dug myself out and headed into work; usually at a whopping 25-35 kilometers an hour down the city streets. Today was no exception. I got up, plowed my way through the foot or so of snow on my little side road until I got out the main road and headed on into work. I was one of the few that bothered. A great deal of people, mostly out of towners and some that were in town, didn’t make it in at all. I was there until 11:00 am when the email went around that we were officially to be sent home.
SNOW DAY!! It was like a nostalgic feeling, throwing me back to the days of being a kid when there was nothing to do but whatever I wanted because I didn’t have to go to school (in this case, work).
When you’re a child, however, you don’t take certain factors into account. For example, when you’re a kid living in a very small town, bad driving conditions don’t even enter into the thought process. You’re already outside wallowing in the joy of the snow. Today, I learned, this is not the case for an adult, which I have sadly become. Driving conditions are very much an important factor to those of us who drive a car or rely on public transportation to get us places in weather conditions such as this. I will say I’m impressed with my little car’s ability to get through the snow. It’s pretty impressive considering there’s not much to my wee hatchback.
So, upon hearing the news that we were set free, I offered to drive a coworker home as far as my place so she could walk (I wasn’t crazy enough to go gallavanting all over hell’s half acre) and we set to work cleaning off my car as it already had about a half a foot of snow on it since 8:45 that morning when I arrived at work. When that mission was accomplished, we headed out onto the roads at the designated 25-35 km/hour. This was effective all the way until I turned onto the side road that leads to my house. Immediately, I was stuck. We tried pushing, we tried rocking (I definitely tried a lot of swearing) but to no avail. Us two tiny little people were not big enough to get my car out of it’s predicament. However, a nice young man was trudging through the snow at that moment and he offered to help us out. Thanks to him and my coworker doing the pushing and me nudging the gas pedal gently, we got Bob the Car unstuck. I thanked him profusely (and choose this moment to do so again…thank you, Sir) and my coworker headed off home.
I then got as far as the very end of my own laneway and was once more stuck in the freezing mire of snow. This wouldn’t have been a problem but I knew that I was blocking the side walk and I was probably going to be buried by a plow at any given time. So I got out of my car, trudged inside and got the boyfriend who had not bothered to brave the weather and go to school. We dressed in out warm coats, mittens, and boots and we got out the trusty old (and I do mean old, like…thirty years old) snow shovel and pathetic little bag of road salt and we literally dug Bob the Car out of the snow. At some points, I was on my hands and knees scooping snow out from under the car because it was packed under there so tight. I should send a revised list to Santa and add on a new, plastic, ergonomic snow shovel and save my back the pain. Eventually, we were able to get the car into the driveway and now it sits there, slowly being buried under a barrage of snow squall that isn’t supposed to end until Wednesday (it is now Monday).
I came inside, cracked a beer and sat my butt down on the chair to watch some Netflix and that is where I now sit. Occasionally I get up to check the height of the snow and I did managed to snap a few pictures of it as well.
Notice the fence and the snow that is halfway up it...that means it's up to about my thighs
My somewhat redneck type neighbours put a mattress and box spring out on the curb a couple of weeks ago and they’re still there, leaning up against either side of the light pole. They are now half buried in the snow and I’m doubting will end up picked up by the garbage collection again this week.
You can just see them, leaning up on either side of the light post
There were people up and down the street digging themselves out of the mess. The boyfriend and I have decided to wait until the snow is more likely to be over and then give it a shot, as the snowplow is going to go right by and bury the laneway again anyway. We have a snowblower, I just don’t know now to start the damn thing. We will be getting to that later when we feel motivated enough.
My poor neighbour is up to his waist in snow
Some kids down the street were enjoying themselves, however. They were digging in the massive piles of snow at the side of the road and throwing snowballs at each other. This took me back as well. I used to do this with my sister and all the neighbour kids and it was great.
Fun in the snow...definitely more than the adults on the street
These last two pictures were my favourites that I managed to capture. The first is of a view down the row of houses I live in. You can see the snow coming down really well and you can also see the various places in which it has accumulated. The second photograph is just of the top of our fence and the tree behind it with all the snow sitting on top. When it stops actually coming down, I’ll be heading back outside to get more detailed pictures, but I don’t want to get my new camera wet, so it will have to wait until at least tomorrow.
I really love this picture, it's just so pretty.
The only time trees look pretty in the winter is when there's snow on them
Shanno's View 