Wednesday last was the first day of spring - "the vernal equinox." It had been lovely for a few days…and then Thursday it snowed, overnight. Friday it snowed more. We suuddenly has a beautiful white covering of wet and heavy snow. Evening came, and slowly ice began to form under the snow, and we had…slick!
Quite a shock for the spring-hopers. For me, quiet, internal pleasure. I am really a winter person. The chill of a wind, the bite of the cold temperature, the crunch of snow under my feet; this is where I am most at home. My spoken rationale is that summer heat bothers me and it's much more difficult to escape. Well…air conditioning is a help, but only if the humidity is low. In winter, one van always keep the cold at bay with the correct gear - parka, mitts. long johns - and by moving, walking, shovelling. So I'm actually pleased with a fresh cover of snow. I even shovelled it, rather than hauling out the blower. That was a bit risky to do, given the state of my back, but it was exhilarating, and it keep me warm!
Today, the snow remains - it was -15 degrees Celsius last night - but there is lots of ice, making driving a whole different thing. There were many street accidents In Edmonton after the snow arrived. In just two days, everyone forgets how to drive in winter! It amazes me how the arrival of snow helps people disengage their brains before the dazzle and excitement of fresh powder. Sometimes this is annoying. At other times it can be fatal. The other night, five people were tooling around open fields on a snowmobile in the late afternoon or early evening - the light had faded and was poor. They had lost track of just where they were on the fields, so they were totally unprepared when their speeding toy shot off the top of a an embankment, six metres above the highway! That's over 19 feet above pavement. Three of the five were killed, the other two seriously injured. One couple of the deceased were planning a wedding in the near future, and the young woman was bearing her first child. Joy and inattention helped a toy to kill three people. The definite downside of winter, assisted by human folly. Just as the heat can kill in the summer if the conditions are right, and people aren't protected, so also winter can kill if one isn't prepared for it, or inattentive to its implications.
At various times during this winter, there have been stories of snowmobilers attempting to race up mountainsides in the soft powder, despite warnings of the avalanche dangers prevailing at that time. A number of men have been killed in this manner since last fall.
People who live in desert regions or near the equator, learn early the ways that a person can survive in the heat. I well remember my beloved friends Vincent, from Madras, India, always keeping his head covered in summer - even in Canada. So it surprises me when Canadians, who have lived with winter their whole lives and with the experience of generations gone by, "forget" or ignore the perils of the season.
All this aside, I still love the season. I have always felt that I was a child of winter. Perhaps that comes from being born in December, although I'm sure there are all sorts of "December babies" who long for summer as soon as the snow flies. But I'm not one of them.
Quite a shock for the spring-hopers. For me, quiet, internal pleasure. I am really a winter person. The chill of a wind, the bite of the cold temperature, the crunch of snow under my feet; this is where I am most at home. My spoken rationale is that summer heat bothers me and it's much more difficult to escape. Well…air conditioning is a help, but only if the humidity is low. In winter, one van always keep the cold at bay with the correct gear - parka, mitts. long johns - and by moving, walking, shovelling. So I'm actually pleased with a fresh cover of snow. I even shovelled it, rather than hauling out the blower. That was a bit risky to do, given the state of my back, but it was exhilarating, and it keep me warm!
Today, the snow remains - it was -15 degrees Celsius last night - but there is lots of ice, making driving a whole different thing. There were many street accidents In Edmonton after the snow arrived. In just two days, everyone forgets how to drive in winter! It amazes me how the arrival of snow helps people disengage their brains before the dazzle and excitement of fresh powder. Sometimes this is annoying. At other times it can be fatal. The other night, five people were tooling around open fields on a snowmobile in the late afternoon or early evening - the light had faded and was poor. They had lost track of just where they were on the fields, so they were totally unprepared when their speeding toy shot off the top of a an embankment, six metres above the highway! That's over 19 feet above pavement. Three of the five were killed, the other two seriously injured. One couple of the deceased were planning a wedding in the near future, and the young woman was bearing her first child. Joy and inattention helped a toy to kill three people. The definite downside of winter, assisted by human folly. Just as the heat can kill in the summer if the conditions are right, and people aren't protected, so also winter can kill if one isn't prepared for it, or inattentive to its implications.
At various times during this winter, there have been stories of snowmobilers attempting to race up mountainsides in the soft powder, despite warnings of the avalanche dangers prevailing at that time. A number of men have been killed in this manner since last fall.
People who live in desert regions or near the equator, learn early the ways that a person can survive in the heat. I well remember my beloved friends Vincent, from Madras, India, always keeping his head covered in summer - even in Canada. So it surprises me when Canadians, who have lived with winter their whole lives and with the experience of generations gone by, "forget" or ignore the perils of the season.
All this aside, I still love the season. I have always felt that I was a child of winter. Perhaps that comes from being born in December, although I'm sure there are all sorts of "December babies" who long for summer as soon as the snow flies. But I'm not one of them.
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