Winter benefits
Ooowwwaaahhh! It’s chilly! I slowly creep out of bed, the early morning light outside barely makes it past the curtains. Using my cellphone, I light my way to the thermostat and start up the trusty oil furnace. No electric heating up here! I take a quick look outside through the snow-covered windows. Is that the furnace making all that noise or is it the house shaking? I worry not and head back to bed. It’s just a full blown blizzard. I’m betting no one makes it to work, or school or anywhere this morning. The little radio is turned on and JBCCS faithfully tells us that there is no school. Facebook soon confirms that the band office is closed. Only the police and clinic remain open. I wonder if the Post Office will always stay opened as its doors are usually buried deep in weather like this. Forget about any planes today.
Facebook posts from the rest of the communities basically tell the same story. The highways are closed in some spots, the power is out here and there and the weatherman is just enjoying being the center of attention today. The local radio opens to tell us that the weather is bad and most likely will broadcast that there will be a Bingo tonight. Nothing stops Bingo it seems. The local bar already states that it will close tonight for sure. Sounds like a good time to watch Chinese sub-titled movies rented from some hacker.
But for many people from the North, it’s an expected reality. In fact, if not for sub-zero cold temperatures and piles of snow, it would be pretty hard to get by. Can you imagine, trying to go ice fishing and there’s no ice? Or how about some shinny (street hockey) where you can’t actually wear skates? Or get around in town without your skidoo with barely enough snow to skim the skis on ice and gravel? Yeah I know, you can always do these things like fish and get around in your vehicle, but you know what I mean. What’s winter without winter?
Mysterious bags and suitcases are brought from the basement and magically, there’s that incredibly useful set of snow pants and matching jacket. Hey, is that a Canada Goose parka from back in the day when Canada Goose was only good for days like today? Today, miniskirts are made out of Canada Goose materials, for the foolhardy and long legged, it’s a blessing. How can you look good and stay warm these days without a Canada Goose logo to confirm that it is indeed frostbite free and wicks out moistures until your skin is actually so dry it flakes.
Venturing outside brings back memories of the past. Some warm but mostly cold memories surface and I’m glad that I live so close to all the commercial buildings (that happen to be closed anyways) so if I had to, I could just don a regular parka and get where I want within a minute, that is if the shelves were stocked and not depleted because the cargo flights couldn’t make it.
Way back in the day, we sent a brave soul to the north and he was stranded for about two weeks in a never ending blizzard. Thankfully there was a fax machine that worked and we were able to secure some credit to keep him boarded and fed. He came back all disheveled and bearded and told us to send him up north only during the summer months, so we did. He got stranded for about a week in fog, but that’s another story.
Not to worry, winter is back and I’m happy with the resulting winter panorama. Hopefully the bad weather holds up…