We just had a huge snow storm, which was also the first storm of the year, with over 13 inches of snow. The whole world is at a stand still. It's beautiful though, and in spite of all the complaining that other people are doing (on the news, not to me), it was so wonderful to snuggle under the covers with the SO, make the decision to no even venture out, stay in, later to bake cookies, eventually to go out into the post-storm snow. I have no complaints really.
Before the storm, there's a sort of excitement. Will it really hit? Was the weather guy right? You can feel an electricity in the air. Then you go to bed, and in the morning, you open the curtains, and there it is: SNOW! It was still seriously storming out when I woke up yesterday at the time both the SO and I are supposed to head out for work. I glanced out the window, knew what I was seeing, and just snuggled back into bed to sleep.
For those of you who don't know snow, or snow in large amounts, there is a reason it's called a blanket of snow: Everything is muffled. The traffic sounds, the wind in the trees, all becomes almost silent. It's sort of magical.
Looking out my window during the day, I saw 3 SUV's and a large moving truck all get stuck in the snow on my street at different points yesterday. After getting unstuck, it seems that everyone gets to about the half way point of my street, then something happened and the vehicle has to drive backward all the way back to where they came from. Stuck car? Felled tree? Huge snow drift? I'll never know, but this funny scene happened over and over again yesterday. I thought "Look at all those poor bastards." You gotta' wonder why people were trying so hard to go out into the storm. Everyone had a pretty valid excuse to stay in. The 7000 student college was closed, most schools were only requiring voluntary attendance. The radio said over 100 city transit buses were stuck at one point or other in the snow yesterday, that wait times for buses was over 1 hour!
Funny fact: if you move into your first house, you probably won't own a snow shovel, and the importance of this fact will only be made clear to you when you are standing in a snow drift that is higher than your knee, and it infront of your door.
We went out to buy shovels last night, after the storm, but before any streets were cleared, and the streets were dead like it was the end of the world. My SO grew up on a farm and had no trouble getting out of the street, even without a shovel, or navigating the skating-rink-like roads. Most shops were totally dark having never opened or having given up and closed. We were annoyed to see mostly Money Marts and Payday Loan places alight. Some roads were so shiny with ice that it looked like driving on mirrors. We got to the first hardware store, and the shovel isle - the whole isle of about 20 ft - was bare and empty, except for kiddy shovels. The next store, the parking lot was more or less empty, but the shovel isle was swarming with people. We got our shovels and were on our way.
The 24 hour Burger King closed down as we pulled up to the drive thru - we went to a mom and pop place instead. Entire strip malls were dark with parking lots impassible from snow. Cars stuck in places, scattered like toys dropped by a careless toddler. It was really sort of cool and like another century. So many businesses, usually open 'til late or for 24 hours were totally dark at 5 pm.
The SO and I were in total love bliss, we didn't really encounter many grumpy people, or let them penatrate our happy aura. We were in our own world of making do and making the best of it. One guy asked us very sarcastically how we liked the snow, and I happily exclaimed - "It's great! We got the whole day off!" Even the shoveling was sort of fun. It was dark, the stars were out, the moon was bright, the snow came up in chunky blocks.
I have to be at work tonight for 4pm, and what would usually take about 30 minutes, according to the radio, will likely take 2 hours, so maybe I'll have some complaining to do then!
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Topic: Winnipeg in the winter wonderland (Read 4289 times)