Many Days in March
Canadians may feel alienated from each other for a lot of reasons, but we have one thing that binds us, and that's the weather! And, depending on where you live, there can be snow at any time of the year. I've been in Calgary since 1975 and in those over 30 years (wow, that long!!!???), it has snowed in every month in at least one year.
Cousin Marj asked Cousin Chris (otherwise known as Captain Chris - he's a real captain! - pilot for Jazz Air - very cool!) for some evidence of the massive snow fall down east. Captain Chris lives in Montreal, so he forwarded some pix of his place - buried in snow (on or about March 9). I imagine it took hours to dig out!
This is another Captain Chris pix - taken from the cockpit.
Then Uncle Fred weighed in with a few of his spring snow pix - also from Montreal...
I especially love the snow man across the street from Fred's place.
As a way of expressing a common bond among all Canadians, and especially my eastern relatives, I thought I'd share some pictures of our Calgary spring snow! We woke up to overcast sky and falling snow - a blizzard! - on Sunday morning (March 16). By the time we got up, the blizzard had passed, and it was starting to get sunny, but, as you can see, we were left with quite a dump of the white stuff!
See - this is a massive drift on the shed! Look closely - it's got to be at least three inches deep!
And this is the garage roof. We were worried about imminent collapse!
It took Joe minutes to dig us out! Look at it all!!!!
This is the view down the street. It's a good thing this was a Sunday blizzard. It will take the rest of the day for everyone to dig out - look at all those neighbours frantically digging away!
And our guard dino is buried....
A hard working Joe - still at the digging - this is at least 5 minutes after he started...
This is a couple of hours later.
That's Canada Olympic Park across the river - the place where all the snow is...
So my eastern friends and relatives - I just wanted you to know that we share your pain. Snow - it's the stuff that binds us.
Now, lest you think I'm tempting fate with a bit of teasing... I was bootless for about two weeks. I forgot my winter boots at Pam's in Abbotsford. It actually WAS snowing when I left, but of course in Abbotsford the crocuses were out - no snow. So I left my boots in her closet while I was there and forgot to bring them home. As they were old and I intended to replace them anyway - I actually did. Which means that I've cancelled out any bad luck I may have created with my teasing by having new boots. Surely if I'd not bought them, I would really be needing them!
New boots! (And as further evidence of the depth of our Calgary snow, note the fact that they would just barely be above my ankles - more than adequate for around here!)
Seriously, Calgarians think a "blizzard" is 3 inches of snow. In fairness, it can get frigging cold here - and with "wind chill" even colder - but we rarely get the kind of snow they get down east. Only one year in all the years I've been here do I remember getting serious snow. Mostly it's very dry dusty snow.
And also, seriously, we probably will get at least one more snow storm before spring comes for real - which if we're lucky will be before June. After all, in Calgary, we have 2 seasons: winter and Stampede Week!
PS - Not to put too fine a point on it...
Cousin Shirley submitted the pix below from her stomping grounds on the "wet coast" - with the following comments:
We can see snow on the tops of our mountains here, but haven't had any actually at ground level for quite some time - although it is still pretty cool for this time of year, + 4 and +5, rather than our usual +7. I thought I'd send you all a little bit of Spring. I am not gloating. Because every time I gloat, we get a snow storm or a hurricane or something. But I took this picture today.
[Today = March 21]
If it was me, I'd gloat - because, hey - I've got the new boots! We'll see how lucky they really are in the next few weeks! :)Happy Spring everyone!
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