Walk Like a Ballerina

Winter came late to Ottawa this year. December was mostly mild with very little snow.

Christmas Day was well above zero and it was raining. The grass was still green, for Pete’s sake!

But this past Sunday, January 4, we had:

1. Snow
2. Freezing rain
3. Rain

All in one day! It was Nova Scotia weather in Ontario!

The shovelling was bad, my husband told me. As a result of all that shovelling, the freezing rain fell on a clean driveway which means that it is a solid sheet of ice. So it was salted.  But all the salt mines of Tanzania don’t produce enough salt to melt the ice that covered everything.

The trees and shrubs were ice coated and glistening in the sunlight which followed the “weather bomb”. It is just so pretty!

Hah!

The temperature dropped from +8 C (45F) on Christmas Day to -25C (-13F) yesterday.

So now, when I venture out of the house, I have to walk like a ballerina.

You know. The teeny tiny steps, like Margot Fontaine dancing in Swan Lake. The arms outstretched and flapping in the air, like a bird ready for take-off. I mince my way down the driveway and do the ballet dance all the way to the bus stop.

I HAVE to get to Tim Horton’s to have a cup of steeped tea with my friend, Joan.

I feel as if an audience cheered as I entered the coffee shop. But I think some of them were hoping I’d fall.

I just hope I remember the dance steps for the trip home.

Happy New Year to all of you. May you be blessed with health and happiness. – Maureen

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Mad at my Sister

I have three sisters, and I love them dearly.  BUT I am quite upset with one of them.  She is normally a very nice, kind, generous, lovely person, but every once in a while she lets loose a vicious mean streak and that’s what she did today!

My sister, (I’ll call her Helen, because that’s her name) lives in Bermuda.  This is not normally a problem!  I love visiting her there and have done so many times.  Do you know what it is like to visit a warm, sunny country in the middle of a typical Canadian winter?  It makes you want to weep! 

Every time I leave that country, I stand at the top of that little ladder they provide for you to get on the plane, and I close my eyes and try to memorize the heat!!!  It is very difficult to do but I manage it for the two-hour journey back to Canada.  It’s fine in the airport but as soon as I step outside, the blast of snow, wind and c-o-l-d knocks the memory right out of me.  I can’t even remember my name let alone the heat.

I know I am digressing but I have to set the stage so you can properly understand the perfidy she unloosed this morning.  It is rare that one has to endure such things but she showed a treacherous nature that shook me to the depths of my being.

It happened on Facebook!!!  Yes, in a public forum.  She … oh I can hardly say it …  she said, “Brrr.  It is really cold here!”  Cold!  And she was born and brought up in Nova Scotia, the snow capital of the world where the day after a winter storm you can step right out of your second floor window to wend your way to school!

I noticed that she got comments from as far apart as Vancouver and Cape Breton.  Her commenters were polite.  They were nice.  They were understanding when she said, in that little girl voice of hers, (well, I couldn’t hear her of course, but I know that voice), “You have to understand it is 57 º here but it’s damp”!!!

HAH!

In basically all of Canada, it is -236 degrees and don’t even ask what the wind-chill is!  The meteorologists at Environment Canada were going to tell us but their lawyer advised them not to because of the very real possibility of multiple cardiac arrests across the nation. 

Seriously, what do you think of a sister who would complain, (yes, complain, Helen) about the cold, when her older sister is on her knees praying for spring to come?

My sister and fellow blogger (Yes, you, RvingGirl@wordpress.com) will no doubt try to stir up your sympathies, but I know you’re on my side in this.  Aren’t you???