Ok I didnt sign up for this.
When I married and moved to Canada I was prepared for SOME snow and SOME cold. To be honest, the cold hasn't really been such a big issue. We have an underground garage and I don't really go anywhere where Im walking in the cold for very long. Plus my daughter Rachel crocheted me an extra long and extra wide scarf--in my favorite color--and I can wrap it in such a way that I don't need a hat. I detest hats. So the cold, while I complain some about it, isnt really an issue.
But the SNOW~ holy cow. Last year we got nearly nothing, and I was perfectly ok with that. Now we've got more snow than we did in the 1990's when the mayor called out the army to help. Ive seen some decent snow storms. There was a blizzard in Parkersburg, WV in....81? 82? and my engine froze solid and we had some good snow. I was stuck in a radio station with one other person because nobody else could get in to run things. So he and I took turns sleeping on the floor and eating from the vending machine. But by Monday morning things were navigable again and although my engine still hadn't thawed I could walk the couple of miles home.
The other major snowstorm I remember was in Havelock, NC of all places. Was really a freak storm as they NEVER get snow down there. It's only 20 minutes from the ocean! It snowed maybe 6 or 8 inches, completely covering parked cars and thigh deep to my toddlers. They have no snow removal capabilities in eastern NC so it took awhile to get over that one. Plus it was just a couple of days before Christmas so "santa" was really going to have to be creative for stocking stuffers...
Once it snowed waist deep to my youngster in West Virginia. She jumped off the porch into the snow and couldnt move. That was entertaining.
But this snow in Toronto...oh my...how to describe it. First of all, it comes and comes and comes this year. Two or three good storms a week--minimum two inches. It's a good day when we "only" get two inches. A couple of weeks ago when this started, the plows were keeping up. Eventually, though, the piles of snow alongside the road and sidewalks got to be 5 feet high. Dangerous driving because you couldnt see oncoming traffic if you were turning. Additionally, Toronto is very urban--there's simply no place to shovel snow to. So they removed it to dump trucks and found several fields around the city to dump the snow into. One of those spots is vacant land along side the railroad tracks across the street from my apartment building.
The first night they started piling snow there I didnt know what was going on. I kept being awakened by BANG and beep beep beep and diesel engine noise. Finally the third or fourth time I got up I managed to locate the sounds outside my office window. Sleep was ok after that because I knew what the sounds were. Plus it stopped after a day or two. For about a week.
Now it's back again because the snow continues to fall. We've had so much Ive lost count. In one day (Feb 7, just two weeks ago) we had 40 cm in one day. And there have been at least three MAJOR snow events since then. And it's snowing today as well. Only a couple of centimenters so far (it's about 10am now) so they arent even bothering to plow yet. They don't start that til 5cm have fallen (about two inches) Add to that temperatures that are either -14C (about 6 F) or 2 (about 33 F) so it thaws and freezes--sometimes in a matter of a couple of hours. As of last week, Toronto had recieved 130 cm of snow in 2008--that's about 52 inches or 4 feet--through Feb 12. We've had at least three MAJOR snowfalls (10 cm or more) since then. Standing, undisturbed snow in a field is about 5 feet deep--and that is after some thawing and rain last week.
But my gripe is really about this ski hill they are building across the street. They have formed a circle in the field with the heavy equipment in the middle and only one entrance/exit. The snow hills are at least 4 stories high. In many places you can no longer see the trees. And they are working 24 hours, seven days a well. BANG, beep beep beep beep BANG, rev rev...on and on and on.
I wanna go home. Im going snow crazy!
