RE: [TruthTalk] weather questions

[ShieldsFamily]

By the way, Debbie, you are a wonderful writer as I’m sure you know.  Do you write for a living?  How old is your son? Fall/Indian Summer is my absolute favorite also.  And what IS Tim Horton’s? (Do we need to make a visit and find out?) Izzy   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Debbie Sawczak Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 11:28 AM To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] weather questions   This morning I get up and the sky is so clear and blue and high we might as well be in the desert, and my boy in his hood and balaclava with only his eyes visible looks like a Tuareg among the white snow dunes, or is it Berbers I'm thinking of, and by looking closely at his eyes I can tell that he is smiling as usual. The light whuff-whuff of cold-stiffened jeans is like the sound of a large bird's wings beating the air very close to your ear. The sun is still low over the roofs across the street, casting long shadows that dye the snow indigo, but elsewhere the white is blinding. The road, plowed, packed, and still unsalted, is like alabaster, the way it would stay for weeks at a time when I was little, before they went hogwild with salt. I am shovelling the driveway, the blade scraping down the long swath I've cleared braying deep like a camel and echoing. I lift and shake the welcome mat and a hundred little snow-diamonds fall out of the rubber grid and land at my feet. I see that the brother-in-law of our late neighbour Portuguese Manny has already been by with his snowblower down the sidewalk before the city can get to it; this reminds me of how Manny used to have his half of the driveway shovelled by dawn, and would watch me shovelling or in spring digging the garden and say that no woman of his would ever hold a shovel, and was I brought up on a farm or how did I know how to trim the hedges? Manny used to give us grilled fish and homemade wine and fruit and vegetables, he had a veritable farm/orchard of his own in his backyard, but that now he is gone it is gone too. I would do their side of the driveway but the son Kevin would be embarrassed. Having finished shovelling I go inside and my legs sting as if sunburned. I could do anything now, it is still early and I am all energy, and I think maybe "invigorating" when used of cold is not a euphemism after all, and sometimes the inconvenient beauty of winter stops my breath.   But then, I have a warm house. Like a Canada Goose, I loudly make all the true-north-strong-and-free noises but wimp out of winter at the end; if I could fly, I'd be down south too.   *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   I am tempted to perpetuate the stereotype of the Great White North, but in fact the climate in the part of the country where we three live (Jonathan, Lance, I) is about the same as New York. If you look on your map, you'll see the southern point of Ontario dips down well below the most northerly parts of the US. We have it on good authority that our last bit of "horrific weather" actually came from the US. We do get a good three and a half months of summer, four if you throw in Indian Summer! And I wouldn't trade the fall for anything.   For my part, I've often wondered how you guys down there can STAND it without Tim Horton's!!   Debbie -----Original Message----- From: ShieldsFamily [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 4:26 PM To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] weather questions PS I just went out to go meet my husband for this evening’s church service (he’s out there already for the band practice).  I couldn’t get the car doors open—frozen locks. I know when my son lived in Anchorage they kept some little heater thing under the hood.  I think I need one.  Izzy   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ShieldsFamily Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 2:55 PM To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Subject: [TruthTalk] weather questions   I have a question for you guys in Canada—how do you stand the cold up there???  It’s twenty degrees here now and the wind has been blowing at around 30 mph all day (sometimes up to 40), and it’s horrible.  It was 4 degrees one night this week. I look at Chicago and New York on TV and they are really miserable with a blizzard  I’ve always wondered how anyone can stand to live in the country north of us where all this horrific weather comes from.  (That may actually account for the evil dispositions we’ve seen exhibited in the past, as a matter of fact. J ) Is it a blizzard all of the time there? What is the temp, etc. where you guys (Lance, Jonathan) are right now?  How many months do you get “summer” weather (whatever that is up there.) Izzy