Monday, November 28, 2005

It's snowing!!!

Ok, so I know that's not really terribly exciting for the rest of you for whom snow is just a fact of life during hte winter, but it's a big deal here, at least for me!

Snow is quite the rarity in Vancouver. We usually get a few days of wet, slushy, sloppy muck that tries to pass itself off as snow in January or maybe February, and that's about it. It's only even goodfor playing in while it's falling. It rarely sticks around longer than a few days before it starts to rain again. As a kid, it was always a novelty. In school, as soon as the first student spoted a snowflake, the whole class would have their noses pressed to the window and would be cheering, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" Full of hope, everyone, whether they expressed it or not, wondered, "Will school be cancelled tomorrow?"

Everyone laughs at us Vancouverites. Three inches of snow basically shuts the whole city down. Five inches, and look out. No one's going anywhere, except maybe to the local park for some toboganning. But you just don't understand Vancouver snow until you've experienced it. It's a slushy, slippery MESS.

Vancouverites might complain about snow, but I love it! As I sit and look out my window watching the big fat flakes come down, illuminated by the neighbours patio light, I feel a sense of calm. Snow seems to have a nostalgic feeling to it, and a softness. But that's not all. For me, every time a few flakes fall, I'm still that little kid full of glee: It's snowing!!! It's snowing!!!

3 comments:

BarbaraMG said...

Yup, we got the white stuff here on Vancouver Island and it was totally dead where I work because nobody wants to drive in it!

Hillary said...

Thanks Erin! There's still some tweaking I want to do. Have a look ath the "HTML Headaches" post. Perhaps you've got a suggestion for me? :-)

Barbara - wow! That's a lot of cats! Us west coasters are such wussies, eh? Wah wah, there's a half an inch of snow on the ground! Granted, it IS awful stuff to drive in!

Dana said...

That's funny. I would have never thought that a northern city would have problems with snow.

I grew up in Alabama and we only got maybe an inch or two a year usually when I was growing up. School was automatically closed and the roads became practically deserted. LOL

Now that I am in Chicago, I have learned how to drive in snow and shovel it as well. My wonder with snow fast becomes my hatred.