"We had the worst weather today!" I tell this to my sister as we greet each other on the virtual call that makes 800+km of distance shrink down to mere milliseconds in cyberspace.
"Let me guess," she says, "Three inches of ice and you can't get into your car?"
"YES! And there was a THUNDERSTORM AT THE SAME TIME!!!!"
"........ wow."
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| I'm glad I don't have to drive anywhere this morning... |
I feel like by posting this picture I'm inviting other Canadians to join me in a weather measuring contest of "my weather is worse than yours!" Take exhibit A, sent to me by a friend this morning:
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| She told me she couldn't get out of the driveway this morning. |
Or exhibit B, taken from my Facebook feed:
Years ago, when I was travelling across the Canada I remember overhearing someone comment that "Canadians sure like to talk about the weather."
"....Yeah, because we have a lot of it!" Was the reply.
I also once heard a statistic that Canada has more weather channels than pretty much any other country on earth. Indeed, the first lesson for small talk 101 in Canada is "If you have nothing else to talk about then talk about the weather!"
So all that said, I don't know if this blog entry has anything significant to say other than to talk about the weather. Like, last year we got a crazy windstorm in Ottawa that knocked power out at my home for a week. The local trails were untraversable for the rest of the summer due to the number of knocked down trees blocking the paths.
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| I exaggerate not. This is a tame example. I didn't even capture a photo of the tree that fell on a house down the street. |
I wasn't even surprised this morning when I arrived at the local coffee shop to receive the inquiry from the owner that she has repeated to every person who has come in since, "Do you have power?" The truth is that we lost power at our house only for 10 minutes last night at 8:30pm, but apparently the people down the street have lost power overnight and still have no power this morning. Somehow, after last year's experience of losing power for a week, I fail to be shocked.
I guess the small silver lining that may go unappreciated amidst our crazy Canadian weather is that it gives us something in common, almost akin to a national identity. It is something we can talk about, something that unites us in experience, and builds the sense of community, of fighting against a common foe. With all the war and political drama around us, I'd definitely prefer if weather was the only source of conflict, instead of each other.
