that has blanketed Montreal since yesterday has made me really happy to have bought snow tires this year after two winters on all-season radials! It was really suprising to wake up this morning and realize that yesterday’s 5 or 10 cm had grown overnight in a big way, and that brushing off the car had been replaced by shoveling out the car.
No one tops Gilles Vigneault
, really, at describing Quebec. “Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays c’est l’hiver” is how he put it – roughly – my country isn’t a country, it’s winter.
We had over a foot of snow dump on us in the last week, today it’s warm and it might rain – leading to whispered concerns that we might have another ice storm like the great verglas of 1998.
And yet, and yet… things go on. Cheerfully. The pubs on St-Laurent were packed last night. Christmas shopping continues apace, amidst 24-hour-a-day snow removal that messes with parking, walking, driving – everything.
I really couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but here.
It’s only noon but
it has already been a very odd day. I woke up late to find that there had been another snowstorm – another 10 cm or so. Not a big deal really – but I made a quick decision to stay home and work in the comfort of my own office rather that driving to work. So – espresso at the ready, radio on, I fired up Eudora and started to see if anything pressing had come into my work account overnight. And poof – the power went off. So I went to the front of my house to check it out… and there are firefighters everywhere, at least a dozen of them if not more. It seems there was a gas leak across the street.
So I started to get dressed, folded some laundry – I figured if I needed to do anything they’d knock on my door. Finally I just said “OK, I may as well just go to work” as the smell of gas started to permeate my house. But still no word from the fire dep’t. I put on my coat, grabbed my wallet and phone etc. and stepped out the front door.
“Hey! Qu’est-ce que tu fais la?” They’d evacuated the whole block – and thought I was going in, not leaving. “Non non, I’m leaving, not returning. No one knocked on my door!”
So, feeling quite happy not to have blown up, and having called my insurance agent to make sure I’m paid up (just in case), I’m sitting here in the office now wondering how soon I can get home to dig out my car and make sure I don’t get towed.
Snow Day
Snow Day! Actually I’m at work like normal. Our visitors from somewhere in the US (up for a day-long meeting) made it. I had to shovel out my car but otherwise it’s pretty normal.
The beginning of winter
is really beautiful up North at Mont-Tremblant, where I went on the weekend. There’s not much snow yet, and at lower elevations it’s pretty bare. Saturday night, though, a cloud rested about halfway up the mountain. Sunday morning when I awoke to bright sunny skies, I looked across to the mountain and there was a straight line – above it was white: the ski runs, the trees, everything. Below it was as before – fall grey tree bark, grass and rocks, and black-looking evergreens. Of course my camera was at home in my work bag.
