#46. or, a bit of snow

  So, we got a lot of snow over the weekend. Apparently it was only a couple centimeters away from being a record dump of the white stuff.

  As i get older, i seem to struggle more and more with being happy to see it snow. When i was a kid, it was awesome. The things you could do in the snow were endless. We always had a pile my dad had pushed up with the tractor. (when he was, dad-inatractor) You could dig tunnels, make forts or castles, and more often than not, i can remember being an arctic explorer, climbing some unclaimed peak in the frozen wasteland. A few of the others not to be forgotten, snow angles, tobogganing, jumping off a row of stacked bales into a snow drift, and who can forget snow days?

  Now that i'm older, snow means work. Yards to plow, cattle that need extra bedding, sometimes there's feeders to dig out, plus the added hastle of travel. If you listen to beer commercials at all, our own Canadianism (is that a word?) is defined by our ability to laugh in the face of old man winter. To be a Canadian, is to live for shovelling off a hockey rink on a wind swept lake while drinking a Tim Horton's double double with your red Olympic mittens on.

  There's still a couple things i hold dear about winter and snow. I like the crunch sound packed snow makes when it's really cold out. Especially if it happens on a starry night when you go outside for a walk to look at Christmas lights. I like to look out the window at a layer of freshly fallen snow. But mostly, when it's bitterly cold out, and being outside for a couple seconds chills you to the bone, i like to get on a plane to someplace tropical. These days i seem to be leaning more toward that other Canadian winter tradition. When the going gets tough, spend the winter in Arizona.

  I was plowing the yard yesterday and it occurred to me if we got a few more inches of snow, the Christmas decorations on the lawn that i've been too lazy to pick up will be gone. So, i guess that's something positive. One less thing that i see every time i go past, reminding me it still needs to be taken care of. At least for a couple more weeks or so. Out of sight, out of mind?

................My neighbours were having trouble getting into their yard with their van, so i plowed out their driveway while i was in the tractor. They brought over a cake to say thank you. She makes wonderful cakes and it was delicious, but a tiny part of me though, wondered what would happen if my neighbours were travel agents?