How To Handle a Cold Snap January 12th 2024

    Out here in this corner of my home and native land, winter is a real thing.  It isn't like t.v. at all.  I have said it many many times,  but like winter it just keeps coming....... Winter can be six months.  It has often come in mid to late October and it has often stayed well into April.  In fact Our most vicious storms often come at the beginning of the "April Showers" month.   

    This year winter wasn't really, when defining the season.  It snowed in Mid October and then was warm and beautiful right up until Christmas.  We got a big fluffy snow fall the third week in December.  Not a lot.  Just enough for an Irving Berlin song.  It has been above or about freezing ever since......until yesterday.  

    It hit -30 yesterday morning.  Minus 43 this morning.  And that?  Is. Freaking. Cold.   We usually get a bout of that kind of cold every year.  It usually lasts a week or less.   On three separate occasions I lived on the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba border in my previous life.  It gets colder there and it snows all the time.  Two bouts of -40 up to 10 days isn't really out of the norm.   

    I was a cop then.  In my last posting out that way, we had some serious issues.  Some pretty major crimes.   Those first few days of -40 were usually pretty quiet.   Stores and offices were quiet and there was no one on the streets after five p.m.   In a place that was busy, physical, and dangerous there was something to be said for forty below.   Somewhere around day five people started to get annoyed with one another.  It got busier again.  Families that usually didn't see much of one another began to realize why.  It could be oh so ugly.  

   A lot of stuff doesn't work in -40.  Sometimes the block heater isn't even sufficient to keep an engine warm enough to turn over.  Ice can build up on chimneys preventing proper ventilation.   Striking a snow bank while parking will often shatter a plastic bumper on a new car.  Even antifreeze gels in those temperatures.  

    Sounds like I'm bragging.  Well I am not.  Fact is, I live here and this is what winter is.  It is easy to hate it.  And I do.  Not everyone does.  I have a cousin in Flin Flon Manitoba.  ( Yup.  That is a real place.) It is a mining town on the Manitoba side of the Saskatchewan border.  It is on the Canadian Shield and has an absolute beauty all of it's own.  I have five cousins there actually.   And I do envy how they embrace winter.  They ice fish.  They snow mobile.  And they do it with passion.   My Cousin wrote me a few years back.  It was colder than forty below that day.   He said he had been out on a ski doo rally all day in the crisp cold under a bright blue sky.   His words?  " If God made anything better, he kept it for himself."   Full disclosure: I have used that quote hundreds of times since then.  My cousin is a McLean and has that gift of words we all desire.  

     I will never spend a minus forty day on a snow machine under a bright blue sky.  I did spend more than a few days standing on the side of a highway or outside a building for several hours at a time, but that was because I was getting paid, had three children to support, and limited education.   But in spite of all of that, I have learned to manage these temperatures.  And how I do it is oh so easy.  You may have noticed the picture atop my blog today.  In my old life we called that "a clue".  

    I have a three part solution to the minus forty incarceration blues.   They involve a fire place, scotch, and a stereo.   Add a log to the fire, double the scotch pour and keep them coming, and crank up the stereo.  Now you can substitute any one of those things.  If you have no fireplace but you have a t.v. you will no doubt have a fireplace channel.   Although it doesn't provide the warmth of a real fire,  it does give you a visual.  And it snaps and crackles which is something my gas fireplace doesn't do.  It makes for a nice background to the stereo.   

    And if you have cable,  well you can certainly substitute the iPod for the stories.  There are many options for good stories or series on the boob tube.  It may be a great time to dig out some of the favourite DVDs.  When I used to work nights,  I often put a favourite DVD on in the afternoon and dozed to the comfort of a familiar dialog of a classic movie.  

     Then there is the book.  I am not a book addict.  I do enjoy the written word and a great story, however I am dyslexic and it takes me longer than most to read a good story.   But I do know those who get lost in a novel or historical account.  When is there a better time?

    I like scotch.  Quite a lot actually.   But at this moment it is morning so the beverage beside my keyboard is coffee.  My waistline and I have spent a lifetime at odds,  but for most Hot Chocolate on a day like today would be welcomed if not craved.   ( I just had to stop a moment as my mind wondered off to my childhood and a big marshmallow floating in a steaming mug of Cadbury's Hot Chocolate.)  

    t ain't summer.   It ain't Hawaii.  But it is home for what ever reason.  And like anyplace that faces the odd bit of adversity,  there is a feeling that we are all in this together...... well at least for a few days.  Those days we are stuck inside,  we don't have to feel stuck.  We can relax a little.  We can enjoy a little unproductive time.   We can try some of those canned foods in the back of the pantry that no one remembers buying.  And before you know it,  it is over.    As long as the cold snap doesn't outlast the scotch.