Well, the weather continues to be the consuming, ever present strain these days. This morning I had a meeting down town at 8am, so when I went out to start the van and the sharp cold nearly knocked me off my feet, I should have known something was up.
As I unplugged the vehicle and the plastic cord kind of refused to lay down on the ground, well that should have been my second clue as to how cold it was. Turns out it was minus 40C, (which is the same as -40 F!).
Stink it's cold out there.
If anything, this week has proven a cold (pardon the pun) reminder of how dangerous winter can be. I'm always on the kids about being ready for anything when they leave the house, like bringing mitts along or wearing decent footwear.
All three of the people who died in this terrible week were within yards, a hundred yards in the one case, of a warm home. For pete's sake, one woman was lost in the airport parking lot, and that's not a 5 story parking complex, that's a flat piece of ground just outside the Airport proper.
When the wind and snow get going you honestly can't see two feet in front of yourself, and the good part is that now some people believe that much better than they did last week.
The other good part is watching people step up. This kind of weather makes people start watching out for others. They know it can kill and it makes them concerned.
People helping people get unstuck, people giving strangers rides home. People generally making sure others are ok before they go on their way. Those are the kinds of things that make sure the weather doesn't win.
And if you think about it, so far no homeless people died this week either.
Seems as though at times when there are bigger fish to fry we overlook our differences. Our income or skin colour doesn't seem to matter when we have a common enemy, and we come out the better for it.
Winter on the Prairies may be the last place anyone wants to be.
But I think that for these reasons it's the best place to be.
"I"m always on the kids about being ready for anything when they leave the house, like bringing mitts along or wearing decent footwear. "
ReplyDeleteBut we'll be in a warm vehicle so why in the world wear all that uncool stuff?
Arguments about the possibility of breaking down or getting stuck don't work on teenagers who know so much better than their parents. I just hope that that if they need to learn from experience the lesson won't cost more than a case of mild frostbite.
Yep, that's it. People these days are so used to being in their vehicles (with cell phones at hand to bring others to our rescue), that most don't think about the frostbite possibilities. Me, however, being an old timer and all, well, in the "olden days", I had to walk wherever I went, so if I didn't want to freeze to death, I wore warm clothes.....but ONLY enough to keep me warm of course.....I still needed to look "cool"...just not frost bitten.
ReplyDeleteTimes don't change, I guess. We learn lessons about hot and cold and eventually become mature in our thinking - except when it comes to always being fashionable! ;-))