Snow Day!

If you looked over at Tim's blog or watched the news here in Canada, you'll know that most of Western Canada got hit by a massive blizzard and right at the center - Saskatoon. We got hit hard, although thankfully no power outages. How hard a hit? Well let's put it this way, the last time the schools didn't open because of snow was probably a few years after the picture on my profile was taken - but not many. In other words somewhere in the region of 40 to 45 years. If this were Toronto the mayor would be hounding Ottawa to send in the army - or at least what's not in Afghanistan and maybe even the part that is in Afghanistan. We usually shake our heads sadly when we hear that sort of stuff then go back to shovelling.

There are lots of stories from the Blizzard of 2007. There were people forced to spend the night at the airport because their flights were cancelled but they couldn't get back to town. There are stories of truckers, most of whom stopped at the area truck stops, but a few of whom were independent enough (read as either incredible idiots or close to losing their rigs if they didn't get this load through right now) who weren't overly worried about the fact that the RCMP was strongly recommending that people didn't travel. In fact they closed most of the highways in the Saskatoon area. Then there were the hundred or so people who for whatever misguided reason just had to get out to Costco and ended up spending the night there. I suppose they had it better than the folks at the airport. At least at Costco there are plasma TVs and a supply of movies.

Sadly there were deaths - at least three - including a couple of people near Onion Lake who were foolish enough to leave their car and try to make it to a house or something. Rule #1 for winter survival: Don't leave the damned car! Being in a car gives you shelter and if you have gas you can stay warm. A good survival kit for the car includes (but isn't limited to) a blanket and candles - candles can be used for heat as well as light.

I wish I had a good blizzard story but the closest I can come is looking out the window a few times and not being able to see the house across the street. You weren't going to pry me out of my nice warm house into that. Oddly enough my TV viewing suffered - I forgot all about the late feeds of Friday Night Lights, Knights Of Prosperity, and In Case Of Emergency. I planned on writing about at least one of those two today. I also forgot to watch my tape of Little Mosque On The Prairie, but I hope to remedy that situation soon. Meanwhile I have snow to shovel, but assuming I can avoid a heart attack (shovelling snow is high on the list of immediate causes of coronaries among Canadian men my age) I'll check back with you later.