Monday 11 January 2010

2010-day11





It's still snowing here. The country is in a bit of a flap over the chaos from storm low "Daisy". Most people are pretty unused to wild winter weather like this and are not at all prepared for it. It seems strange to me given that the weather reports warned this was coming, people were warned to stay off the roads and it wasn't a huge surprise that this would be a big blow.

I suppose I get a certain Canadian smugness about winter when I hear all the whinging, it's bad I know but I can't help it. I remember when blizzards went on for several days and knocked out the power so that all you had to heat with was a wood fire and oil lamps. I realise that most people don't have wood fires in their houses any more, we don't here either but you get by.

I felt most sorry for people stuck in drifts in their cars and having to wait out the night on the Autobahn. I have never had to do that, not once though I did get caught in drifts and nearly had a bus over turn once on my way to Deerlake form St. Anthony due to driving in a freaking blizzard. I missed my flight out but the bus got us through in one piece.

Today we have to drive from our nice safe warm house to Nürnberg and it's still snowing all over Germany. So I call up my Canadian life once more and will pack the car accordingly. This will include a snow survival kit ( food, drink, candles, warm blankets and a shovel) yeah go ahead and laugh but if I have to get stuck in the car I want to be warm and have some food.

I am thankful for the experiences I have had in my life that help me to prepare for stuff like this. When I was a kid I loved the big winters, as a young adult I bitched about them...long, hard and cold ( especially in Ottawa) but now I miss them and welcome snow and stormy weather. I am probably the only one here who feels this way but still, I am thankful for the experience.

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