Anna's Secret, Innermost Thoughts

It's snowing outside and I am most seriously displeased. We're not talking a little bit of flurries, either. This is a few inches of snow and it's staying. It is May, I should not have to deal with snow! I shouldn't be surprised, since this is not the first year we've had a May snowfall but I will still sulk about it. I'm so sick of winter. First snowfall was in October, people. Do you have any idea how long winter seems when it stretches across eight months?

In other news, I have become addicted to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's charming and colourful and intelligently written. Plotlines are surprisingly complex for what is allegedly a children's show and the main characters are pretty well fleshed out. They've had episodes about racism and puberty and other issues you wouldn't expect. And it's something I can watch with my seven-year-old daughter. We appreciate it on different levels sometimes, but we both glee over it unashamedly. And, well, it taps into the nostalgic part of me, since I was of the right age to get swept up into the first generation of My Little Ponies back in the '80s.

PONIES PONIES PONIES PONIES

Yes, it's obvious I watch this show from a mature perspective. *cough cough*

It's cold out. It was below -40 this morning when I got up to get the kids ready for school. Which then involved a consultation with the husband as to whether they should go or not.

I do this ramble/rant every year. The thing is, when the temperature gets low enough, the school busses deem it too cold to run. The schools, though? They never close. So while the busses aren't running, the kids are still expected to get to school.

We actually live in an awkward spot, just barely too close to qualify for the school bus. So we walk. It's a 15 minute walk one-way, longer if it's been snowing and I have to push the stroller through fresh drifts. That in itself isn't so bad, really, but I then have to return home, making for more than a half-hour walk in -40 weather. With a baby. Three times per day. Really, it's the cold air exposure for the baby I'm most worried about. -40 is incredibly cold, especially when you're just lying there instead of walking and moving around in it.

As it stands, they went today because the husband volunteered to make the drive in the morning and things warmed up to -30 later in the day. (Sad, isn't it, when I say "warmed up to -30"?) Other days? I dunno. I think -40 was my line in the sand last year, where I put my foot down and said "no, it's too cold to walk to school." I'm thinking the same will be said this year. Because -40 is mind-breakingly cold. Seriously.

I totally hung out with Neil Gaiman tonight. And by "hung out with" I mean I was in the bookstore when he visited, did his reading and Q&A, then stood in line to have my book signed. The store (shop if you're British) was impossibly crowded, which is really no surprise, although still impressive considering the size of this particular McNally location.

Of course, Mr Gaiman was funny and charming. For those unaware, his visit was a result of a contest that Winnipeg tied for first place with a city in Georgia for. The final decision was Neil's, and when he narrowed it down to those two, he couldn't pick one over the other. "I couldn't toss a coin," he said, "and I couldn't just pick one randomly because if I did it would definitely not be Winnipeg in December."

For those who can't truly appreciate that statement, allow me to show you what my kids wear every time they step out of the house:
( More about Gaiman and the Winnipeg weather after the jump, complete with photos and stuff.Collapse )

It's March. It's also -40. Someone needs to inform the Canadian weather that we're supposed to be warming up for spring now.

Saw Luke Doucet in concert last night. He plays much better when his hand isn't broken. No, really, last time he was in town, he had broken his hand and played the show anyway. That, my friends, is gumption. At any rate, good show! He plays a nice blend of folky pop-rock. Sounds confusing, but hey, it works for him. Canadian artists are awesome. Proven fact.

In completely unrelated news, how not to describe your heroine in two pages or less:

http://vandonovan.livejournal.com/1088311.html

(Seriously, two pages of contradictory similes? Who published this?!? Were heavy bribes and/or alcohol involved?)

With the cold snap across North America, it's been interesting to hear different peoples' ideas of what constitutes freakishly cold. I sympathize with some of you, particularly the ones who have been hit with an unseasonal amount of snow. Depending on where you live, even two or three inches can be a real pain to deal with if you're not used to it, since nobody knows how to drive safely in the snow and the city just isn't equipped to clear the streets in a reasonable time frame.

That being said... I'm having a good time with the ludicrousness of some of the weather complaints.

As seen on the Canadian weather network: doing a cross-country weather update, the chick touched briefly on all the major areas, as one would expect. It's actually fairly warm in the west (well, comparatively so; they're hovering around the freezing point in BC and Alberta right now). In the prairies, it's cold enough to freeze your feet to the sidewalk. Ok, not actually what she said but not an exaggeration either. We've stayed consistently between -40 and -55 all week (that's between -40 and -67 in Fehrenheit). After briefly glossing over that, the chick moved on to southern Ontario, where she actually apologized for delivering the bad news of how incredibly cold it was going to be, because it was going to get as low as -35 (-31F). And I laughed and laughed, because while that is cold, she didn't seem to see the irony in going on and on about how cold the -35 was right after talking about the weather in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

What also makes me laugh? This news report talks about a boy who got his tongue stuck to a metal pole. This story made the news. Someone saw the kid frozen to the pole and called an ambulance. And take a look at some of the comments! They're seriously cracking me up. People indignant that a kid would be outside at all when it's a few degrees below freezing and wondering why he'd be soooo very neglected by his parents as to be unsupervised for the two seconds it would take to get stuck. People talking about how glad they are the kid didn't lose his entire tongue to frostbite, or going on about how this kid is obviously an idiot. I have to say, pretty much every adult I know has at some point or another gotten their tongue stuck to a frozen surface and lived to tell the tale. Kids eat snow. They lick ice. They stick their tongues out and taste metal poles. Usually that last one only happens once. Warm breath (or if it's really stuck, a bit of warm water) will unstick the tongue. An ambulance and a news story? Good grief!

It was -40 today. (Fehrenheit or Celsius, they're both the same at that point.) I did not know this when I set out to do some errands.After the first ten minutes of walking, I regretted leaving the house. After an hour?



Now I must go through life tailless, and you just know the other cats will make fun of me.

Ever been so cold you actually have to warm up before you can start shivering again? Yeah.

Somehow, while I was out there, I managed to get minor frostbite on my hips and lower back instead of my extremities like a normal person. Usually it's fingers, toes, ears, and noses that get hit first, followed by hands, feet, and cheeks. But I have a special talent and managed to skip all that and get my core frozen instead. Go me?

I was pretty well bundled, but I guess my jeans said "screw this, I'm not dealing with -40!" Which I can sort of sympathize with.

For the worriers, yes, I'm fine. It was minor frostbite, and I was fine once I managed to warm up again. Cuddly, purry kitties make the best heaters ever. The skin's a little sensitive, but even that should be gone by tomorrow as long as I keep out of the snow until then.

The other cats are still going to laugh at me, though.

We had our first big snowfall on Thursday night. Not our first view of snow, but we've reached the point where it's snowing pretty heavy and we'll have snow on the ground until spring. Enough snow piled up that I had issues getting the munchkins to school on Friday morning, since one is still too little to walk the full way (especially through freshly packed snow) and the stroller wheels are not so much meant to power through that stuff. So we figured the weekend would be a good time to look for sleds. It's November now, the stores are all up with the Christmas displays, and now that we've had the first big snow, everyone's out doing their panicked last minute winter shopping. Sales on coats and boots abound. Theoretically, a sled should be easy to find.

Key word there being "theoretically."

So, uh, if anyone knows where I can find a nice sled, let me know. Originally I'd had in mind to look for something sturdy that will last the winter without costing me too much but at this point I'd take a bobsled if it'd let me get the kids to school. So... halp?