Snow

   For the fifty-second time in the fifty-two years I've lived in London, Ontario, snow has arrived. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this was also the trend prior to me moving here.
   I'm tired of it.

Looking out my bedroom window this morning.

   I can clearly remember a time when a heavy snowfall got me all giddy and excited and eager to pull on the boots, scarves, snowpants, mitts and toques and get out there. There was a small hill at the side of our house back then and any appreciable snowfall created a large drift along the crest of it. I would stand before this drift in wonder at all the opportunity it offered for diving right in. There was, however, also some pristine beauty to an undefiled drift and I would always hesitate, knowing that I was about to spoil this forever. And then in I dove.
   Along the way, there were also the delights of tobogganing, skating, bumper-jumping and, when I got a little older, cross-country skiing.
   But that was then and this is now and, as an aging Canadian, I've discovered why other aging Canadians occasionally find their way down south for four months about this time of year. I don't know whether we've become more susceptible to the cold, less physically able to dig our way out, or just more psychologically weakened by this change of seasons but each successive winter just seems that much more difficult to bear.
   Saying all this seems somewhat traitorous--Canada means snow and if you hate the snow then you must hate Canada, right? Our national identity was carved out of a chunk of ice, right? Well, I still love Canada and would never think of moving away, even for just part of a year, but I just hate the thought of another winter. And winter is here now!
   Two days ago, we could all have been wearing shorts outside and we actually broke a temperature record for this time of year. Yesterday, lake-effect snowsqualls hit town, along with the accompanying dose of seasonal reality. Oh well....
   Likely, (and I know this because it always happens) once I get back into the routine of it all, find my winter clothes, get the snow tires put on and start living a wintry life, things will be fine and I'll somehow manage to make my way back through to Spring again. In the meantime, I need to go out and find my car...