Brrrr.......

Yes, it’s cold. Really cold. The high today is -32 with a wind chill of -47. On his way to work this morning, Dayven's car temperature gauge got down to -40, then it stopped reading. It’s so cold your skin stings and when you inhale, you feel a sharp pain in your chest. It’s so cold you can actually feel the snot crystallizing in your nose. Since we moved here, my whole perspective of cold has changed. I used to think it was cold if it reached 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, if the temperature rises even remotely close to zero, it’s cause to head outside to enjoy the “warm” weather. Maybe we are becoming true Canadians!

Poor Dayven had to shovel our drive last night when he got home from work. Normally I do it, but the snow was just too much for me to handle. The first step was breaking through the crusty layer of ice on top. Then he had to make two passes, going only half way down so the shovel wouldn’t be too heavy to lift. Even the snow blowers were no match for this snow - our neighbor’s kept dying about halfway across his driveway. It took Dayven almost 45 minutes to clear the drive. When he came in, his face was beet red and he had ice crystals on his eyelashes.

The snow around town is building up at an alarming rate. Since it never melts, it just keeps piling up in the parking lots and we’re told it won’t melt until at least April. The roads are never quite clear either. The snow plows just can’t keep up so you're always driving on a packed down layer of snow, which easily turns to ice as the temps dip down at night. My car has pretty much been in 4-wheel drive for the past month. I was really sad when I had to take off my Tennessee license plate as I used this as an excuse to drive really slowly, not worrying if I irritated other drivers. I'd give a coy little smile and wave, Y’all don’t mind little ol’ me. Ah’m from Tennessee so we don’t know much about this white stuff! Dayven and I used to get a kick out of the strange looks we'd get when people saw our license plate or random comments we'd get in the parking lot on how far from home we were. Now that I have an Alberta license plate on my car, I have no excuse. I'm forced out into the elements like the rest of society, white knuckling my way around town. People here don't let the weather stop them. They're outside rain, shine, ice or snow. Welcome to Canadian Winter!

Dayven keeps shoveling a path to the hot tub, but we haven't been for a soak lately. It's a little cold in this weather.