I went into Toronto this past Monday, driving through temperatures of -20’C (-3’F). The news was all atwitter of busted pipes, stalled cars, and a five-times-the-daily-average load on CAA.
But it was very beautiful. I got off the 401 and headed through Escarpment Country. Coming down the hill on Steeles Avenue, I looked out over Milton and a fair chunk of the Greater Toronto Area. At -20’C, steam behaves differently. It hangs close to the top of the smokestacks as though it doesn’t want to go far from the furnace warmth. It looks cold. And against a blue sky, there are few better things about winter.
Ontario winters are typically grey, with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark, and sleet turning to snow. This weather belongs to the prairie provincies, or possibly I’ve borrowed this weather from Dave’s place at Blogography. Either way, it’s a good preparation for the weather I’m expecting to encounter this Christmas, as I’ll be spending it in Iowa and Nebraska meeting the in-laws. Not much separates Nebraska and Saskatchewan. Oh, North and South Dakota lie in between, but they’re hardly windbreaks. The coldest this Canadian has ever been has been when he has visited these two American states, and South Dakota.
And, frankly, I don’t mind. Winter is supposed to be cold, so let it be cold. Let me bundle up in -20’C weather. Let me know winter. Let me say that I survived it. Give me bright blue and not dreary grey. Let things freeze, so I can appreciate the melt doubly well when it finally arrives in early March.
And when winter goes, let it go for good. Stop coming back in April.