Waiting out the Storm

There wasn't much fanfare when spring arrived earlier this week:  one snow storm follows on the barely cleared storm of the previous week, and it's been like that since November 5.  Now that it is the Saturday before Easter, it feels less like spring and new beginnings than ever.

The snow started to fall on Wednesday this time.  On Thursday, I didn't go out, not even to shovel the snow off the steps.  Sitting in my living room I could no longer see the ocean as the snow on my very wide porch was about 5 feet high, looking like a big wave that is about to break.  On Friday, I didn't go out, as there was nowhere to go, the main highway being closed for a part of the day.  The pay-loader came to carve out a small trail in case I needed to take my car out.... but within an hour, the snow plows had pushed vast quantities of very heavy snow at the end of my driveway, not intentionally, but because they just chug along trying to keep the highway opened.

I could have phoned my pay-load guy and asked to be cleared once again (it's wise to have a seasonal contract with these guys), but I decided against it.  I thought of how the birds and squirrels had weathered out the ice storm of 1998 in Ottawa when I was living there and decided that this is what I would also do:  weather things out.

There was sufficient food in the house; it isn't cold, so I was comfortable.  I am painting tulips (perhaps because I am thinking they will never bloom...) and was able to do so without distraction.  I am also reading a book on the history of the Labrador peninsula to do a book review and that is also going well.  I think I had it better than the birds and squirrels.

This morning I felt I should shovel a bit before the snow gets too heavy from being compacted, and I had just begun when the pay-loader arrived.  The man is talented:  he brings that machine within a couple of centimeters from my car and drags the snow back so I can just drive forward.  I parked in my sister's driveway until he finished and chatted up one of my neighbours who was also shoveling.  Within 15 minutes, everyone seemed to be outside, shouting "hello" and making comments about this never-ending winter.  Passers-by on the highway slowed down to wave -- everyone is in the same boat.

My prediction:  we will still have snow in June.  The first year I was here the last medallion of snow melted around May 18 and there wasn't anywhere the amount of accumulated snow we have this year.  Will I adopt a frenetic pace to take advantage of a shortened summer?  Right now I have a hard time imagining moving at any speed at all -- I'm making another pot of tea and will wait things out.