17
snow day
Filed under: Montreal | Tags: | December 17th, 2005
Well it finally snowed. You would think that the way people were talking about it, it was the Son of the Ice Storm or something. I was the only person at my work today! Everyone else stayed home or couldn’t get to work. Yes, ok, having a wet showfall of over 40 cm in 18 hours is a bit of a strain on the traffic, but its not the end of the world! I caught both busses this morning without trouble and was at work no later than usual. On the way home, though, about 4 trailer trucks by my work got stuck and there was absolutely no way the bus would ever get there. The strange thing is that it was ridiculously warm (-5) so I just walked to the metro and I beat all the cars stuck behind the trucks. I had to walk on the road because the sidewalks were under about 2-4 feet of snow, depending on how much had been plowed onto them. But it was a nice walk and I wasn’t the only one. After I took the metro, I took a different bus home because Dan warned me that at the Villa Maria Transit station the busses got stuck, and it only took be 15 minutes longer than normal to get home today. As soon as I did, I grabbed my camera and took some photos before it got too dark. Well anyway, I thought it was kind of fun. Everyone else who cowered at home behind their frosted windows is a wimp. 
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.
“Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”
“Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,
You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together,
Through the cold wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.
“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,
You shall find the winter’s rage freeze your blood less coldly.”
In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.
Tyler | December 17th, 2005 @ 2:27 am
Okay, so it was worse than I estimated but it STILL didn’t stop me from going out! I walked (that’s right!) downtown, and sat in Indigo and read books for a good hour and a half with a nice window view of the blizzard. Then I walked home and walked out in the storm again to see “Wallace and Gromit”. Those prairie blizzards DID build character!
The funny thing was that on Des Pins across from Mamma’s, there was a patch of ice concealed by the snow and in five minutes I saw several people slip and fly into the snowbank! The snowbank was all smashed up and everyone would get up and continue walking around all covered in snow!
Karen | December 17th, 2005 @ 2:42 pm
I think it was harder for people with cars – yesterday was a day where it was actually a disadvantage to have a car in the city. My co-worker couldn’t get out of the parking lot of his building because there were 3 cars blocking it. But I found it really funny how I was able to walk from my work for 25 minutes and actually beat about 50 cars who were trying to get to the Decarie! It sounds like you don’t have to watch a movie to be entertained – just stand at the end of your street! Last Jan when we went to Quebec city for Claudia’s vernissage it was the same thing – on the street where the gallery was there was a big patch of ice and within 30 minutes Dan saw 4 cars wipe out on it.