Do you hear what I hear?

(photo: All of us a week ago united in song)




The temperature was minus 33 on Sunday. I know because I was outside and it felt like it. I have tried to explain to those in San Francisco or other places unfamiliar with the concept of snow or freezing what it is like.
I can't do it very well. Yes, it's like walking into a freezer, but the thing is, the freezer has a door and you can go back to an unfrozen land. Winter in the Great White North has no door unless you are a Snowbird and decamp in October to Arizona. Or you fly off to Kauai for a holiday.
Yes, there are doors here. But the ones that lead outside lead to that endless frozen desert. Minus 30 on a ski hill is even colder, especially sitting on the lift with the windchill in your face. At least schussing downhill your muscles are warm.
I prefer snowshoeing for several reasons: safety, I've been run into by too many clueless snowboarders; cost, tickets and equipment strain the budget(especially when a boarder cuts your day short); and I like not having to stand in line (there aren't any when you shoe). I may try cross country this season, it shares many benefits of shoeing.
Sadly, I don't skate, but I might try that at the indoor rink if I can find someone to go with. They skate on the outdoor rink and have dogsled races and it looks like fun.
That said, once winter slammed the door on the lovely fall we were enjoying right up to November 30, I adjusted my garage-less life to getting into a car that is a frozen block and holding my breath until I can get the windows open to keep it from frosting up inside. Walking with shorter steps so my bare skin doesn't brush against frozen pant legs. Leaving 15 minutes early to bundle in parka, scarf, mitts and toque and dig my car out or scrape the windshield clear.
The joke on Sunday was that it was balmy compared to Edmonton, where the temp was minus 48 and with windchill, it was 57 below. I shivered through six winters there.
What has kept me sane through the deep freeze has been music. My choir of 60 men and women who started rehearsals in September performed three times, twice in concert, and OMG, it was...heavenly. We did it. Rose to the challenge, responded to the audience, sang our hearts out.
And I did it standing next to a Steinway piano.
WOW.
Worth every frosty day.
May your holidays be full of harmony

SLI