Winter City

Winter has really hit my town this year. In the seven winters I have lived here, I've never seen it quite like this. It's not so terribly cold, although we've had some intense, short-lived snaps. It's the snow. Last year it rained. Now, having lived in Vancouver for eight years prior, I was no stranger to rain in January. But that was Vancouver. This is NOT. So last winter was, somehow, unsettling. Maybe it's the ever-growing spectre of global warming looming over our heads like a monkey getting more and more deranged, but I was decidedly spooked.

This year, by contrast, has seen record snowfalls and the biggest plowed and shoveled snowbanks I have seen in a city since I played "King-of-the-Castle" on the massive pile in my childhood backyard. The snowbanks are HUGE. The base for tobogganing in the nearby park is freakin' awesome. If you only look at the yards, not the streets, everything looks white and squeaky-clean. Thank 'La Nina', apparently. She is muckin' with the Gulf Stream and cooling things way down - at least temporarily. A setback for climate change alarmists, but not forever.The pics show it all. So beautiful. But just wait until the spring thaw...