I'm pretty sure there aren't many people who enjoy extreme cold weather. Certainly last week, we in Alberta dealt with some crazy cold temperatures. It was basically -30 or colder for the whole week.
It was time to break out the long wooly underwear, parka, extension cord for your car and whatever else you need to survive.
Oh, there are many benefits. You don't have to worry about spiders and flies bugging you. OK, that's the end of the list of positive benefits I have.
Who doesn't like getting up and starting the car a half hour before you have to go anywhere? Plus you have to do some serious scraping, often on both sides of the windshield. And that's if you're lucky enough that your car does start in this cold.
The first couple of days are the worst. You don't want to go anywhere. Home feels so nice and warm and safe. Work can wait. Everything can wait. Eerie to see downtown so deserted on a Tuesday during the day.
But eventually people realize that yes, they will need to get groceries and medications. And other little things that we all need to survive, like chocolate.
So yeah, on that third day you venture out into the world. Such a cruel, cruel cold world. Why does my car take so long to heat up? Everything is frozen. The mad dash from the car to the house seems triple with a couple of bags of groceries and -33. I'll have to take my gloves off to open the door. Arrgh. Why?
But soon we are back to -10 and all is wonderful. I can go back to normal. Take out the garbage. Get a whole lot of groceries. And to think, it's only three short months until spring.
Craig Lindsay is a reporter with the Mountain View Albertan.
