In Like a Lion

This is what greeted me when I pulled open the curtains this morning:

Snow.  Lots of it.

There's just something rude 'n crude about snow stuck to the window.  But there you have it.  Welcome to Montreal in March.  Now you know why I leave the Christmas lights up until now...it's a sanity-saving technique for days like this.

The good news is that neither of us had to work today, so we got to hunker down and keep the home fires burning (or the home fries burning, as I like to jest).

We've had an easy winter so far.  Our accumulation started right before Christmas, so we can really say we've had 9 or 10 weeks of snow so far this winter.  That's a joke by normal standards, and I consider it lucky that we've gotten off so easily.  But that's where March comes in.  It's a wet month, and with temps hovering below freezing, snow is inevitable.  We sometimes get more snow in March than the other months combined.  We've started off March well, having received about 8" or 20 cm today.

Eric left the tractor outside, so if need be, we can dig our way out with the front loader.  As it was, our snow removal contractor came by early in the morning and again in the evening.  This storm was different, though.  All the snow came from the east which is a change of pace for us.  Normally it comes from the west, and we get lots of blowing snow.  Not today.  That means that the end of our driveway was virtually clean, and when the snow plow passed, the snow blew over the field across the street, and not onto our property.  I can't tell you how many times I've come home from work and haven't been able to make it down the driveway.  It's just so disheartening when that happens.

Just for the heck of it, I've zoomed in the following street sign, right from the kitchen window while wearing a bathrobe, during a white-out to boot.  Doesn't get more pathologically lazy and Canadian than that, eh?

Can you make it out?  The top one sports a road on the left side of the sign, with a snowmobile crossing it.  That's to warn us motorists that a speeding skidoo might become a hood ornament if neither of us are paying attention.  And by the looks of the fatalities this year, the Ministry of Transport might want to put a bit more funding into their education program.  Maybe part of the problem is the fact that all bars and pubs are well indicated on the Quebec trail network, which is only 33,000 km long.  That's 22,500 miles of trail, with seemingly every damn establishment with a liquor license clearly marked.  Maybe I'm the only one to see the irony in that, or maybe it's a subversive way of adding a bit of bleach to the gene pool.  The bottom sign shows both a car and skidoo.  That means that both vehicles are supposed to share the road, since the skidoo trail and road are one and the same on this section of the street.

Anyhow, it's just a little curiosity and glimpse into the land of the skidoo.  Apropos for a snowy day.

So there you have it.

Despite March having come in like a roaring lion, we hope the adage proves true, and that it will go out like a docile little frolicking lamb.  I'd like to take the Christmas lights down before Easter.