Snow Days

We had a little bit of every kind of weather this week, bitter cold windchills of more than 40 below (either temperature scale, take your pick) combined with snow squalls and white out conditions, followed by a couple days of melting complete with rain that promptly froze into a layer of instant ice. Welcome to February.

But while the majority of the continent was digging out from under all that white stuff while stuck at home on snow days; work closed and school cancelled - we sat alone it seemed, marvelling at the weird weather all around us, enjoying the above freezing temperatures long enough to realize that melting in February means ice dams and leaky roofs if you aren't careful, then we grabbed the roof rakes and shovels and headed back outside.

More kids (and parents too) called in sick this week; still victims of that cursed cold that has us all in its clutches - you saw the effect of all this first hand whenever you were out, but especially at the local hockey rink, where all the teams played with shortened benches, and you saw and heard the young charges hacking and coughing and wiping their noses and leaving a trail of germiness behind them on the bench; their coaches fearing for their own safety, as well as trying to figure out how to ice a competitive team while juggling the short of breath with the few healthy players left.

We ventured out mid morning yesterday, running errands on a Saturday before the eventual crowds became too much to bear, and I almost became a statistic while walking in the hatched crosswalk area at Home Depot - Mr "I've got an urgent home repair problem and can't be bothered to stop for pedestrians" plowed right on through as we walked towards the store, never looking anywhere around him; oblivious to the world; an idiot in an idiot's paradise apparently. We shook our heads and continued on, minding the icy footing below, and went about buying the electrical bits and pieces we came for - adding an undercabinet light to the new office cabinetry - a job for another weekend.

It wasn't much better at the grocery store just across the parking lot, but at least in there the worst you're going to get is maybe a cart load of Super Bowl goodies slammed into your backside as you step around the loitering shoppers while trying to dodge the Commando super-mom with her shopping game face on. It could have been worse, there could have been a stroller...

Stopping at the stop light on our way to return the wrong style HDMI cables, we were treated to the sight of one of those lovely specimens, the impatient driver who desperately needs to time the changing of light to the point where he's now 2 car lengths in front of the stop line, and half way through the intersection, bobbing forward in place like a toddler doing the pee pee dance, and behind him is another, inching forward, right on his bumper, both waiting for the green light so they can spin out and turn into the mall, and find those elusive available parking spaces before anyone else. They must be in the zone.

Then there was the car, driven by one of the more senior members of society, turning left on the green arrow, inches away from running over the two university students walking across the crosswalk on the end of 'walk' signal - sure somebody was in the wrong, maybe the girls were late in getting across, but a few seconds of the drivers time shouldn't be that much to ask for in the name of courtesy and safety, should it?

Have we become that distracted? Are we that impatient that we can't pay just a wee bit more attention to the world around us and put our own interests on hold and "all just get along?" Where's the fire? What's the rush? Better yet, what's the point? What kind of society are we creating as we almost take out pedestrians with our SUV's in our hectic, stress-inducing haste to get it all done, and get it all done now? Have we lost so much contact with each other that we've forgotten the basic tenants of human kindness?

It's easy to shake your head in wonder at the audacity of some of those around us - they make it so easy! and who hasn't felt pity for those poor souls, while at the same time taking some bit of superior satisfaction that it wasn't you (this time)? I'm fairly certain the shoe has been on the other foot, hasn't it? You've been that guy at Home Depot before - you just never bothered to notice who you cut off, or who you almost ran over. And you've also been that impatient lead-footed Nascar wannabe at the stop light, roaring away from the line to God knows where, too fast for everyone's good, and too absorbed in your own story to see, let alone care, about everyone else around you, inches from taking out the two university students crossing the side street.

Maybe that's why we get those weird storms that bring snow days to a 2000 mile stretch of humanity from Texas, across the midwest and on into the Maritimes. If we aren't willing to slow down and be a little more respectful of each other of our own volition, maybe someone or something else will, under the guise of another foot of snow, or that sudden onset of chest pain. Maybe its a warning. Life gives you what you need, when you need it - maybe it's time we paid attention to what we are getting and slowed down long enough to figure out why.

I'll thank you the next time I'm crossing the street.