It Came, It Raged, It Departed

It most certainly did. The winds were raging, the snowstorm fulsomely determined and we mere mortals represent no puny match for nature. As we were well forewarned, we knew enough to remain inside our abodes, looking out from the inside, marvelling at the ferocity of nature's lesson to us that she is in control and has complete command. And don't we know it.

This storm taught its lesson in a very large geographic area, from southern to eastern Ontario, on through Quebec and into New Brunswick and the Maritime Provinces. Visiting headaches and havoc wherever it thrashed its way through the atmosphere, littering the landscape. Roadway ditches became unexpected havens for vehicles whose drivers exhibited the arrogance to travel despite warnings.

The New England States, New York and Ohio were also recipients of close-up and terrifying theatrics of nature gone temporarily amok. Traffic at a standstill, highways shut down, airports in abeyance, cancelling hundreds of scheduled flights. Municipalities sending out their road crews in a plethora of winter-battling vehicles and ploughs.

As for us, we waited out the storm. Not all that hard to do on a Sunday, when there are so many delightful things to occupy oneself with around one's home. Finally, the wind abated just after dinnertime, and finally, the municipal snow plough made its way up the street, down the street, liberating the throughway, and in the process littering the ends of driveways with six-foot snow and ice accumulations.

Time to fire up the snow thrower and get out there to clear everything away. Else, how would the newspaper delivery guy be able to get through and provide us with our morning newspapers? Our trusty old machine, bought second-hand fifteen years ago, and still capable of huffing and tossing with the best of them, did its thing, throwing a steady stream of snow over already well-blanketed lawns.

An hour and a half later, it was done. And that's when my husband glanced across the street, to see our neighbour's older boy Tariq, out there by himself, frantically trying to shovel the mass of snow by hand. Why aren't you using your snow thrower? asked my husband. A new, huge, very expensive machine - out of commission. It happens, doesn't it ever. So, our machine gets fired up again, and over he goes.

We just hadn't taken note of the fact that their driveway, almost directly opposite ours, hadn't been cleaned off properly for the last two weeks; with hand shovelling, only half of their drive had been cleared previously, and with this fresh new fall of 37 centimetres, and the added burden of the municipal plough plugging up the end of the driveway, hard work for a young man doing it alone.

We wondered where Mustafa was; likely out of town. As happened to me years before when we'd had an earlier typical Ottawa snowstorm and I'd had to wade up the driveway in snow up to the top of my knee-height boots, when my husband was away in China for several weeks. Another hour and our neighbour's driveway too was cleared. Next day Tariq's mother brought over a bottle of Australian wine.

Malfunctioning snow throwers; the hefty model we'd bought for our daughter a year ago is still out of commission; she hasn't succeeded in making contact with the small-motors repairman in the area where she lives, looking after the still-good warranty for the manufacturer. Fortunately, this time her friend Jeff was over, and she had help doing the shovelling by hand.

And fortunately, Jeeb and Allison from across the street brought their snow thrower over and between them they managed nicely to clear out our daughter's huge driveway. And the weather forecast for the coming week? day-time temperatures ranging from minus 7 to minus 14 centigrade, with snow events or flurries each and every day. Sigh.

Our great frozen north.