Oh God…It snowed!
Bar the door, check the supplies, grab the blankets, stack the firewood, hide the children and maybe we will survive this nightmare.
Most importantly, go on Facebook and tell everyone it snowed (because obviously they don’t know and you are the first to discover it), then ask how the roads are.
After enjoying no snow all December and January, winter finally flexed its chilly muscles and decided to dump a pile of the white stuff on Mission.
Monday, Feb. 3, was a snow day. Mission Public Schools decided to close the doors for the day, as did UFV and many people took the opportunity to either work from home, or take a day off - including me.
On Monday morning, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. - well my alarm went off then - I rolled out of bed, looked out the window, saw the snow and said “Nope, I ain’t doing that.”
I spent the rest of the day, sitting at my kitchen table in my Blackhawks pajamas working on my laptop.
If the kids in Mission were getting a snow day, then I could have the adult version of that and work from home.
However, it did get me thinking about snow, and my instant decision to not go out into it.
I have some great memories of snow. Heck, I like snow. I used to say Winter was my favourite season, but now, things have changed.
As a child I participated in snowball fights at school (they allowed them back then) building snowmen and sledding down the local hill by my home in Aldergrove.
In my teens I’d take my Ford Pinto and it’s bald tires out in the snow and see how many times I could spin in a circle on the ice.
Even as I got older, the snow didn’t bother me. I’d drive in a snowstorm to get to Chilliwack because I was performing in a play at UFV (Fraser Valley College back then) or in order to go to work. The point is, snow didn’t stop me from doing the things I had to, or wanted to do.
Even as recent as 12 years ago, I was living in Nelson - now that’s real snow - and it wouldn’t slow me down.
I have photos of my wife making snow angels at the ski hill or of myself shovelling the walkway to get to our car.
But suddenly all of that changed. I’m going to be 61 soon and it seems that age has taken all the fun out of the snow.
Snow became the enemy. I no longer want to go into it. I don’t want to throw it, build it, touch it, shovel it, drive in it, or even see it. I just want it to go away.
What I can’t figure out is whether I don’t like snow because I’m wiser, or because I’m more fearful. It may be a little from column A and a little from column B.
All I know is that snow doesn’t mean fun to me anymore. It means cold, it means slipping and falling down, bent fenders and danger. They are deadly little flakes from the sky whose sole purpose it to cause havoc for me.
I wonder if it will snow again this weekend. I better check Facebook, somebody will warn me.
- Kevin Mills is the editor of the Mission Record