All apologies

Well, it seems the forecasters were right this time: it did snow. A lot. Usually their hysterical predictions of apocalyptic storms are grossly exaggerated (this is going to be the winter storm of 2013!!!!), network news folks look silly sending reporters out to cover a few snowflakes falling in a business-as-usual city centre. Canadians in Ontario not from Toronto tend to laugh at memories of the winter when Toronto called in the army to dig them out from what was a pretty ordinary snowfall. Well, ordinary for Canadians in Ontario not from Toronto. We don't need to go into why Torontonians are special. This time, however, they - the weather predictors - were quite right and then some. Turns out the folks who decided last night to close shop for today were right on the money and ahead of the game. Those people were much luckier than my former colleagues at the New Town library who laboured to get themselves through the snow, safely to work, only to sit in an empty library because the other citizens of New Town were smart enough to stay home. The library closed belatedly just after noon, sending the employees back out onto barely cleared streets while it was still snowing heavily. I was going to go out myself at one point, but as I stepped off the front porch into a knee-high drift of snow, I realized I wasn't going to go far. Public advisers were quite right when they urged people to forego all unnecessary travel for the day. Packing tape isn't quite essential, so I struggled back through the snow to the front door, and have been holed up where it's nice and warm ever since. Apparently something like 90 cms of snow are expected on the East Coast. I'm not at all sorry I no longer live there. I'm a short person - 90 cms of snow barely leaves me room to breathe! Anyway. The world looks beautiful covered in snow in the way that women look beautiful by candlelight. All sounds are muted imparting a sense of peacefulness. There is a feeling of camaraderie among fellow survivors making strangers friendly and helpful with one another. Life gets stripped back to the essentials, and I realize how very blessed I am to have food in the cupboards, a roof over my head, and heat pumping through the radiators. I'm also grateful that my slothfulness in packing means I still have hats and mitts and a pan or two here! Here's a little something for your musical enjoyment as the snow falls