One Hundred Days of Snow

“Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.” -  Earl Wilson

The news at noon yesterday reported a new weather record broken in Toronto.  For the first time in recorded history, we had snow on the ground for one hundred consecutive days.  The rain predicted for today was coming down in big fluffy flakes when I ventured out to the bank this morning.  I had thought the predicted rainfall would likely go a long way to melting the snow but as it stands now, that's not likely to happen.  Freezing rain is predicted for late in the day and the rains have not yet otherwise materialized.  

I've been trying to remember the last year I felt winter would never end.  I recall a brutal winter in 2003 when I was doing a big downsizing at the company I was working at.  We had to delay the announcement downsizing by several days because we had such a severe storm in mid-April that we couldn't get to the plant to do the layoffs.  The only other standout year for me was 1992.  I don't really recall if the winter was brutal, just that we had very little spring and no summer.  It was the year my father died.  Jacob was a small baby and I did much of the year in a haze but I do remember standing in the cemetary on July 18, shivering in the cold.  It was as if the weather was in harmony with my grief.

A young man in the bank this morning reminded me that inevitably the warmth will come.  We may not have much of a spring this year, maybe not even much of a summer.  But I'm pretty sure there won't be snow on the ground in July.