Sandy Supposes....

Winter Woes

september 4th 30 DBC Prompt: Sunday News! This week, Hurricane Hermine hit parts of Florida before beginning to make its way up the coast of the U.S. What's the worst inclement weather situation you can recall being a part of?

          Remember, I reside in Canada, Ontario to be more exact. Weather is a favourite topic here. It irks us. It puzzles us.It angers us. It disappoints us. It may even please us. Weather is mercurial,and keep us guessing. Most of the time, we experience two seasons, summer and winter despite what the calendar claims. It may be hot or cold. It may rain or snow.

         Many years ago, hubby, daughter, dog, cat, and I moved hundreds of miles further north to the middle of nowhere. We set out on the fourteenth of October from southern Ontario under a sunny, cloudless sky. On the fifteenth, in our new home, we awoke to a foot of fresh snow on the ground. We had yet to unpack. Where was the snow shovel? Did we remember to bring it with us? Where could our winter gear be? That snow and more of its kind lingered until the following June.

         During yet another winter , years after we survived this one, January greeted us with a vicious cold snap. We shivered in the minus forties Celsius for almost a week. It was so cold, all Hydro/ electricity services were frozen. There were no lights, no fans for furnaces, no running water,no refrigeration for food, no kettles or coffee makers, no cooking with electrical appliances. Only people with wood stoves could cook or heat their homes. My family did not have a wood stove. Our furnace was fuelled by oil with an electric fan. Our water heater and our cook stove needed electricity.We could not even plug in the engine block heaters for our vehicles, so they were useless.

          We bundled up in bulky layers, and wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags. We lived in our cocoons.Food was crackers, dry cereal, cookies, and bread. We daydreamed about all things hot: tea, coffee, soup, pastas,baths, showers, heat. We survived only to endure future power outages that have never been as long, or as intense.