Or sitting in huge, immobile 1.5-metre- high windrows, piled by graders on the side of the road, or more likely on the sidewalk so the traffic has room to navigate on slippery streets.
There's a sidewalk under this mess. And there's a curb cut under the windrow; the truck's stopped just on the edge of the crosswalk. May the gods have mercy on anyone who has to go anywhere in a wheelchair, but without the aid of a car. Or even get to a car with a wheelchair or cane...
Snow, falling so hard that visibility is under 500 metres, and the 50 km/hr wind is whipping it into drifts across doorways that you have to shovel almost constantly to be able to exit the building for little things like work and groceries...
Snow. 80 cm deep drifts in the park, inviting snowshoers and cross-country skiers, trudging or gliding happily through winter's early dusk.
Or sitting in half-metre deep drifts on people's front lawns, if they haven't piled it up to head height as they cleared their driveways.
This sidewalk was cleared recently. The snow, cut very neatly by a snowthrower, is about 50 cm deep.
Snow can make it awkward to sit at bus stops.
It can look picturesque, even in the biting cold, when it's blanketing pillars in attractive layers. The snow on this lamp has melted just a little, but the layers are visible, I think. I hope.
Of course, snow exists best when it's cold. And it was cold trying to take these photos with a digital camera 9 hours ago. The camera batteries got so cold I had to change them for a pair I had in an inside pocket. And my hand got so cold I couldn't feel the end of the thumb, since the camera had to come out of the mitt to be useful.
Regina was the coldest spot on earth about a week ago; our temperature was -42C, with the breeze causing a wind chill of -52. It then proceeded to warm up, until 41 hours later, it was -0.8C.
It has gotten colder again, and the wind chill is in the -35 range again. Sound carries differently in the cold, and water freezes quite quickly. I'll have to try throwing a cup of boiling water into the air, and see if it causes a cloud. If I can do that on the weekend, I'll try to post a video of it.
I looked into Kate J's blog a couple of days ago, and was inspired to get my camera in gear again. Thanks Kate! And since I also have one of those ever-so-cool t-shirts she's showing off, I should get a photo of that too.
Meanwhile, I have to negotiate that sidewalk tomorrow to get to work. Thank goodness all that snow is being cleared away as I write, with the assistance of semi-trailer dump trucks and snowthrowers mounted on front-end loaders. Of course, the graders moving the snow to the center of the streets will leave a smooth, slippery path for me. There's a reason I use cross-country or trekking poles to walk here: it's 4 wheel drive for feet!
