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21:10 - 12/22/2015
Gentrification.
Weather is considered a legitimate topic for conversation (not a time waster) in this city because it can be so harsh, unpredictable and ,occasionally, dangerous. We all have to pull together and look out for each other during those times. It is considered a great leveler and puts everyone on the same footing regardless of race, creed, or colour.

We each take great interest in what is occurring on the other side of the country. Right now, one of my Facebook friends/family is reporting it is -48 C with the wind chill. Brrrr.

As for snow: Our weather is a bit like a sine wave here. Mid-November, I visited one of my sons to help celebrate one of my grandson's fifth birthday. I had been at their house looking after my grand-daughter when he was born. I recalled the drive to the hospital to meet him for the first time as quite treacherous. Black ice everywhere on the roads and about a foot and a half of snow had fallen. This time, I was dressed for cross-town transit travel in light spring and summer clothes. Shoes, not boots. No snow, sadly.

It did snow that night, but it was the kind where footprints melt the snow into ice on the pavement. I know this, because I had to try to scrape ice off my sidewalk next day. Another of my sons had come by to visit the previous evening and had left icy footprints behind. This is somewhat dangerous because, of course, it continued snowing after he left, covering the small patches of ice. Could be part of solving the crime in a mystery novel, I guess.

Since then we have had alternating periods of warm and snowy weather - each time the mercury creeping just a bit lower.

Mid last month, I had to wear a winter coat when I went out, but it was the wind, not the snow, that made it necessary. I just hunkered down the next few days when snow was forecast, with hot chocolate or hot buttered rum, while I watched my favourite seasonal movie "White Christmas". We expected a chinook (snow eater) to arrive on the weekend, so I pretended it was spring then and watered my poor confused trees.

This month another danger took over as ice covered the road. One driver lost control and took out my favorite bus shelter. When I was working at one of our hospitals, decades ago, a drunk driver ploughed into a crowded bus shelter in winter killing a small boy and totally disabling his Mom. The driver lost a couple of teeth and seemed quite proud of his driving-to-survive skills. I wanted to hurt him like the young Mom whose life he had ruined. Her spouse left her because she was disabled, declaring that he had to think of his own life. I thought she was well rid of him, but it was a common attitude at the time, demonstrated over and over at the hospital. I think a lot of the staff in my department felt the same as I about the driver - unrepentant drunk, he was. Since that time, even during the coldest, most brutal storms, I try not to stand in a bus shelter or at least I stand as close to the door as possible. There is no other way out, after all.

This morning I headed out to number two son's home during the morning rush hour. He had asked me to play with my grand-babies while he did his Christmas shopping. I was arrested by the number of women on the train wearing black tights, as I was, as part of their winter ensemble. I had been a bit bemused by a fashion magazine article I read last month wailing over the sin of wearing black tights in order to stay warm in winter. Seemed a rather shallow and effete attitude by the publishers, given how serious a danger frost-bite can be to exposed human flesh. Each year, when I worked at the hospital, at least one person had to have extremities amputated because of said frost-bite. I posted that story on my Facebook wall and received bemused comments from my network of friends. The males said they thought black tights were sexy and they would be sorry if women didn't wear them, while the women were significantly more pragmatic; they just didn't see why vanity should over-ride their safety or comfort.

I am finding more to be encouraged by my community and friends, dear diary. When we had our last big dump of snow, one of the tenants next duplex over shovelled several walks, including mine, very early in the morning. When I looked out of my back window and saw about a foot and a half of snow on my balcony, I thought I would need to spend about an hour clearing my walk. Grant you, I am much slower and less strong since the brain fart a few years back, but it still must have been a great effort for that one man to look after all the neighbours like that. That day I also opened my door to the little girl whose parents have been so nice to me after sunset. She came bearing gifts of baking. Neighbourly and thoughtful it was.

For a surprise A+'s business partner gifted me with a new-to-me sofa that his in-laws were surplussing. My cats think it is the cat's meow. Speaking of which, they are waiting for their story and movie. I usually play "White Christmas" this time of night and we are reading book seven of the Harry Potter series at the moment.

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