Monday, January 15, 2007

Things that make a snowy day easier

First major snow of the winter, mixed in with some freezing rain. (Yes, in mid-January. It's been a mild winter).

However, thanks to the nice grippy soles put on my boots by Centre Shoe Clinic at Yonge-Eg Centre, I was able to walk around in 2.75-inch heels with no difficulty whatsoever. Elly Patterson, take note.

Last month, I bought a cashmere sweater on sale at Fairweather. Why cashmere? Because I was in the market for a black sweater, and the best one readily available happened to be cashmere at a very good price. My mother told me cashmere is especially warm, but I didn't believe her until today. I was wearing just a simple blouse and this thin sweater under my usual winter coat and scarf, and I was perfectly comfortable. Usually when the windchill drops below -10, I add a hat and tall boots, but today I was hatless with short boots, and perfectly fine. The only difference is that my sweater was cashmere instead of my usual proletarian poly-cotton blend.

The TTC is a mixed blessing. Of course, it lets me have my nice underground commute, making a snowy day no more difficult than a sunny spring day. However, because the TTC is so on top of things, snow days are very rare in Toronto. Growing up in a part of the province that enjoys lake-effect snow, we usually had about three snow days a year when I was a kid. That's one of the few aspects of childhood I'm nostalgic about - waking up in the morning to the radio telling me that I don't have to go to school today, rolling over and going back to sleep, then waking up again when I'm done, watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and Price is Right (even well into adolescence), drinking hot chocolate, usually there'd be some failed attempt to make a snowman in there and our nice snowy lawn would end up looking all ugly afterwards. We had all these rules and rituals: you had to finish your homework and chores the night before or the snow day wouldn't come, you had to get to bed on time, no looking out the window to check on the snow after dark, you have to set your alarm for the usual time - we'd do our little voodoo and hope for the best, and a few times a year it would work. I did my voodoo last night, went through all the usual rituals, followed all the usual rules, but there was no snow day. The standards are much higher when your commute is a one-block walk outside followed by an underground section that isn't affected by snow at all.

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