feels like.....COLD

It’s official – I am Canadian. In case anyone was wondering. After living in a place where a person really doesn’t need winter boots (current year not included) or winter tires (current year not included) and where every season is patio season (current year not included), I now live in a place with temperatures in the minus double digits, lots of snow (to me, 20cm in one day is a lot. I understand that this will slowly change over time until I too, look out into the face of 20cm of driving snow at minus-*insert large number here* and say “oh this is nothing, wait until winter starts”), and where the patios are mere fleeting memories of happier, more tanned times. I have weather appropriate footwear, headwear, handwear and a goretec jacket that could withstand a hurricane in winter. (thank you mom and dad for the Salomon snow boots that pinched mom’s feet, the jacket which was a Christmas gift and the mittens that were another gift from years ago). And now, weather appropriate tires for my car. The little Rav now grips those snowy, slushy roads rather than skating along the surface. This is making the whole “getting about town” thing much better, seeing as how I haven’t actually figured out how to get out of going to work completely while still receiving payments….

The temperature today here is COLD. Very cold for Newfoundland. Everyone is all a twitter at it – all you hear in the halls at work “so cold, I can’t believe it, I know, so cold today”. It’s -15. the wind chill is at -26. v and I have a had a lot of “conversations” about wind chill and how I think it’s good to know (there is a fine line between needing to wear a toque to go to the store and deciding you can live on popcorn for one more day because there is no chance in hell you are going outside at that temperature) and v thinks it is all hype – a scare tactic to make people think the weather is really colder than it is. He’s sort of right. I was outside with no hat and it didn’t feel like -26. -14 yes. I would even hazard a -18, -19. but -26? Actually I have no idea how cold that would be. I haven’t been in temperature that cold since I was a kid. It took me 4 minutes to walk to the car and my head was frozen with no hat. is that -18 or -26? Anyone know? I have little hair, does that affect my coldness factor? At least we're not in Labrador - they are around -50 with the wind chill in Labrador City. Even without the wind chill they are at -30 something. Ouch.

So I bought tires from my new mechanic today. My new mechanic place is fantastic – I love them, I really do. When I spoke with Tom, the owner, on the phone yesterday he was really nice and funny and soft spoken. Not loud and brash the way I envision most mechanics to be. (my boss did in fact tell me that he was the most un-mechanic-type he had every known). And when I went they offered me a Globe & Mail while I waited which was very nice. I responded that I had brought a book and his wife said “oh! Our perfect type of customer.” I mentioned that I was reading The Shipping News and they told me it was a great read, be sure to see the movie and then proceeded to have a conversation with me about other Newfoundland novels and movies and the like. Did I mention that this was my mechanic? Who I was having the conversation about literature with? Maybe I have stereotyped all mechanics unfairly in the past. Maybe they all sit at home voraciously reading and then blogging about Proust or something. I don’t know. All I know is that my mechanic reads and I like him. He put tires on my car that make it stick to the road. He told me to drive aggressively and slowly. He also said my car is in fantastic condition. All in all it was a good trip to the car mechanic guy.