A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent a video from Florida, saying how nice it was. It happened to be a nice day, so I went to the beach and shot my own video. Beautiful sunny day, snow capped mountains in the background, wearing a light sweater. See, we don’t live in igloos up here.
I guess I spoke too soon. Winter arrived at the end of last week.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. It seems that, no matter what, we are going to get a certain amount of winter, it all depends on when. Those years when we hardly get any snow, when we start bragging about golfing, and using the regular greens, in January always come back to haunt us at some point.
Mid-February seems to be a good time to remind us we are Canadian. It’s essentially the middle of winter, roughly half way between Dec. 21 and March 21. Seems appropriate for a little snow.
I remember a Valentine’s Day many years ago. I went into an all-day meeting in the morning, streets were clear and wet. By the end of the meeting at 4 p.m., there was 10 centimetres on the roads. I got home from the meeting, turned around and drove to North Van to see my girlfriend. I don’t know how I made it. I didn’t have flowers either. She married me anyway.
It was even cold enough last week that I noticed someone getting out for a little pond skating. With COVID-19 restrictions, people have had a lot more time on their hands, and in other parts of the country have taken the opportunity to build some pretty fancy outdoor skating rinks. The homemade Zambonis have been quite something, all you need is a wagon, a storage container, some PVC pipe and an old towel, and you too can have a perfect skating surface. Maybe that’s the new training to be a back-up goalie.
So with the street blanketed in white, my car almost visible under the blanket of winter, I sent a picture to my friend with the caption ‘Spoke too soon’. But now winter is really behind us, and spring is on the way. In a couple weeks, I’ll send a new video with the blossoms on the trees. Take that.
I don’t need a groundhog to tell me when spring is coming, I have my neighbour’s tree. It’s the first one to start blooming, to indicate that nicer days are ahead. The blossoms were opening before the snow, but now are making their appearance again.
After the long dark winter we’ve endured, there’s hope for a brighter future.
Stay safe, we’ll be in the sunshine soon enough.
Brad Sherwin, MBA is a long-time resident of South Delta, and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business strategy. He teaches Marketing at Douglas College, coaches hockey goalies and is Past President of Deltassist.
