New Year
Northdays Jan Column 2003
'Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on..
I wish I had a river so wide I could spread my wings
and fly !'
(Joni Mitchell)
Have An Ice Knight on Dows Lake!!
All celebrating over with for the great days
from September to January? No? Some people are all set for Winterlude
along the Rideau and in the Byward Market. For some, the appearance of the
Bonhomme is certainly a magical time...
Why have I never skated the canal after
living here all these years? I think about braving the cold at
least once a year when I see all those
happy skaters whizzing miles down the deeply frozen
water...
When I went to Carleton University back in the
nineties,some of my classmates used to jet to school on the long river, several miles every
morning.I really felt jealous, and wished I could trade places with the
energetic skaters. At the time, our commuter bus system took me thirty
miles into Ottawa from Carleton Place. The yellow school busses were
completely unheated, and when we boarded at 5:30 a.m.,the windows would
have to be scraped for a deep rime of frost that collected inside the
vehicle. Bundled in several layers of clothing, some thirty commuters
faced hypothermia every morning until the heat kicked in somewhere near
the University, too late to have imparted any actual warmth. The plain old
busses had no convenience at the back, so packing morning coffee was an
agony formerly unknown to man. The bus driver strictly made no stops for
we frozen,cramped and uncomfortable passengers, so we couldn't even have a
good couple of cups at breakfast to tank up for the frigid journey. Having
to hold it in practically made you frigid for life, anyway, after a few
frantic occasions!!
We had already walked
in minus thirty degree temperatures ,all in the black dark of early
morning,
and then we had shuffled in the prinking snow and
ice,waiting for our bus. If one missed the bus, the next came in half an
hour. In a small town, there are no warm shelters to hide in while lining
up for the ride- so we were ready to embark some minutes ahead of
schedule.
As our refrigerator car carted we half frozen stiffs halfway
to Ottawa on Highway Seven, the miraculous, pearly dawn would appear in
multicolor, its gold and pink rays cheering the scratched-out
patches made for viewing through the frost on the windows. This was our
respite: witnessing the tall, dark pines lining the highway as they
emerged from the frosted gloom, and gazing at the shining, golden
farmlands as the glorious sun came to rescue us. One snowy morning, a
blizzard overtook our vehicle, which took two and one half hours to
traverse the usual twenty to thirty minute run. This happened to be an
examination day at the University, and I found that the run had left me
with only half an hour in which to complete- so I should have just stayed
home. On another exam day (Christianity One) I was so stunned with
hypothermia it is a wonder I was able to understand the simple trivia
quiz-like questions at all. I passed, but for a person who has spent many
years studying ten Bibles, I squeaked by that one!!
So there is so
much to celebrate, now.
I don't have to
keep the heat
down so low that I have to walk about the house in sweater and
quilt at all times, unless I could bake something and keep warm with that. In the old
days, the Hydro even turned all but 10% of my electricity off, over an
unpaid bill.
As a young Mom, I was scared and very cold, but we braved the
storm and survived. Commuter busses from Carleton Place (same company) are
now streamlined tourist coaches with gorgeous upholstery and a loo in the
back. They are comfortable and smell of aloe scent, not monoxide and
diesel oil.
Wherever we live,
these days, the flooring is clean and does not have loose green and white
tiles which curl up (all of them) at angles to the next tile. We do not
have to spend two hours removing floor wax and then repolishing the horrid
tiling.Our bathrooms sport adequate water heaters and non-rusty pipes, so
that cleaning is a breeze.
Now that I live in
Kanata,
I can take a city bus anywhere, if my husbands' car is unavailable.
Times have changed, and most of us are used to hundreds or even thousands
of conveniences.
That's why
Ottawa makes sport of the Winters' cold. Every year, ice palaces and sculptures
are formed by teams of ice sculptors posted along Dows' lake. Ice,snow, and the
cold, simplifying beauty of the clean winter months become a rare Zen
occurrence. No snowfall, sculpture, frost painting or weighted bough will ever
stay for more than a few weeks, offering a meditation on the fleeting I Ching of
what we know as life..... So, January greetings to all of you- I'm going to
hibernate in front of a glowing fireplace with cups of deep hot chocolate and
deep rye sandwiches. Then I'm going to imagine skating along that vast canal,
again.
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