'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 !'
(lyrics by Joni Mitchell)
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 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 the guys' 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.
copyright Northdays Image 2003-2015, Susan M. Risk