Member-only story
Icy Conditions
Not our usual winter
We’ve broken the planet.
Our weather has been weird. Not just unseasonably warm, but weird. This past summer we had heatwaves of epic proportions and a heat dome that caused a town in BC to spontaneously combust.
I knew our winter would be colder than usual, likely below -35°C for at least a week or two, but I didn’t think it’d be as warm as it is right now, at 2°C. In addition to the warmth, it’s raining.
I live in central Alberta. We don’t get rain in December, we get snow. I can’t even remember seeing sleet in December, that’s more of a March/April thing and by then the ground is usually warm enough that the sleet doesn’t freeze, it slushes instead.
The icy conditions are horrible. Every car passing by my window is fishtailing or spinning in circles. We know how to drive in snow, even blizzards, but not ice. We’ll learn, hopefully quickly, and soon it’ll be second nature to drive on it.
My morning walk was a careful balance of walking and sliding. I’ve learned how to walk like a penguin by shifting side to side. This makes me look like I”m shuffling and waddling at the same time — shwaddling? Wuffling? Shaddling? — but it’s kept me from slipping so far. This walking style is absolutely horrendous on the arthritis in my back and knees though. I don’t want to give up my morning walks, but I may make them significantly shorter for a while.
Maybe as a Christmas present to myself I’ll get those claws that letter carriers put on their boots, since this weather seems to be our winters now.
