I just wanted to tell you about the snow.<\/p>\n
It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in winter.\u00c2\u00a0 Experiencing it on a gray day in T.O. was like running into an old friend, from high school, from college.<\/p>\n
After a few decades you lose touch with who you used to be, but it comes back with a vengeance once you’re re-exposed.<\/p>\n
After looking out the window of the hotel room, I yelled to Felice NO SCHOOL!<\/p>\n
Having grown up in L.A., she had no idea of what I was speaking.\u00c2\u00a0 She didn’t remember listening to the transistor, to the roll call of towns that had cancelled classes for the day, waiting to hear the name of your own hometown.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d listen right up until you walked out the front door.\u00c2\u00a0 Hoping, praying, for a day of cartoons, hot chocolate, sitting home in the warmth, staring out at the swirling snow.<\/p>\n
But there wasn’t that much snow today.\u00c2\u00a0 But there was enough to stick.<\/p>\n
But it didn’t seem to slow Toronto down.\u00c2\u00a0 People were used to it.<\/p>\n
I used to be used to it.\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t think twice of staying in when there was precipitation.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, in L.A. people stay home when it RAINS!<\/p>\n
And when we got in her Saturn, Karen asked me to pop the hood.\u00c2\u00a0 So she could put in some windshield washer fluid.\u00c2\u00a0 And two nights ago, Jake had to take out the scraper to remove a layer of ice from all the glass before we could hit the highway.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyday activities when one lives where the seasons truly change, but exotic to those living in warmer areas.<\/p>\n
And I was stunned to see other cars on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t everybody else know it’s SNOWING?<\/p>\n
And when we got out of the car for lunch…\u00c2\u00a0 My Nikes slid in the snow, I had to put on my gloves, I had to prepare.<\/p>\n
And inside the warmth of the restaurant conversation alighted on topics that are discussed on the west coast, but not quite in such depth.\u00c2\u00a0 You see not being able to go outside, those in colder climes examine what’s inside.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more about the brain than the body.<\/p>\n
And when we were done with our conversation, Karen took us out for a drive.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw a man with a plastic toboggan.\u00c2\u00a0 And over his shoulder a sledding hill.\u00c2\u00a0 I remembered the sensation, I had to fight the urge to jump out of the car and start sliding.<\/p>\n
And after ascending a hill we were at this castle.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the parking lot was covered with snow, it was not empty.\u00c2\u00a0 I recalled outings with my family on winter weekends in the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I remember driving home from New York City in a raging snowstorm.\u00c2\u00a0 My father was falling asleep, but he wouldn’t surrender the wheel.\u00c2\u00a0 And then there was that time we had to stay overnight in Hartford, not being able to move an inch further on our descent from Vermont to our abode near Long Island Sound.<\/p>\n