The First Snow of the Year - Reprise

Last year I wrote an ecstatic post that included a video from Canadian musician Hawksley Workman. Alas, music companies being what they are, YouTube tells me now that this video is not available in my country. So sad.

This weekend was not exactly the first snow of the year, we did have a few dustings that melted almost as soon as they landed. But this is the real thing - the city got socked with about 30 cm of the thick, heavy white stuff, and it is here to stay until the spring.

It's not fun to drive in or shovel, but it is very, very beautiful to look at. Everything is so quiet, too, with the muffling snow. I walked to shul this morning and the snow came over the tops of my boots! My daughter has been out in the yard a good part of the morning, building things and knocking them down. So much fun.

This is the snow for building - it's actually not very cold, just about -4C on my deck. When the real cold hits, the snow will be too dry. So this is the time for making snow people! I'm sure we will later.

One more thing. With the Internet being what it is, I did find a video that features Hawksley Workman's song. Take that, music company!!

On Mothering a Teenaged Driver

Last week a 17-year-old Winnipeg girl died. She was riding in an SUV with her friends at 1 o'clock on a weekday afternoon, when the vehicle hit a tree. She was ejected from the car and was killed. Her friends were all hurt, and charges have been laid against the 17-year-old driver.

This story would have made me cry anyway - I have become much more susceptible to any sad tale involving children since becoming a mother. But it really hit me in the gut, because my 16-year-old is learning to drive.

He's a good driver, although not yet ready to take his road test. His reflexes and mechanical control of the vehicle are excellent - years of playing video games are apparently good for something. The mistakes he makes are a direct result of inexperience, and he is a quick learner. More importantly, he loves to drive and asks to do it as frequently as he can, accumulating as much experience as possible. These are all good things.

Nevertheless, I am putting my child in charge of a lethal weapon. Right now I sit next to him and remind him to slow down if a light up ahead is about to change, call out warnings if he is drifting in his lane and tell him what to do about obnoxious guys in macho trucks who are trying to get him to move faster than is wise or legal.

But some day soon, he will be out there by himself. I tell myself that he is a good and cautious driver with a healthy respect for the powerful machine under his hands and for the speed limit and seat belt laws. I teach him everything I can so he and everyone around him will be safe. I have to let him go out and learn to be an adult.

But last week, a 17-year-old girl died, and a 17-year-old boy was left with a burden of guilt he can never, ever lose, regardless of what his friend's mother says and how genuine her forgiveness is.

We all cry.

I'm a Shabbat Guest!

My new friend Miriam Steinberg-Egeth has got one of the coolest Jewish blogs you are going to see anywhere. Last year she blogged each of her Shabbat experiences for the entire year. This year, she's getting her friends to do it for her, clever girl.

Getting 52 friends to blog for you can be a bit of a stretch, so Miriam put out an invitation to a group of Jewish women bloggers. I'm very fortunate to be a member of this group - there are some pretty darned big names here, and I'm humbly learning from them and everyone else.

I'm especially fortunate that Miriam agreed to have me be one of her guest bloggers! Woo hoo!

So, here it is - me posting on Miriam's blog about a summer Shabbat in Winnipeg - this past one, to be exact. I love her reference to alternate spelling - she clearly needs more Canucks on this blog! If you have something to say about Shabbat, consider contacting Miriam. Even if you don't, her blog is a pleasure for anyone to read.

You can put your comments here or on Miriam's blog - we both love them!

The First Snow of the Year

Nobody can express the excitement of the first snow of the year like Muskoka-born musician Hawksley Workman.

It has been the summer to end all summers – warm, sunny, no mosquitoes. It has been the mother of all autumns – warm, sunny, dry, and most importantly, long. 

I remember my first Halloween in Winnipeg, October 1995. The snow was so deep the few intrepid kids who came to our door were wading through it. We concluded that was normal to our new home, although in most years since then the snow has not been quite so deep in October. This year we whined over a few drops of rain. How quickly we forget.


This year, September turned to October turned to November, and the amazing, double-digit temperatures went on and on. We began to think, somewhere deep inside, that maybe it would stay like that. The leaves turned gold and then dropped, but we didn’t believe it. It was still warm, wasn’t it? Maybe this year, things would be different. Maybe this year, the inexorable logic of life above the 49th parallel would relent. Wasn’t there some massive climate change going on? Bad news for the polar bears, but maybe good news for us.


The tease went on. Our local meteorologist displays the most impressive accuracy I have ever seen in weather forecasting – almost certainly because he lives here rather than looking at satellite pictures in Edmonton. He told us that the Colorado low coming up would mostly just give us rain on Sunday night, with maybe just a sprinkling of snow on the city. Western Manitoba was going to get it, as usual – 15 to 30 cm, those lucky people who live near those big, beautiful, overflowing, not-yet-frozen lakes. 


Sunday reminded me of life in Western Europe – grey, drizzly, warm. My family went out to visit friends Sunday evening and drove home in the pouring rain and sleet. Snow? We didn’t want to think about snow.


Monday morning it was finally here. Only a couple of centimetres in the city, but oh, what a picture postcard. The roads were black, but all the trees, boulevards and roofs were a gorgeous, virginal white. I wanted to pick up the city and shake it like a snow globe. It’s quiet like a snow globe, too, when the snow dampens the sound of traffic.


Of course, the driving was abominable. Every year the good citizens of Winnipeg act like they’ve never seen snow before. It takes a day or two before everyone remembers what this place is like for six months of the year; they start keeping their distance and slowing down well ahead of intersections. But there are always a few spikes in the accident rate beforehand, usually minor, fortunately.


Welcome, snow. We will curse you by February, but for now we’ve forgotten those unseasonably high temperatures from last week in the joy of your beauty. Time to go dig out those mitts and tuques – I know I’ve got them around here somewhere …