centre of the universe - the dreaming

Seriously. We took a taxi downtown yesterday, and you wouldn't *believe* how intense this guy was. He was all cutting people off and then yelling at them out the window when they wouldn't let him back into the lane he'd just cut them off from getting in to...he just about hit a pedestrian...there was no smooth, elegant ride downtown - he took it rather personally that a bunch of the roads were closed for a marathon.

In fact, he took that *very* personally. Every five minutes or so, he'd tell us that "all the roads are closed. All of them. Everything downtown is closed. Everything." while driving on a road that was clearly not closed.

Add to the milieu the fact that he had this seashell (a la "Fahrenheit 451") in his ear that he was chattering to the whole time. Do you know what he was chattering about? He was talking about how all the roads were closed and he couldn't get anywhere because it was "bumpertobumper".

It was all terribly silly, and we didn't die, but we also didn't get to take a bus tour because, you guessed it, all the streets were closed.

Normally, I am not Nervous in taxis. Last night, I was clutching the Jesus Christ handles and composing a letter to my children, to be written from a vegetative state. I was choosing short, easy words I could write with my mouth if need be.

Labels: piss in your eye, when there's weather

I remember days like this
Hot sun blasting through winter-grimed panes
Trees budding, grass green in the field.

We were instructed
"Look here," at lessons scratched on greenboards
pencils shaved to stubs.

How could we look there?
Our eyes drawn by golden light
birds, butterflies, and the breath of fresh, sweet breezes.

Wriggling bums and
muscles aching to run,
bubbly voices fluttered in our chests.

In fifth grade
my desk was third from the back
in the row closest to the windows.

Were I there now,
there again, my mind would still wander
out into the sun, out into the breeze.

Labels: spring, verse, when there's weather

I don't care what THEY say...the day when we celebrate the effacement and thinning of cervixes all over the western world is the day I consider to be the first day of spring.

Labels: spring, strings, when there's weather

Lou Reed forgot to mention laundry hanging on the line, and the squealing laughter of children in the yard. Silly Lou.

This day...THIS is what I have been waiting six months for.

Labels: when there's weather

THAT'S better.

We drove down a squiggly road that wound beside a squiggly river.
We took the long cuts instead of the shortcuts.
We walked along the side of the road and found treasures:
a blue thing, a red reflective deer, and pocketsful of rocks.
We knocked on the doors of every gopher hole we found (we found a lot)
but none of the gophers were home.
We heard them trilling out in the field.
We walked along the berm
We took a detour onto the train bridge.
We tossed rocks in the swollen river.
A beaver swam by, then trudged up the river, then swam away.
We jumped in puddles
and squolked in mud
There were slides down six slides, and on the way home,
We found a stick.

The laundry is flapping on the line, and our sun-warmed faces beam huge smiles.

Thank you, Spring, for this day
with my baby.

Labels: kids, The Nipper, when there's weather

1. Remembering to stop the car on the way to the babysitter's so that we can all hop out and jump on the crackly ice, to hear that sharp, percussive sound of breaking glass, and watch in glee as mud splashes up to dot our trousers, jackets, and smiling faces.

2. Shy crocuses peeking out from under the humous and layers of last fall's leaves.

3. Confused Cats blinking in the sun, and taking tentative steps out on to the deck. They are convinced, you see, that their paws will become Wet and therefore Unsatisfactory (although they pronounce it 'uncatisfactory') because they can smell the warm air and they know that somewhere nearby, water runs in rivulets.

4. Finding pucks, shields, swords, mittens, keys, a hammer, and a barbeque that had been buried in the snow all winter.

5. Sounds of joy bubbling up and out of every child who walks past the house on the way to school. Their voices have been muted by the snow too long, and they are hungry for the colour green.

Labels: 365 Days of Grace, spring, when there's weather

Please, wherever you are...wherever you're reading this from...hill, dale, valley, hummock, or plain. Mountain or Shield, midland or coast...please...

Send Aslan.

Our country has been locked in the frigid grip of the White Queen for ...well, it seems like ages now. My own children were much younger the last time they could play outside barefoot with the warm sun on their shining faces. I can't remember the last time I saw green in the out-of-doors. Even the conifers are looking weary.

In fact, on the way home the other day, I chanced to glance upward, where I'd heard a certain commotion in the branches above. There sat a nervous squirrel, having just leapt from the topmost branches in a tree to the top of our roof. It paused and glanced at me in an accusing manner, as if I personally had ensured the ice would jam up in the eaves and flow up over the edge of the roof so he couldn't get at the tender seeds that had fallen in to the eaves last fall. Then he pitched his wee eyebrows and fixed me with a pleading look. "Why?" His little brown eyes beseeched me. "Why have the two-foots not called forth the sun? Why must you torture me so? And, have you any nutmeats about your person?"

I shook my head sadly. "I'm sorry, Scuirus Niger; the truth is, had I my own druthers, the sun would have melted this ice and snow weeks ago. And no, I have no nutmeats on my person. I shall put some out for you, though."

"Oh," the squirrel seemed to meekly say, "Oh. I see. Well. If you wouldn't mind so much turning up the heat a wee bit in your home. It warms my tiny paws. I...I have to run..." And off it bounded, sad and teary-eyed, for its winter dray.

Today it's snowing like it's the third of December, and while I know you're Very Tired of hearing about the weather, and while it's Very Beautiful and we need the moisture, um. I sure miss summer....

Labels: when there's weather

It's a gorgeous day, I thought to myself. Sunny, and new-fallen snow lying, as the song says, "deep and crisp and even". I thought, maybe I'll go skating today. Maybe even go for a walk through the valley. Maybe I'll get out my skiis and ski out into the fields and just listen to winter all around me. Days like this, I thought to myself, I love winter.

I stared out the window, transfixed at the early morning fog. I was mesmerised by the stillness of everything, by the way the snow lay like the proverbial blanket over everything in our yard, the way it cushioned the steep peaks of our neighbours' homes (and of ours as well, I presumed, though I hadn't yet gone to look at the back yard). Then I saw it. I want you to look closely at that photograph and tell me what you see. Look very closely. There it is. There you have it.

In case you didn't see it very clearly, I shall post a close-up for you:
That's right. You're reading that correctly. It's thirty-seven degrees below zero.

O WINTER, THOU FOUL MISTRESS! THINE FROZEN HEART HATH AGAIN FOULED OUR MOST CHERISHED PLANS! WOE! WOE AND FIE, VILE ARCTIC TART! WHY MUST YOU TEMPT US SO?

Labels: Forty below, vile temptress, when there's weather

I am very pleased that the young Slovaks have won a game in the medal round. They haven't won a medal since 1999, when they took home the bronze in Winnipeg, I think it was. Apparently the team was so new and so unprepared, they arrived in Winnipeg without proper equipment or even places to stay.

This whole cheering for the 'underdog' thing will probably be the end of me.

Incidentally, when we, as my friend's husband would say, "have weather" in Canada, the national weather agency often releases "weather warnings" for the areas of the country that will be affected. You know, maritime storm warnings, tornado watches, etc., etc., etc.. The yellow areas mean Something Bad Might Happen. The red areas mean Something Bad Is Happening. This is what it's like in Canada in the winter:

Talk about your 'red threat'.

Labels: IIHF, Slovak victory, when there's weather