Maquinna's Poop du Jour

The Neverending Winter

Back home in Victoria, the Annual Flower Count has already been completed - an exercise where the city asks its citizens to report the number of blossoms in their yard, so that it can gloat to the rest of the nation, which is still shovelling out mountains of snow, that winters are mild in Victoria. It is an inexact science - estimating the number of candy-coloured blossoms on the Japanese cherry and plum trees - do you count the ones hanging over your neighbour's yard, or on the boulevards? No matter - go ahead and count them, count them twice if you will. The point is to be able to call your cousin Ethel in Barrie, Ontario and tell them that you're gassing up the lawnmower while the fragrance of thirty-seven gazillion flowers wafts through your home, doors and windows open to let the fresh air in.

Ethel fumes as you gloat and slams down the phone, yelling at her husband. "Walter, next winter we're headed to Florida!"

Well, somehow, I've become Ethel. Winter shows no signs of giving way to spring here yet. Last night another eight inches dropped on us, with wind gusts well over 50 mph. The drifts have buried me in the driveway.

Some weeks ago Craig bought a VW Vanagon online - in South Carolina. We are about to head down there to pick it up and drive it home. We seem to have established an annual pattern of going off in search of spring at this time of year, when winter has become nearly unbearable. We are going to have to work to get our car out of the driveway just to get to the airport. Even so, it seems even the deep south is experiencing very cool temperatures right now, and there is a very good chance that we will encounter a lot more cold and snow on our drive back from SC than we had counted on. Well, all roadtrips are adventures, and sometimes the more unpredictable and frought with disaster they are, the better. If nothing else, I am hoping for some excellent photo opportunities while on the road.

Wish us well - I'll see you all again next week.

posted by Maquinna @ 9:09 a.m.