It’s not officially winter quite yet, but it definitely felt like it here today.

This week I saw on some website that Alberta is the coldest place on Earth, and is apparently as cold as Mars. So, spending 30 winters in Alberta should make me immune to NYC winters right? New York doesn’t get that cold! Come on! Ummm, wrong.

Although the temps may not dip to -40F/C here, I’m finding my Albertan blood and skin have not adapted to these damp frigid winters. Would I rather freeze my butt on a dry -40F/C day or a damp 16F/-8C day like today? I’m not sure.

Living in Edmonton all those years, you know what to expect. You expect the temps to drop in September, the snow to fall before Halloween and for it to remain on the ground until at least the end of March. As a community of drivers, you make sure your car-starter works and your block heater cord is out. You equip your car with your winter items, antifreeze, the extension cord to plug in at work, and sand in case you get stuck. You drive in the worst conditions: ice, ruts, blizzard white-out visibility, slush puddles that melt and refreeze, and think nothing of it.

macblaze.ca

Living here for the last several winters, my experience has been … different. I have no car to worry about and no winter driving to prepare for (and I don’t miss the car or the driving).  I do have to bundle up for the walk to the subway, bus, to wherever or whatever festivity I’m headed to. I don’t miss being surrounded by snow for 6 months of the year, but now I do get excited when those big fluffy flakes fall… and leave only moisture on the ground.

So what am I trying to say? Winters vary from place to place and when you think you can handle one in one place, maybe you can’t in another (or vice versa)… or maybe you just have a new appreciation for it in a different time and place.

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