Storm: What storm?

(Apologies to all my friends and family in Oz who are buckling down for Yasi. My heart is with you all today and you will be remembered in our prayers tonight!)

We have a little "storm" out here too in our part of the northern wonderland. The weather network has issued a weather alert since Tuesday morning, all day I have been receiving messages in my work Inbox (yes, I do work!) about offices closing down in the United States for "unsafe driving conditions" and my house is a little colder than usual (the thermostat is allowed to dip the house down to 16 Celcius in the day in winter).

So, prepared for the worst, we looked out the window 15 minutes earlier today and we still woke up the kids (a little earlier too) and dressed them and took them to daycare. Da Man drove into town to his contract on Sussex Drive. I even pushed the snow (whilst wearing just a sweater!) accumulating on the top of our driveway further down the middle for the plow to take it away (we have a service - best $200 we spend all winter!).

They cancelled school buses. School kids are still expected to go to school. School kids have been streaming into the school across the street. The express bus going into the city was stil whooshing by to take people to work downtown. As far as I can tell, all my friends are at work today. No one is snowed in or unable to get in to work some how. I have no idea what the rate of accidents out there is as I don't watch news and I don't listen to the radio when I am working.

All I see are small flakes falling down to the ground from the sky. All I hear is the hushed creaking of the trees on my street. And I smell crisp clear air. Aahhh.

So, what is the big deal about this "storm"? Get with it guys, we live in Canada. As far as I know, it's somewhere up north on the 49th parallel. I don't recall this city being perched near the equator. Snow happens. I can remember a year it snowed in July (1995 in Newfoundland)! (And we won't even talk about the Canada Day less than 10 years ago (2002) when it was below zero!).  Yes, we have to be aware of snow coming our way, yes we have to be extra careful and vigilant when driving out there. Yes, if we can avoid going out there, we should stay home in our warm jammies and hide out for a day. But we have bills to pay, children to feed; we have to work. As Da Man would say, "Suck it up buttercup". And go put on a snowsuit.

The picture taking opportunities are going to be abundant later on. I wonder if I will be able to capture some of it?

The kiddies are going to be upset when they come home tonight because it's not snowman snow but the soft fluffy stuff that is dead easy to shovel and great for sliding. Maybe we will...

**Update: The rest of the nest came home early and we did get to play outside in the snow before supper-time**

There was some digging in the snow in the front:

And then, being good Canucks and never letting a little snow stop us from the outside, we went to the back.

Cawwy?

Granted:

We dug out the barbecue, cos you never know when the desire may strike you! (Don't laugh, we have been known to throw steaks on the Q in the middle of freezing rain, blowing snow, 40BelowZero....)

It's really that important to us!

And then, there was drying off by the fire:

Ahhh... good times!