Forty

Day Forty:  YOLO

There is this pile of snow outside of AJ’s apartment that I really just want to dive into.  I don’t have snow pants, I don’t have mittens, but I jump in and attempt balance anyway, this pile of snow ladies and gentleman is taller than him, in short, taller than me.  I want to make a cubby, to dig a hole out of the middle and sit in there.  When we were in seventh grade we used to have to go outside in the middle of winter for science class and dig a huge hole and take the snow from that hole and make a “quinzee” out of it, to the point of a small igloo, and if the teacher could fit inside (a massive man) and light a candle for a minute we passed.  This is an insane project, but super fun when you’re thirteen and get to play in the snow for hours during school time, during class time, for a class.  I want this again.

It has been insane snow lately, and it just reminds me of when I was younger and my grandmother used to take a shovel in the backyard and dig a fot for me, pour water and put cardboard so that I would have chairs and a sofa to sit on made by snow, and these forts would last weeks.  I would come home from school and run to the backyard and play house, or play with my imaginary friends, and gramma would watch from the window above looking out from the kitchen making sure nothing collapsed on top of me, or that it wasn’t getting too cold.

This snow is nothing new to me, nothing out of the ordinary, if only out of the ordinary for winters lately.  There hasn’t been this much snow in a long time and it is refreshing.  Today it wasn’t even tedious, it wasn’t windy or cold but the sun was melting most of the snow from the roads.  Winter boots as high as the knee’s are still necessary, but for the time being we weren’t stuck in a blister of a blizzard, and everything was serene and walking.  Perfect snow shoing, snowmobiling weather.  I wish I could snowmobile still.

I remember when I still lived in Mount Forest there was a specific day when my neighbours took me on their snowmobile for approximately two hours to an old farm where they made us pancakes.  I was maybe five, and it was such a great evening.  I don’t talk to those neighbours anymore but I wish I did.  I miss the small town feel on winter days, walking is a challenge.  Even walking in Guelph is a challenge anywhere you want to go is covered with very steep hills.

I like that about today, about the past few days:  it has been a challenge.  Things have been a bit different, but it has been worth leaving the house for.  I think that’s all I have to say about that.

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