Bloody cold.
The blizzard on Friday night was followed up by deathly cold. Deathly.
DEATHLY
This morning, windchill taken into account, it was -47 Celsius. Do you have any idea what that feels like? Do you have any idea how cold that is?
This is the morning that my boss had scheduled for the parking lot at the apartments to be completely cleaned. As a result, we had sent out letters last week requesting that all tenants remove their cars for the day so that a proper job could be done.
In any other city, what would have happened, is most of the people would have moved their cars, some of them wouldn't have, the dude would have come, scraped the lot, trucked away the snow, everyone would have moved their cars back into their respective stalls, and we all would have gone home. Simple. Easy. A whole bunch of grown-ups working together for a common good.
HOWEVER this is Winnipeg. And in Winnipeg it will be warm in December, it will rain, and then it will freeze, and then it will get warm again, and then it will freeze. Once there's 2 inches of perfect crystal-clear ice (death, death I tell you) it will proceed to snow for 3 days. This will be followed by a normal day to give you a chance to dig down to the ice, spread some salt, and begin chipping away at the skating rink beneath.
During this time, the sidewalks will produce a disgusting brown slush the consistency of chocolate pudding, and you will proceed to track it into MY lobby, grind it into MY stairs, and spread it over MY carpets!!! I WILL VACCUUM IT ALL UP AND YOU WILL NOT THANK ME!!!!
This is also the day I deliver the letters telling you to move your car the following monday. You thought it was a busy day until it started snowing, harder and harder and harder. Then there was a weather warning. It continued to blow all night long and in the morning the drifts were waist high.
So explain to me why you were surprised when on monday morning, once you had moved your car despite the -47 windchill, the tractor that was supposed to come wouldn't start, and a replacement couldn't be found until 12.
Do you think maybe the other tractors were CLEARING THE STREETS OF THE CITY?!?!?!?
My observations of winnipeggers in the past has been that when the weather turns yucky, they stick together. They tow each other out of ditches, they give each other boosts, they let each other use cell phones and give each other places to warm up, because if there's anything every winnipegger knows, it's that Winnipeg is cold. Empathy is never far away for the individual who has been victimized by our ghastly weather. We make exceptions, we go with the flow, we slow down and chill out and nod understandingly when things can't go the way we planned because the weather has gone out of control. After all, people die in this weather. Since we choose to live here, we also know that sometimes we have to work around it.
Maybe it's just that my exposure to rich spoiled snobs is fairly limited, but I was shocked, astounded, apalled, by the bitching and moaning of the tenants today. I mean, Do you want the lot cleared? Do you like bouncing over the unevenly packed snow? Do you enjoy trudging through a pile of snow to get in your car? Okay then. If I understand you correctly, you would like to move your car for a couple of hours so we can get this done for you, you special special person.
Oh, it's taking too long? DID YOU NOTICE THE BLIZZARD?? THE FREAKY BITING COLD?? Tell you what. Why don't you curl up next to your warm crackling fireplace in your overpriced apartment and thank your lucky stars that the tractor-guy isn't African, because he wouldn't show up for another 3 days.
I'll just be leaning into the wind, trudging from building to building in the dry, frozen, steal-your-breath winter to make make sure you don't have to look at any dirt.
You're welcome.
Pussies.
The blizzard on Friday night was followed up by deathly cold. Deathly.
DEATHLY
This morning, windchill taken into account, it was -47 Celsius. Do you have any idea what that feels like? Do you have any idea how cold that is?
This is the morning that my boss had scheduled for the parking lot at the apartments to be completely cleaned. As a result, we had sent out letters last week requesting that all tenants remove their cars for the day so that a proper job could be done.
In any other city, what would have happened, is most of the people would have moved their cars, some of them wouldn't have, the dude would have come, scraped the lot, trucked away the snow, everyone would have moved their cars back into their respective stalls, and we all would have gone home. Simple. Easy. A whole bunch of grown-ups working together for a common good.
HOWEVER this is Winnipeg. And in Winnipeg it will be warm in December, it will rain, and then it will freeze, and then it will get warm again, and then it will freeze. Once there's 2 inches of perfect crystal-clear ice (death, death I tell you) it will proceed to snow for 3 days. This will be followed by a normal day to give you a chance to dig down to the ice, spread some salt, and begin chipping away at the skating rink beneath.
During this time, the sidewalks will produce a disgusting brown slush the consistency of chocolate pudding, and you will proceed to track it into MY lobby, grind it into MY stairs, and spread it over MY carpets!!! I WILL VACCUUM IT ALL UP AND YOU WILL NOT THANK ME!!!!
This is also the day I deliver the letters telling you to move your car the following monday. You thought it was a busy day until it started snowing, harder and harder and harder. Then there was a weather warning. It continued to blow all night long and in the morning the drifts were waist high.
So explain to me why you were surprised when on monday morning, once you had moved your car despite the -47 windchill, the tractor that was supposed to come wouldn't start, and a replacement couldn't be found until 12.
Do you think maybe the other tractors were CLEARING THE STREETS OF THE CITY?!?!?!?
My observations of winnipeggers in the past has been that when the weather turns yucky, they stick together. They tow each other out of ditches, they give each other boosts, they let each other use cell phones and give each other places to warm up, because if there's anything every winnipegger knows, it's that Winnipeg is cold. Empathy is never far away for the individual who has been victimized by our ghastly weather. We make exceptions, we go with the flow, we slow down and chill out and nod understandingly when things can't go the way we planned because the weather has gone out of control. After all, people die in this weather. Since we choose to live here, we also know that sometimes we have to work around it.
Maybe it's just that my exposure to rich spoiled snobs is fairly limited, but I was shocked, astounded, apalled, by the bitching and moaning of the tenants today. I mean, Do you want the lot cleared? Do you like bouncing over the unevenly packed snow? Do you enjoy trudging through a pile of snow to get in your car? Okay then. If I understand you correctly, you would like to move your car for a couple of hours so we can get this done for you, you special special person.
Oh, it's taking too long? DID YOU NOTICE THE BLIZZARD?? THE FREAKY BITING COLD?? Tell you what. Why don't you curl up next to your warm crackling fireplace in your overpriced apartment and thank your lucky stars that the tractor-guy isn't African, because he wouldn't show up for another 3 days.
I'll just be leaning into the wind, trudging from building to building in the dry, frozen, steal-your-breath winter to make make sure you don't have to look at any dirt.
You're welcome.
Pussies.
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