Jenna's Snow Story

The snow covered the prairie town in a fine layer of icing like you see on top of a wedding cake thought Jenna as she gazed outside upon the beginning of December.

 “This isn’t going to last very long,” thought Jenna to herself as she peered out the window of her 1200 square foot comfortable cozy 1957 home nestled in the quaint older neighborhood of a typical small Canadian town. “El Nino is upon us, and we are very lucky right now with these fantastic temperatures,” she smiles and looks at her beautiful Golden Retriever Maremma sheepdog named Jake.

Jenna has seen many winters, but lately this year there has been no snow, and here it is the beginning of December with temperatures still only a few degrees below freezing. She has not wanted to really say anything or question the weather at all to jinx it, because it has not snowed. This is certainly not any kind of real snow that she has seen in her 48 years of living in Canada. By the time the afternoon hits Jenna thinks the snow will melt completely in no time flat. The texture is just very fluffy and like icing sugar, it will not stick at all are in her muddled thoughts to herself.

The snow instantly causes her mind to drift to memories of how snow makes her feel. Jenna remembers real snowstorms, blizzards and white out conditions on the highways to drive thru. There have been all kinds of snow that she has faced, and she says to herself “This isn’t normal.” The snow she is thinking of is the kind where it keeps snowing and never stops and then you are stuck in your house and the temperatures hit -25, well that is a different kind of snow all together. “Now that is the snow that makes you scream Jake!” “Where you need; boots, gloves, layers, and layers of clothing to keep you warm, and a scarf to protect your face from the blowing wind and the cold that hits your face that it just freezes on impact. You need; your shovel, ice scraper for the car windshield and ice melt or sand for the driveway so you do not slip and fall on the ice when the cold hits hard. Well, the driveway is clear of all that right now, I do not need to worry just yet. “I’m being blessed with this weather, and I don’t know why?”

Jenna is wondering where the snow this year is, as it has not come at all. Last year there was quite a bit of snow. The snowbanks were remarkably high, and you could shovel every day. The snow on forest trees created ice crystals on the pine needles and branches called a hoarfrost. It was beautiful, stunning, and had a majestic feeling when you walked thru the forest. Jenna took an amazing picture that was featured on the local community website by the old bridge on her favorite walk she took with Jake on new years day. This does not even come close to any kind of snow she loves when she thinks of the holidays and winter. The temperatures need to be colder for real snow to stick. As her mind drifts and drifts which is what snow does when it does stay for real, she recalls vividly her times as a young girl playing in the snow with her brother.

Snow makes you feel cold, refreshed, alive and making snow forts is really a feeling of euphoria from a child’s view everything is different. You can escape anything that is scary when you are outside creating a snow fort, but you need many centimeters of snow. Possible more then twenty centimeters would be good. She recalls her little dog back then was an American Cocker spaniel named Harry, the color of a deep auburn red. He would be out there too playing in the fort and digging with her and her brother. She would have on her favorite snow suit and be well deep in the snow, so deep you could make holes and tunnels and lay there covered in the snow for hours on end. The thought makes her wish she were young again as people were so much kinder to each other and not rushed or bothered with technology all the time. Adults were different too, but probably because life was different in those days. She was not inside all the time on a tablet, video games or computer.

Snow makes you feel nostalgic about the season of Christmas all the time, and when you live in Canada it lasts longer than the month of December around Christmas and well into the springtime or even May or June. Jenna remembers also spending hours and hours skating with her friends at the local outdoor recreation centre with the music playing in the background. The schools would take her classmates there to have a day of fun outside. The weather would be very cold around -25 degrees, well below freezing to skate on the manufactured pond at the recreation centre. There was certainly way more snow back when she was a girl and living in the border city of Alberta and Saskatchewan. That snow makes her think of the safer times too where you did not have to worry about people committing so much crime in the neighborhoods. Life was just slower moving at a simple glacier pace. Jenna’s mind comes out of the clouds now and back to her current life here where she now has her own children who have become teenagers so fast, and their childhood years are becoming another distant memory for her.

The temperatures need to be colder for the snow to last, and right now the weather has been so lovely that snow is not here. She thinks now how her current dog Jake loves the snow. He is a golden retriever crossed with a Maremma sheepdog. He absolutely loves the snow and has been the best dog ever for her own little family. She thinks about all the fun that this dog has brought them and is incredibly happy about having a dog for her sons as well. The dog has taken them on several adventures and most of them have been in the snow. She pounders how snow can bring feelings of feeling; fresh, alive, tranquil, peaceful, and calming. It can be serene to walk into a fresh field of snow that has not been walked in. Jenna has walked many times with this dog who is getting on in years now and has hit almost 10 years old now. She fears also his time is coming but pushes that thought out of her mind. Behind her house is a golf course here in the town and on the off season she takes Jake back there, and for many winters she has gone back behind her house with him and made paths in the snow that were so deep it hit her halfway up her leg. Those are the kinds of snowstorms that are fun to be in. To break a path with her big snow boots and the dog, while letting him romp and play and roll around and get up and shake his coat. This dog has been the best and he loves the snow too, but it not here. It has not really arrived just yet.

The snowshoes her husband bought for her a few years back on Christmas are in the garage and she wishes she could use them; however, you need a lot of snow, and cold temperatures for that snow to stay. She loves the warm weather, and it is a blessing also, but as a true Canadian born and raised here she still wonders when the snow will arrive as the weather patterns are shifting and changing. The attitudes of people with the politics of war and sad events that have taken over the news daily it seems, but snow would be a good distraction and seem more like Christmas if it does come that is. It would be good for people to cheer up more since the pandemic took over everyone lives and created too many rules.

However, as fantastic snow can be and wonderful, it also can make you feel depressed, sad, and lonely as it drags on and on for days on end. It can be so cold you do not want to be out there for too long. She remembers how it would hit -40 and then the ice would freeze to the pavement and roads are slippery and treacherous for drivers. When its that cold it is bone chilling and truly you just want soup and warm stuff, like blankets, comforters, heavy socks, and big sweaters and lots of hoodies to layer up, and just sit by a warm fire. A warm bath becomes a ritual when the weather continues to plumet. Jenna also realizes that napping becomes easy to do during winter which makes her feel like a bear going into hibernation, like all the bears that live in the mountains. The mountains are Jenna's escape from real life, but that is for another story because to do them justice the entire story must just be about the mountains because they give her a thrill that is better then a ride at the amusement park. She is so thankful to live that close to almost the wonder's of the world is what she believes from the many journeys she took their with her family.

Jenna recalls one year in her little house how on boxing day the furnace stopped working and her small family had to hunker down in the main floor where the indoor fire was. It took a day or so to fix but that night was so cold when the furnace did not work. Her husband lit the fire in the cozy little living room and her boys hunkered down in there with blankets and cuddled by the fire with the dog and she stayed in the night in the other room with her electric blanket that kept her nice and warm. Snow can be fun, or it can be frustrating, and can cause hardship to all that endure it, but however it makes you feel it can bring back memories that are lasting if you are a veteran of snow.

Winter driving is not here yet either and now she remembers a time being stuck in the city when she used to work in offices for a temporary agency, but she wanted to be home to get the little boys to be safe in her house. She came outside to the red dodge caravan and had to spend at least 10 minutes or more just getting the thick heavy snow off her windshield in Edmonton home of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team. Then she would start the van and wait for it to warm up and get ready to do the 40-minute drive in the blizzard out of the city and back to the small town. The drive would also turn into being well over an hour because of the snow that created so much havoc on the roads and highways. This so did not feel worth it she remembered, to be stuck in this snowstorm and not be there to pick up my little boys at that daycare. It took so long to get back that day after work when the heaviest snow fall, she could ever remember hit. She was scared, nervous and anxious driving in it. It made her upset, angry and frustrated that so much had hit so fast. It took forever to get back to her little boys in that daycare she remembered. She started to feel like working was a waste of time and driving back and forth just to pay for daycare and pick up her kids was too frustrating. She wanted to work in the small town but there was hardly any office work here that she could find. The snowstorm made her angry and upset and she spent so much time commuting back and forth to just make a little bit of money and keep a sense of career going. Now thinking about that she is very thankful for less snow as it can also just never stop once it starts and last for days and days on end, and you must be prepared when it hits. You need a; snow brush in your car, gloves, hat, and scarf to protect your face from the cold blowing wind that creates havoc while you get your car ready to drive. A Canadian must be prepared for a variety of snow events.

There is light snow that is just sweet, kind, and gentle and then just gone which is the snow she sees outside right now, and it is December in Canada when there should be significantly more. Then there is heavy snow that just keeps snowing all day long and does not stop, it sticks to the ground, and it stays because the temperatures make it stay. That is the kind of snow that sticks. There can be wet snow in the spring that is a bit slushy like a slurpee you can get at a convenience store. Jenna remembers because last spring she and Jake her golden retriever had walked in that too when the temperatures are getting just a bit warmer but there are many centimeter's of snow, and it must melt for awhile. You need a good boot and good socks to walk in that kind of snow or your feet get wet and soggy. Then there is the kind of snow that stays, and it must be a firm -20 for many months. The snowbanks are higher and there is no grass visible anymore and the roads are covered in ice every day and slippery so you must be well prepared to stop before hitting an intersection, and usually you are shoveling every day to keep the path cleared for the mailman and to keep the snow off your car. That kind of snow is like a heavy white blanket that coats the ground and no longer will you see anything left in your yard until you find it in springtime. It is when nature goes into hibernation, and you cannot have any more gardening fun until the melt happens which is a long wait sometimes. Now she thinks about that, hibernation is cool if you do not have to go anywhere. It can also be a good excuse not to do things. Sometimes the buses will not run for school when the snow never stops and everything is at a stand still and life slows down to a halt, and you can just play a board game, card game or crafts with your children or do baking inside of your house.

“Oh, for goodness sakes Jake! I am so thankful we do not have much snow right now.” Jenna believes snow makes her feel busy because it truly is a chore. There will always be shoveling, ice scraping, heavy coats and boots and winter driving is more treacherous. For now, she is just feeling relieved and will enjoy the wee bit of time left before the real dump of snow arrives, as she believes in her heart and soul that it has still not fully arrived. So, for now Jenna will be happy that there is no real snow yet as she prepares for that fresh dump of heavy white cold snow to hit and coat the ground for another season.