Snowshoe Day!

Mother Nature saw fit to grace us with a huge dump of snow today, in my neck of the woods. Finally!

Every year I wait impatiently for the first snowshoe day of winter. I am giddy when I hear of storm warnings and ecstatic when the white stuff actually flies. Some of my friends don't get this, so I sometimes feign that I am also displeased when they grumble about the state of the weather winter brings. "Yes curmudgeonly friends, you are right, this is quite terrible! And in Canada, of all places! How dare?!"

So, I grab my gear from the basement and head out the door. No point in driving anyways as my tires are bald and I'd just end up doing unintentional doughnuts. But there is not yet enough snow on the ground to actually strap on my beautiful bright-orgasmic-orange snow flotation devices.

A passerby stares at them, tucked under my arm. She looks me in the eyes, raises her eyebrows, then frowns. Perturbed by my preparedness?  I smile.

I am 10 minutes late for work. I don't care. It's a snowshoe day! My manager is displeased. "So and so got to work on time! Roar! Grumble! Consider this a warning!" My brain registers, "Hooray! Snowshoe Day!"

When I actually get to strap on my metal lovelies at the end of the day I am in heaven. The walk home is effortless. Pure bliss.

I am so full of energy that I shovel my driveway, and the neighbours, and another neighbours walkway. Then I sing and dance in the light of my giftmas tree, to the A's of my i-tunes list... Amelie Soundtrack (just the accordion tunes!), Amos the Transparent, Amy Winehouse, Andrew Bird, Arctic Moneys...

My Green and Black's hot chocolate burns the pot black as I dance. I get distracted easily, and have therefore gone through many pots in my lifetime. I laugh and put on some more hot chocolate in a shinier pot (and add Bailey's.)

I snowshoe again, this time though the fields and small forests near my home. I love my fancy aluminum snowshoes, but miss the extra floatation of the old-school wood and sinew models. That and the long tails and lack of cleats, that make it a hell of a lot more exciting to lean back and half slide, half hop, down steep hills in the woods.

Tomorrow the forecast is calling for more snow, much to my delight! I consider leaving for work a tad earlier so as to avoid invoking the fury of the boss woman. Then I consider actually finding a job that I might want to go to, like in the good old days of tree-planting, record store, and outdoor gear shop.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll strap on my snowshoes and hike right on past work.