LIFE AT THE NORTH POLE - THE WINTER OF 2018/9 By John Graham (Article)

John Graham

Dear Bingo,

Sorry to hear about the rain, but a sprinkle must be good for the citrus. Here, we are deep in snow – a record fall in January and about a metre fell in mid-February. Mountains of snow are now covered with a thick sheet of ice. If it sounds like the situation 11,000 years ago that created our last ice age and maybe the Great Lakes, it should. The RSPCA is checking out a reported woolly mammoth sighting near the RCMP barracks. Who knows?

Our street resembles a photo taken in the winter of 1916 of an Allied trench in Verdun. Thick walls on both sides border a narrow lane of deeply corrugated ice at the bottom. Injured bodies are removed periodically to first-aid stations and, in some cases, coarse language has been heard. Smart people are wielding ski poles and fixing crampons to their boots – these are the spiky attachments worn for climbing in the Alps.

Some residents complain that it’s difficult to keep track of their neighbours’ activities as huge mounts of snow block the usual window viewing. Meanwhile the mayor produced another deadline for LRT and then a trial run by an LRT snow plough on the tracks smashed into some transponders (train control systems) – so another delay.

Any good news – well not much, but it does keep people from grousing full time about the Senators, Melnyk and the Premier – as well as bashing each other from their respective sides on SNC-Lavalin/Wilson-Raybould and the PM.

As I write two people are trying to hack ice and snow build-up from a neighbouring roof. Oops! Albert slipped – ahh! Caught himself in time.

Must go! The family needs another run toddy.

Love to Mitzi, the tadpoles and Bonzo, the slobbery wolfhound.

John.

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