calamity

This morning I woke up with a planned cold. Yeah, it was planned as an excuse to circumvent a dentist visit. My planned cold sounded convincing as I called in to reschedule my appointment. Postponing a dentist visit is probably a common occurence. But my reasons are a little weird: it was not a fear of the drill that kept me at home, it was the fear of snow!

Back in the old country (a.k.a. as Bohemia, a.k.a. [the] Czech Republic) a major snowfall is alwyas called "snehova kalamita", i.e. "snow calamity". While the English word "calamity" sounds a little overblown when applied to snow - of any quantity - I happen to think it's appropriate.

The last few days have been extremely cold but there has been no snow on the ground. Now, they're expecting between 15 - 30 cm's, an amount that makes life hell. First of all, driving becomes next to impossible (ergo the canceled dentist). You slip and slide and skid and dance on the road surface until the salt truck have at it. Then the sliding improves at the cost of filth and dirt and salt and grime and pebbles accumulating on your windshield every five seconds. You squirt your windshield fluid furiously, basically to no avail except for a few seconds' relief.
Secondly, walking becomes difficult. I am addicted to my walks and not being able to comfortably walk through the park pisses me off. You trudge and kick your way around in the sticky white stuff, you huff and puff and sweat under too many layers of clothes, topped off with a water-proof coat - it all sucks. Instead of my usual 4 km, I can walk about 1 km. Even after they clean the sidewalks - sometimes that takes days - it's still not pleasant as by this time there has usually been a solid freeze-up and the walk becomes a treacherous dance of potential broken limbs. Thirdly, I get a panicky feeling that should I get sick or get a heart attack, an ambulance wouldn't be able to reach me on time because of the clogged up roads.


away with you, filthy snow
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Snow is supposed to make the christmas season bright and cheerful and jolly but it just puts me in a foul mood. I hate it. I don't like anything about it. A calamity, indeed!!

P.S.
OK, I'll admit it looks pretty from my 18th floor condo window