Skip to main content

Every Cloud, Raindrop, Snowflake and Heatwave Has a Silver Lining

It's Friday!  So I thought I'd finish the week off with a little rant about the weather.  Seriously is it too much to ask to live in a climate that isn't at one extreme or the other more than 300 freakin' days of the year?

Our summers are blisteringly hot and humid.  Our winters are ass-kicking cold.  Both suck big time.

The problem is that while I have always hated the heat, as I've gotten older, I've gotten less and less tolerant of the cold.  I feel like I am turning into a big wimp.  I just can't bring myself to bike in the cold anymore and instead force myself to endure the misery of riding the subway.

On Tuesday, I tried to get on the subway on my way home from work just before 5pm.  Ha!  What a total nightmare!!  I stood on the subway platform for 30 minutes while train after train stopped in the station but was too packed to pick up any more riders.  Eventually, I went back up to the ticket agent and asked for my money back so I could leave.  Apparently they don't do that.  I stormed off and went back up to street level and just started walking in the freezing cold.  Even the street cars going by were too full to pick up more riders.  I walked about 7 blocks and finally PAID AGAIN and caught a northbound street car with space, went up to the east west line, took a subway west to our stop and another bus north to our street.  All in all, what should have taken no longer than 30 minutes, took me 90 minutes.  I vowed to ride my bike Wednesday.

Then I woke up Wednesday morning, heard the weather report and got out my subway tokens.  Um, minus 12 C with the wind chill?  No thanks.  Fortunately, all my trips were not right in the heart of rush hour but the damn transit system isn't cheap and it takes forever.  My bike is free and so much faster, but my resistance to the cold seems to be declining.

It's funny because I used to laugh when my dad would say his parents (who lived in Los Angeles for the latter part of their lives) didn't want to come to Canada to visit in the winter.  It just seemed so silly to me that they'd let the weather affect them so much.  Man, they were probably in their 60s at the time...I'm just 39 and already feel like an old fart when it comes to the cold.  Except I hate the heat too.  I guess I'm just a big whiner really. 

Of course, since we don't plan to leave Toronto anytime soon, I have decided I have to just learn to accept the crap weather here.  I am trying to let go of my guilt and annoyance of relying on public transit instead of my bike and just accept that too.  Most Canadians don't bike in the winter, so why do I feel I have to?

Since the winter starts to bug me more after the holidays, I have decided to start a little gratitude exercise come January 1st.  Every day in January I will blog about something I am grateful for.  I am also thinking I will finally buy an LED mood lamp so that come February/March when I am so sick of the cold, grey weather that I feel like hiding under the bed all day, I don't fall into my usual late winter slump.

So have yourself a great cold weekend (or a not so cold weekend, if you are so lucky). 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available.  My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic.  I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch.  I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat!  I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes.  You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Blackfly Coolers: Product Review

Summer is over! Well, at least if you're a student. Officially it doesn't end for a few weeks, and it certainly still feels like summer. Yeah, I hate it. This f*cking hot, humid weather needs to end NOW! We made the most of our last weekend of the summer with our annual trip to the CNE on Friday, with a crowd of friends. It wasn't unbearably lot, thank goodness, and the girls and their friends had a blast on the rides.  Saturday I had to work, and Sunday was errand day. Monday we took the girls berry/apple/pear picking but didn't last long due to the heat. I organized the house to prepare for the construction workers starting back up yesterday, while Adam took the girls for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. Yesterday was the first day of school. Grade 2 and Grade 5. Yep, the girls are growing up.  We are fortunate that the girls don't have much anxiety about school, they are so much more confident than I ever was as a kid! But now, in the midst of our reno ch

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste