I'm cold

After a summer that wasn't, we finally got a respite from the rain that plagued us from June until September.  We had a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures that were greatly appreciated.  Last Monday I heard on the radio that the temperature was going to go down and that it was going to rain, turning to snow over night.  While I was out the back of the shop having a smoke I felt the wind coming out of the west and thought ya right, it's not going to snow.  I went out a couple of hours later and the wind had shifted out of the east and the temperature had started to drop.  When I went to bed that night it wasn't too bad but when I got up the next morning it was definitely a winter wonder land.  Seems that every driver in Calgary had forgotten how to drive and it turned in to a major 'traffic day' (as I call them).  Good thing that I leave early enough that I beat most of the ijits on to the road!  It took me 45 minutes to get to work that morning.  The next morning a whole lot of people decided that they too, would leave early and it took me an hour for a 30 minute commute.  It's just so much fun to get stuck behind someone that's scared to death and doing the white-knuckle drive at a whopping 30kph in an 80 zone! (and no place to get around them!)  I'm not saying put your foot in it and go nuts, but yeesh, the least you could do is try to keep up with the traffic in front of you!  My favorite is seeing the ijits that think that they can sneak in to an opening in traffic as it's going along, not remembering that the intersections are greasy enough that all they're going to do is sit there and spin, or, god forbid, suddenly catch a solid patch and shoot out into the side of somebody.
It's snowed so much that the City of Calgary can't keep up with the snow removal and quite frankly, neither can I!  Tuesday after work I got the shovel out of the garage and cleared a path from the garage, across the back sidewalk and across the deck and then ran out of gas.  Wednesday when I got home I shovelled the front walk down to the street and ran out of gas again (we've got a good 6" in the last week).  I think I'm going to give up for a couple of days; it's supposed to get back on the plus side of the mercury later on this week. (or the kid that comes to mow the lawn and was supposed to be shovelling for me might show up!)
I have a tendency lately to hibernate when it gets like this, poking my nose out of my burrow only for things that I have to do, like go to work, like get dog food, or the ever-important things like cigarettes and beer, but other than that?  I'm in for the duration.
In the mean time, I think I'll have a hot toddy and dig out my long underwear............