Conversation in a Toronto Cab

I am in a cab, heading over to my Mum’s last night. My cab driver and I are having a chat  and since we are Canadian this means that we are culturally bound to discuss the weather, which is cold and snowy- as one expects in January.

Cabbie: Do you know I came to Canada from Southern India 22 years ago. I’ve worked 22 years to bring my mother here to live with me.
Me: Wow. That’s a long time. Is she here now?
Cabbie: No Miss, she came, but she went back home. It was my fault.
Me: Oh dude.  Don’t tell me.
Cabbie:  I brought her in January.
Me: Oh, buddy.  
Cabbie: I know. It was -20 Celsius.  She stayed for only 36 hours.  She will never come back.
Me: That is a mistake.
Cabbie: It is.  I should have brought her in summer.
Me: Totally.

Cabbie: I still can’t believe I did that  – after all, I had 22 years to work on my plan.

I laughed, and laughed and laughed.

186 thoughts on “Conversation in a Toronto Cab

  1. Fabulous story — reminds me of a conversation I had with a man from India in the dollar store. I was complaining about the cold weather and he said to me “you don’t like it, why don’t you move?” He said he’d come from India and that he chose to move to Canada despite the weather and that if you don’t like the cold weather, move to India and you’ll have lots of other things to complain about.

  2. I’m convinced that the only reason I live in San Antonio, TX right now is that my parents got me to move here in December. If I’d come in July or August, I would’ve turned right back around and gone back North.

  3. HAHAHA, that is seriously funny. That poor woman, did he at least provide her with a jacket, mittens and a hat I wonder. Or did she step off the plane wearing her sari and nothing else.

  4. His mother is clearly a wise woman. Although if she had stayed long enough to learn to knit she might have had some fun.
    Thanks for the laugh.

  5. *lol* That’s brilliant!
    I moved from Australia to Scotland on purpose to embrace the cold life, but we had to come home in the end. Here in Melbourne it was 43.6C (110F) on Monday with an overnight low of 30.6C (87F). You want warm, move here! Just be wary of bushfires…

  6. The poor fellow! And his poor mother arriving to this country in January. 🙂 He didn’t stand a chance to keep her here! Poor fellow.

  7. Wow. That sound like something my mom did to my grandmother. Unfortunately my mom didn’t factor in the fact that we have the steepest driveway in the county so there’s no way to get her out with her dinky rear wheel drive car. She’s ready to get out of the mountains already.

  8. Poor guy. To his mom, it must have felt like the surface of Mars.
    The winters here in LA are great (72 degree F predicted high today), but the summers are hellacious. I’d almost postulate that everywhere has one nice season per year, but I’ve been to San Diego, where it’s almost always pleasant.

  9. Wonderful story — I so needed a laugh today. Poor man, hopefully he can cajole her to visit him soon — in Summer!

  10. My Indian friends keep reminding me that parts of South Asia have weather like the Upstate New York (southern Canada) weather where I was raised, but people from that area don’t seem to move to colder climate in North America. I don’t even meet them in North Carolina!
    For a lovely story about a cab driver that brought tears to my eyes, please go to http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/6789209/.

  11. That’s what keeps me out of Canada. The cold. Anything under 70 F is unbearable, so that is a different kind of thing altogether. Right now Central Texas is killing me.

  12. ahha the Canadian university I’m at invites potential grad students to visit in the early early spring. That disgusting week when all the snow is melting… and all the sand/silt/salt that we poured all over the road is covering every inch of the dead grass/roads/etc. because the cleaning-mobiles haven’t come by yet and nothing has started to grow. And it’s invariably colder and windier than it ought to be.
    And when the visiting students start very politely trying to inquire if it’s always this hideous and this cold I never know what to say.. because yes it will be infinitely more beautiful ANY other day of the year but it’s likely going to be a lot colder 60% of the time..

  13. Here here Maria @ 2:39. It’s around 72 here in San Diego too, and summers never get “sweltering” hot. I’m always trying to convince all of my friends to move here.
    Laura

  14. I’m torn between laughing and feeling sorry for the poor guy. But I feel his mom’s pain… it’s in the single digits (Farenheit) down here in Ohio, I can’t even imagine -20 CELSIUS. (Actually, I used to live in Minnesota, so maybe I can.)
    I love these brief snippets of Canadian culture that you put on this site. I’ve never had the chance to go anywhere outside the Lower 48 states, so it’s fun to see what it’s like living in other countries. 🙂

  15. I have a slightly sadder version of that: my friends’ marriage is on the rocks because he wanted to move from California back closer to his family in Illinois. His wife, a Southern California native, agreed, but they not only decided to move back in October, they managed to move there right before one of the coldest winters on record.
    After an entire winter spent snowbound at home with no job, no friends, and only his family for company, she moved back to California without him. They’re trying to work it out, but he’s having a tough time convincing her to take another chance on a prairie winter where the front door literally iced over so she was unable to open it to leave the house.

  16. That’s exactly how I feel every time I visit my family in Toronto! I’m like… really? Really? It’s THIS cold?
    I still don’t know how you all deal with it! That said, I love Toronto as a city. If only it were at a lower latitude…

  17. Yesterday I posted about how here at 8AM it was 34C/109F. It was hideous. Still, cold is worse.
    I can’t comprehend how cold Canada gets…. One Canadian woman commented that you guys don’t even have air con. I don’t know how you all do it….

  18. 36 hours is quite a long time to survive in that weather with no handknits! Clearly, his plan should have also involved wool and sticks 😉

  19. I read this aloud to my husband and we both laughed and laughed and laughed, too! That’s a lot like the way our plans go! So funny. Thanks for the lift!

  20. OK, that made me feel better. And since effective planning has ceased to be my forte in life, my hat is off to the Cabbie. He gets a large portion of my sympathy for the day.

  21. LOL. We keep wishing we could get our son-in-law to move our daughter and grandchildren to Texas to be nearer us. Only we can’t ever let him visit in July or August or the cause is lost! Funny story, Stephanie!

  22. I’m from MN. Born and rasied. Moved to Dallas, Texas, lived there for 13 years, endured the heat of summer. Moved back to MN. Still wonder at why I apparently must live in areas that only have some type of weather extreme. thanks for the laughs today as always.

  23. Our department brings people interviewing for faculty positions out in December. In Iowa. At least they can’t complain we don’t have truth in advertising.
    On the other hand, I did a postdoc in North Carolina and they tried to bring people out early in the spring so that the contrast with the weather back home would be especially favorable. 🙂

  24. Having lived in temperate California (Silicon Valley area) for 30+ years, I thought my daughter would have a difficult time adjusting to college life in the Northeast (she’s at University of Rochester, due south of Toronto). Other than the fun comments (“gee, Mom, you wouldn’t believe how many pairs of closed toed shoes everyone else owns”) and my inability to convince her that she didn’t need to pack 15 pair of flipflops freshman year, it has been a smooth 4 years. She loves the area, doesn’t mind the snow/slush (even for driving), and is even talking about working in New York City or Boston when she graduates this spring.
    Go figure. I think I might be more like your cabbie’s mom.

  25. My hubby and I went on a long-weekend one January, in Toronto. Yes, we went north to get away. Actually, it was a bit colder than home, but much less snow, so we were pretty happy.
    I suspect that the cabbie’s Mum has no intention of changing her mind.

  26. I’m from Wisconsin, but have lived in San Diego for the past 15 years. I have to wait until my two oldest children are out of high school so I can move back and have some real seasons, because they can’t stand the cold. By the time I can move, my youngest will still be too little to understand what I’m doing to him.
    I hope he forgives me!

  27. I’ve lived northern Wyoming for almost eight years now, moved here in early spring… and today I finally told my husband “I’m tired of being cold.” I guess sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in, eh?

  28. LOL! Even though we’re having a Chinook (warm westerlies) here in South-Central Alberta right now, and stuff is melting (and re-freezing at night — yuck!)…and even though my DD was born 29 years ago tomorrow (Jan 13) in a +16C Chinook…well! even a Chinook would have been too cold for his mom. Great story!! Quintessentially Canadian, too. 🙂

  29. I laughed and laughed and laughed when I read that. Then I cried a little as I hung up my down jacket with no hope of putting it away for months, and no India to flee to.

  30. OK,question: With what yarn are you knitting your French Press slippers? I’ve knitted 2 pair with Fisherman’s wool and they turned out great. Then I tried a pair with a different wool that was only slightly heavier because I wanted a color and they were crappy–lumpy, unevenly felted–not something I want to present to someone as a gift. Yours look perfect.

  31. **giggle snork!** Poor guy. Goes to all that effort to get his mom to a new place and screws up on the time of year. It’s like asking someone to move to Portland OR in November right in the beginning of the rainy season.

  32. Oh my! I live in Northern Michigan and we know people in Arkansas who are afraid to visit because they are convinced it snows all the time. Also, I’m beginning to not like that gloating Laura in San Diego, California w/her 72F, etc. 😉

  33. Haha that’s horrible and hilarious at the same time. What a cute story!
    Back home (Erie, PA), I worked at Target throughout college and the weather-discussion was ALL I ever heard from about October through April. You’d have thought these people who’d lived on the great lakes their ENTIRE life had NEVER seen snow before. Cracked me up.

  34. I, too, am one of those who actually likes cold weather. I’ll freely admit I could do without the -22 F plus wind that we had recently, but Minnesota winters in general are just fine. That said, I was thrilled when I realized that the trip to California (for a conference) that was going to allow my partner and me to get married was located in San Diego. Practically a guarantee for perfect wedding weather; and it was lovely. 🙂

  35. How funny! Now me, I would love to come that time of year. I’ll take the cold and snow anytime to rain, mud, heat or parched dry weather.

  36. :D!!
    My mom on the other hand visited once in early winter (upstate NY), and was utterly disappointed that it never went as low as -20. Nothing I said could convince her that she was LUCKY it didn’t go much below zero. NOTHING.

  37. My husband’s grandparents didn’t want to come over from Romania as soon as my FIL could afford to bring them. There was no reason. Years later my husband’s family visited them and rented a car. His grandparents were terrified when they went over 30mph. His Grandmother was convinced they could just drop in on relatives in Toronto every few days. Same country, right? Uh, no. Fortunately, my FIL realized they’d never adapt, and another family “adopted” them. My FIL visited and sent money (and brought over things you couldn’t get over there) regularly, but they never came over, even to visit.

  38. Timing is everything! DH talked me into accepting a company transfer to Louisiana. You’ve got it: he took me from NJ to LA in February. THEN, after we’d moved, came Louisiana summer!

  39. btw Jamie @ 3.41: NYC and Boston are real nice! it’s not the cold here in Rochester that’s the problem (well, it is, but you sort of get what i mean), it’s the lack of sunshine. Boston at least gets so much more of it! Hope she’s enjoying at the UofR (I’m from there too!). It’s a nice place, once you get over the temperature shock!

  40. Dang! My husband moved from Bombay to Michigan, but in Sept (1985) so he could ease into it.
    He’s going home to visit in 3 weeks. I know cold and snow and all those things and still wish the rest of us could afford to go with him.

  41. No hard feelings Leta @ 3:56. : ) I just had to say that I am a long time lurker and your comment on my comment made me feel like an official member of The Blog now. Thanks!

  42. That’s hilarious. My parents moved from Maine to New Mexico a few years ago, and managed to find a place where they still managed to get snowed in during the winter.

  43. What a funny man–I’ll be he has a whole pocket full of stories. And, good thing it was only -20C, if it was -20F, she might not even bother to take his calls any more.

  44. Two posts so close together,
    you just made my day.
    Off to work on knitting a sweater,
    I hope to finish by May.

  45. Thanks for the belly laugh on a day when I sorely needed one. (Does the whole world look different after a belly laugh, or is that just me?)

  46. oh, my goodness! That is HIL-A-OUS!!!!!! Not that his mom won’t come back, but the last line!

  47. I just laughed out loud at the coffee shop. That is hilarious and exactly the opposite of what happened with me and my mother in law. We live in Austin and their first impression was of our hottest summe ever. However I’m outside right now enjoying the sunny 60 degree day with my knitting.

  48. LOL Hard to believe that she never even came for a visit in 22 years.. I’m sure the wife thought it thru. LOL

  49. This made me laugh out loud at my computer! Seriously funny…especially to those others of us who also live in very cold northern climes!
    Thanks, Stephanie, for brightening a cold day!

  50. Okay do Canadian have that dry cold as opposed to the wet icy cold?
    Here in Baltimore, MD, USA we say it’s not the heat, it is the humidity.
    By the way they are promising us 50 degrees by the end of the week. It will break the cold freeze we have had for the past month.

  51. I think what struck me about that story was this: think about how VERY, VERY expensive that plane ticket back to India, bought on no notice whatsoever must have been!

  52. That is hilarious! Similar problem but opposite (heat instead of cold) here in australia, everyone comes over in winter and thinks its great and when summer hits (30-45) they start to cry a little on the inside.

  53. LOL. So funny. I’ve been a northerner my whole life and have lived in places where it gets sub-zero for long periods of winter. You can’t change the weather, so you may as well make fun of it.

  54. Oh my.
    Same reason why some companies in the hotter areas of California only interview in our winter–when things are green and blooming rather than desert-y looking.

  55. Reminds me of my uncle and aunt got married in February. In Minnesota. My mom says she knew that marriage was doomed.

  56. not really on topic – but \i know you do a lot of travelling. I just checked through canadian security flying to US. I had to put my knitting in my pocket (on my person as the CATSA website said I could) No Problem!!! My flight is delayed another two hours, glad i have my knitting to keep me company.

  57. Can’t say as I blame her…I also appreciate the cabbies pragmatic assessment of the situation.

  58. This is one of the best stories ever! I love it! I work with a guy from Karachi (southern tip of Pakistan) and he moved here in the summer. (Here being Calgary) He was a little surprised in the winter…
    At the moment we’re in the midst of a Chinook (it’s +8C right now) so I probably shouldn’t say anything more… haha

  59. My Aunt, from Alabama, married a man from a suburb of Toronto.
    They currently spend winters in Alabama and summers in Canada. He keeps telling her how beautiful it is in the winter and trying to convince her to visit then. She said _only_ if he spends a summer in Alabama.

  60. Um….was it a really amazing seat sale?!? Buddy, can’t think of any other excuse for ya… =)

  61. Rotflol! That is SO funny! I bet you all would be jealous of me. It is 70 degrees in Scottsdale!

  62. now that i have stopped laughing, i’m beginning to wonder if perhaps the crafty cabbie knew all along what he was planning….. 🙂

  63. That is a wonderful story. Just yesterday I was lamenting to a friend as we shared a NYC cab that the television (yes, television @*&^%!) that now runs non-stop in the back seat of cabs in New York will someday eliminate all the rich and hilarious conversations with cabbies that are part of the experience. Keep them out of Canadian cabs, by all means.

  64. Oh how true and funny at the same time. When I got married and travelled to Kenora Ont , the first morning waking up to -40F. Holy crap I didn’t go outside for a few days . I can just imagine how this poor Mother felt .

  65. My coworker brought his mother from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Iowa two January’s ago- the temperature was about the same (hovering at 0 F).
    She’s still here but she’s a 90 year old woman with no choice about it. She said for the first few months she sat inside in a parka. Now she says she likes the summer here- it’s warm enough. But still won’t go outside in the winter.

  66. Maybe you should have directed the cabbie to Florida – although it may have taken longer to get to your mom’s house and cost more than a skein of pure cashmere.
    Dude’s next call home: “No seriously, Mom – no snow in Miami, I promise!”

  67. my xmil and xfil wintered in texas, in an “immobile home” (i.e., fancy trailer w/o wheels) parked in a development about 30 miles from mexico. lured by tales of a warm, sunny vacation, the then-huz, 2 kids and i flew down for xmas the year of the first gulf war.
    it was cold, cold, COLD! about 28f, but that’s really cold in a place that’s not insulated for it. xfil had roses trained up the metal columns of the porch, and had put christmas lights up the columns, too. when the cold was forecast, he wrapped the columns in plastic sheeting so the lights would keep the roses warm. it got so cold that a lot of people’s pipes froze, so x and xfil spent most of a day thawing out pipes for clueless southerners. good times.

  68. I know I’ve spent 22 years planning something and then goofed something up at the very last bit. I can feel for the guy! That’s why we always talk about the “best laid plans…”. Thanks for the post.

  69. Thats funny! When I lived in Sweden my family refused to visit me….I always had to fly home to the states because they were afraid of the cold. I guess they forgot we did have 2 weeks of summer..haha

  70. LOL – my mom grew up in South India, although her parents were from the States. I took her back three years ago – the first time she’d been back in 54 years, and my first trip there ever. Because I’m a schoolteacher, the only time we could schedule the trip was in “the hot season” – early April=spring break. If we hadn’t expected and planned for it, we’d’ve had the same reaction as your cabbie’s mom except to the opposite weather! Great story and thanks for a wonderful blog. Needless to say I passed it on to my mom as fast as I could.

  71. LOL – my mom grew up in South India, although her parents were from the States. I took her back three years ago – the first time she’d been back in 54 years, and my first trip there ever. Because I’m a schoolteacher, the only time we could schedule the trip was in “the hot season” – early April=spring break. If we hadn’t expected and planned for it, we’d have had the same reaction as your cabbie’s mom except to the opposite weather! Great story and thanks for a wonderful blog. Needless to say I passed it on to my mom as fast as I could.

  72. And here I was feeling bad because I started laughing as soon as I read that the cabbie brought his mother to Canada in January. Poor woman. I am a tropical baby myself and remember 30 yrs ago when I first moved to the USA feeling like I was literally freezing when the temperature went below 70F.

  73. Very,very clever man. How sure he was that she would turn around and go back home, rather than hunker down and make his life a living hell from that day forward, at least in winter.
    I wouldn’t want to bet against a man with that insight.

  74. LOL! Oh, I can feel his pain. I tried to bring my California Surfer Dude husband home with me to Michigan. We moved here in January and the results were similar. To his credit, he did stick it out for a year. He thought the springtime was nice, summer was awesome, fall was pretty but depressing and winter…. well, he was just not up for that again. His dislike of the seasonal changes, being far from the Pacific and his serious disdain of anything hand knitted (I know, why did I marry the guy in the first place!) led to the obvious result. He was too sad to be away from his home and I was too happy to be back in mine. He is happy again with the sand in his toes, salt in his hair, a neoprene wet suit creeping up his whoopsidaisy and a surf board strapped to the top of his car. I am happy again with a house full of wool, my doggies in my lap and my needles in my hands. Warm socks, cozy afghans and beautiful lace shawls complete this cozy picture.
    I feel bad for the cabbie, for all that work. But props to the Mama for knowing she wouldn’t be happy in the cold.

  75. Love it! It’s why more people should visit Fairbanks in January instead of June. -40 is not so bad when you realize how it keeps people away.

  76. I live in wisconsin. So I know cold. My oldest lives in Austin, Texas. the first time I visited her , it was June. Yes , it was hot, the next time it was March, and I couldn’t figure out why they were wearing winter coats . It was 6o out I was a wearing a thin jacket. I am staying in Wisconsin.

  77. That is so sad, but funny, too!
    My DD & SIL were just here from California. We had a lovely -16 day (that’s F, of course) and had some wonderful weather experiments to entertain the SIL. 🙂 (We threw boiling water in the air – instantly vaporizes/turns to ice particles. Waaaaay cool to watch. Bubbles will also actually shatter at that temp, but I didn’t have any handy. 🙁 But living in Minnesota isn’t all fun and games!)

  78. That’s amazing, on so many levels. Sad as well, but mostly funny. That’s what I call an epic fail.

  79. I have heard that in the middle east they don’t talk about the weather, but I have trouble believing it. It rained so hard, our creek rose last night.

  80. When I was young (and dumb) living near Quebec City there used to be very cold and snowy days. As a teenager I must have freezed my b… too many times to count as I wanted to look cool so wouldn’t wear tuques or mitts. Now I have found nice winter clothes adapted to my country: Kanuk (or Canada Goose) coat, Pajar shearling winter boots and lots of handknits (different styles and different colours). Really the key is: dress for the weather !!! Since I was discovered that I enjoy winter a lot. The only thing is the snow. This year is not too bad but the last two years we had tons of snow (shoveling anyone) in Montreal (where I do live now). I have a little picture to share if you want – in March 2008 – snow in my front door – you can see the print of my door in the snowbank.. pfew..
    http://samlatricoteuse.canalblog.com/archives/2008/03/10/8271682.html

  81. Ha ha, that’s awesome!
    I used to live out East (Ontario/Quebec/New England), and a few times in February my mom, who lives near Vancouver, would call, ask how the weather was (snowy and/or COLD) and then talk about the crocuses etc that were blooming in her yard.

  82. That poor guy. But really when you bring someone from a climate like India to a climate like Canada, you really should expect these things…or at the very least tell that person to expect them! I feel for him, I really do, but it’s like I can’t help shaking my head and giggling at the same time.

  83. Count yourself lucky. My last cab driver insisted I was too pretty a girl to live alone, and wondered why I didn’t have a boyfriend. Blurgh.
    I should have asked him what his mother would have thought if she knew he was chatting up his customers.

  84. It’s funny how you can acclamate to just about anything – given enough time. I don’t think 36 hours will cut it for a Canadian winter though…

  85. Thanks for this. I have about 16 months at least to plan our family’s migration to Edmonton (yes, of all places in Canada I chose one of the coldest!). I will make sure not to plan our arrival for January.

  86. I moved to Colorado in the worst winter they had for 20 years. Stayed 2 years before moving to Texas then Back to Cali where I’m from.
    Classic was coming off the plain in a pencil skirt and four inch heels to find five feet of snow in the parking lot

  87. 2 weeks ago, it was -33C, today it’s +8C (north central BC). Gotta love chinooks!
    When I was a teen, we had a Japanese exchange student stay with us for 3 weeks over the summer. We went camping, it was 38C, and we were all sweltering (being at the lake made it survivable), and the exchange student went to get a sweater because it was so cold compared to southern Japan. Good thing it wasn’t winter…

  88. Reminds me of a friend who received a job for a few weeks in Edmonton, in the winter. His mother knit, his girlfriend knit, he had a thick thick fur hat, big coat, knit socks…but he said the walk from the cab to the hotel was as if he was naked in an ice storm. His blood just wasn’t hardy enough for that weather.

  89. Oh my goodness!
    It’s never that cold here – he’s just too close to the wrong coast.
    (actually I wish we had winter here! – though not right now, my desire for cold and wet has passed pretty quickly this year){don’t tell anyone from Vanoc I wrote this!!}
    It was 12 degrees here this afternoon – do you know how hard it is to keep kids in there coats when its 12 degrees in January? Impossible.

  90. Yes, timing is everything. I moved back to PDX after 9 years in NY. I forgot how much it rained, even though I had grown up here for 25 years before moving away.
    It rained so much my first month back that I nearly went insane. Or maybe I did. It’s hard to tell. Yes, we moved in January.

  91. I moved to Edmonton from Florida. When it hit -46 here I nearly moved home. And I hated florida!

  92. Oh my… poor guy, and poor mother…
    To tell you the truth, that is just about how long I would have lasted in that weather… I always thought that whoever lives in such a climate volutarely, must be a masochist… such a cold… so much snow… eek. I moved back to the “temperate” middle Europe, but I still dreaming about Florida… (wanna go baaaack…)

  93. It probably was his plan all along, to bring her to Canada in January, after all this plan was 22 years in the making.

  94. Yesterday night, I was laughing and smiling reading the daily post, and then… realized I had agreed to a trip to the nordic spas tonight. Expected temperature in Quebec City tonight: -20
    (www.siberiastationspa.com)
    hehehehe

  95. I live in Northern New York, an hour south of Montreal and we have weather very similar to yours. I work for a psychotherapist who is trying to bring new therapists into her business, but scares them all away by painting such a bleak picture of what winters are like. I think that whether or not one enjoys, or even tolerates, our winters is all in the attitude about it. I would rather have it be 30 below than 110 any day, especially as I am a knitter of woolen items.
    And, on a different note, may I add my vote for your doing Knitting Olympics, if it wouldn’t be too much for you with all that is going on in your life right now. The thing on Ravelry is just a bit too frenetic for me, and confusing too. Way too many rules and regulations and hyper people. I much appreciate your non-hyperness, since you are Canadian and all.

  96. I love this story, but it is too bad for him. I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia and I love winter, could just do with a shorter period of it. There is something special about the temperatures. If you are bundled up it is sooo much fun to be outdoors, skate toboggan, ski etc and for the indoor time you can be comfortable and knit! It’s a great excuse to knit all sorts of warm accessories.

  97. I have a friend from southern India who moved to the Keweenaw Peninsula (in upper Michigan– we’re the part that sticks out into Lake Superior) to get his PhD. His plan was to stick it out here, then move somewhere warm.
    Problem is, he fell in love with the place. He left for a while to work, but applied for and was accepted in a post-doc program back here. He’s back and trying to find a way to stay.
    http://sgowtham.net/showcase/ In the meantime, he hikes and takes photos.

  98. About 20 years ago my daughter’s husband brought a cousin up from Florida because she wanted to see snow. We were having a warm spell and had no snow that stayed, so they drove her up to ski country in Vermont somewhere. My daughter had collected winter clothes for her but as my daughter won’t wear wool (I checked, I brought the right baby home) her poor cousin froze in acrylics. The biggest surprise was that the poor kid couldn’t get warm INSIDE! My daughter was actually angry because she had always said that when she grew up, HER house would be WARM!

  99. Snort! That’s hysterical. “I had 22 year to work on my plan.” Poor Mama – With her first breath of Canadian air, she would have suffered that tingly sensation as condensation froze in her nostrils. That’s just not a good introduction to Canada at all.

  100. Reminds me of my office partner. She arrived from India about 25 years ago, into Chicago in January. Quite a shock to the system.

  101. I totally side with his mum. I come from southern India where the mercury dips to 10C during winter MAX.
    brrr.

  102. The weather is an obligatory conversation in Winnipeg! (How cold was it?!) Many people have been asking us how we’re finding our first prairie winter. My answer? “Well, there’s not enough snow.” 🙂 It’s darn cold here, but we had twice as much snow when I lived in upstate New York! So, yes, I totally understand this conversation you had and feel like I was in the taxi with you. My dad (from Virginia) refuses to visit us in winter. He’s waiting til summer. If it’s anything like last summer in Winnipeg, he’ll need a coat then, too!

  103. My husband and I have different views about winter. We live in Boston. We both count the days until spring, the only thing is he does so with anticipation, and I do so with with sadness, as one day closer to spring means that my favorite season of the year is nearing its end!

  104. Funny! Funny! We moved from Kansas to Michigan two days before Christmas. By Easter I told hubby I didn’t care if we didn’t eat for a week, we had to find sunshine. I couldn’t take the rain/snow/drizzle EVERY #$%&*#$ day any longer. Sunday morning, in Kentucky, I sat out on a picnic table in my bathrobe and watched the sun come up.
    We moved back to Kansas when I was recalled to my better paying job. We Kansans have it all: sun, cold, wind, blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, heat, humidity, wind, sun. Did I mention we have sunshine and the wind blows? There’s no place like home! (Yes, my mother’s name is Dorothy, why do you ask?)

  105. Winters a fierce in northern Scotland, so the owner of the estate felt he was doing a good deed when he bought earmuffs for his farm worker. Noticing, however, that the worker wasn’t wearing the earmuffs even on the coldest day, the owner asked, ” Didn’t you like the earmuffs I gave you ? ”
    The farm worker replied, ” They are a thing of beauty.”
    ” Why don’t you wear them then ? ”
    The worker explained, ” I was wearing them the first day, but somebody offered to buy me a drink and I didn’t hear him.”
    Ah bonny scotland,

  106. Oi, darling, are you going to do Knit Olympics this year, or have you decided it’s better to let Ravelry fool with all that craziness?
    Kisses!
    .:Zabet

  107. For someone who wasn’t going to be blogging much, I sure got way behind quick!
    Glad you are still here.

  108. My lungs don’t work well in cold weather. I will be pretty much a prisoner indoors until April. I prefer this to moving to a snowless paradise with no frosty windows or icicle bedecked trees. I miss my days of ski trips and snowmen, and wouldn’t even mind a little shoveling if I were able. I sometimes complain when the furnace cannot keep up with the wind chill indoors, but I prefer the cold to the heat and humidity of summer (when I will be pretty nearly a prisoner again.

  109. Oh…I feel his pain. I moved my Georgia born, South Texas acclimated husband to Maine on Halloween weekend. We had 12 inches of snow on the 28th. He was not sure he could stand it. Luckily, we had a mild winter after that and he was able to find some joy and beauty. He even learned to ice skate and now owns his own pair of snow pants. And we sit by the wood stove while he reads aloud to me and I knit. Thanks for the perspective, Steph. xo

  110. Ignore above. The system is having trouble adding to your comments for Jan 13. Somehow I ended up here. Will try Jan 13 comments again.

  111. Makes me weep but what good do tears do? A hundred bucks US from me and $100 from my husband are in the mail. We mind so much here with our 6.5 in Eureka and all the broken glass. But nobody died or even got hurt.

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  113. lol!
    That reminds me of the story of when our family came to Canada from Hong Kong. My dad came first and landed in Winnipeg…in the middle of winter. He decided that our family were immigrating to Australia instead. He finished the work he was sent here to do and decided at the end of the term that it wasn’t so bad after all. 40+ years and still here.

  114. Jocelyn (Jan 13) and Cecelia (Jan 13) – Oh, come to Edmonton in January – some bright light has started a “Winter Light” Festival (being as how Edmonton bills itself as a “Festival City”) so that we can all go outside and “embrace the winter” – some of us who have now spent 59 winters in Edmonton still prefer to stay indoors. The saving grace this year is a car that starts, and has a heater – I’ll go out to people’s homes this winter! And my friends all knit, or tolerater knitting – win/win/win!!!

  115. Ah Canada! Where July and August are just two months of bad ski-dooing. Friends coming from Scotland this summer…have promised them that the snow “should” be gone by then. Great story!

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