Ottawa is a special place for many reasons: It is a blend of English and French culture, sitting right on the border between Ontario and Quebec; it has a beautiful canal and several rivers; and of course, it is the capital of Canada.Even when compared with other capitals, Ottawa is still outstanding is several respects. According to Wikipedia:
- 7th coldest capital in the world (avg temp -1.3 C)
- 2nd lowest temperature recorded in a capital (-36.1 C)
- freezing rain is very prevalent
We had a heavy dose of freezing rain this afternoon. In a matter of about an hour, it had completely encased our car in ice. Unfortunately, I still hadn't put the ice scraper back in the car, and I didn't have any other suitable tools for removing the ice (ie: jackhammer). I found a bungee cord in the car and used the plastic-coated hook to scrape through the ice and slush that I was slowly thawing by running the engine. Luckily, it was still warm enough outside that it hadn't had a chance to freeze completely. Otherwise, I would still be there now.
Tonight is supposed to be the live outdoor Nativity Pageant. What a miserable night for it. Murphy's Law, I guess. A few years ago we helped with the pageant and it turned out to be colder than -30 C the first night. That's one the of the reasons why they moved it up to the beginning of December, I bet. I wonder which one is better? I think I'd take the -30 C, actually. Getting pelted by that rain is miserable, and it's murder to drive in.Come and visit Ottawa sometime. We can't make any guarantees on the weather, but the chances are pretty good you'll get something new and interesting.
3 comments:
Going back to mommy's relationship to Santa, I can't resist getting on one of my favorite soap box subjects - why are we lying to our children under the guise of creating a fun fantasy for them? Before I ever had children, a wise mother in Tacoma talked about how young children will "believe" Cinderella is real even though she's a character in a book or in a costume at Disneyland. We can do the same with Santa. They will enjoy "believing" in Santa even when they know he is only a character from a poem or in costume at a mall with elves. (Helen may remember this lady, she gave her some suggestions to help one of her children talk more when his siblings were making it too easy for him to not need to talk!) So I adopted the philosophy that I would present Santa as a fun story that we would all play along with but know that it was really mom & dad who "played" the part of Santa on Christmas Eve. I would remind them that every family had their own way of celebrating the idea of Santa and they could let their friends believe what they wanted to. We always had a lot of fun "waiting" for Santa and he was a fun pretend part of the season. My kids never had problems wondering why Santa couldn't bring them everything they wanted or why Santa gave more to some kids than others or why some got nothing. We could incorporate more traditions from around the world and they didn't wonder why other countries needed a Father Christmas to leave gifts in their shoes if "our" Santa was supposed to make it around the world to every child in a single night! Children come up with all kinds of questions trying to make sense of this magical person and we just end up making up more lies to keep up the illusion. I've also heard it argued, and can see where it could affect some this way, that we expect kids to belive in a Santa with God like qualities - all seeing, all knowing, can do the impossible - and then let them know how grown up they are when they figure out that there is no Santa that can do all that and they don't have to believe in such a childish idea any more. But we've been asking them to believe us when we tell them they have a Heavenly Father with the same attributes. Some kids may question that we just made him up too so they would have a reason to be "good" because God would always know what they were doing and could punish them with a lake of fire. Is there a lump of coal in the stocking connection? I was much more comfortable with never having to lie to my kids about anything. I asked them not too long ago if they thought they missed out on something by never thinking Santa was real. Jon said he hadn't realized that he'd always known. He said that must be why he had no traumatic memory of "figuring it out". The others didn't feel like they had missed out on anything either. Something to think about!
Derek,
You need to post pics of you guys for the rest of us to see.
And hey where are the links to your friends sites.??
I just wanted to say congratulations to you both. I had to hi-jack Alex's email account to get the address for this blog that I've been hearing so much about. I've been reading through the postings for the last hour with a few tears in my eyes. Congratulations again! And I hope I get to see you both before Christmas.
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