Obsessed with the Weather...a true Canadian Girl!

-43 degrees Celsius with the windchill as I write.
-51 forecast for tonight.
The Weather Network is the most frequently visited site on our computer.

I am Canadian.

True blue.

Through and through.

Residing rebelliously and somewhat resentfully in the center of the country 35 minutes from Canada's coldest southernmost city, I find myself consumed by the violence of my emotions ... severely taxed by the obscene cold.
I am undone.
I hear often..."you'll get used to the cold"....

I reply in my mind facetiously: " who the hell wants to?"

I feel like if I don't suffer in silence...or struggle valiantly to overcome my malevolent aggression against such bitter imprisonment..then I am not strong...or courageous or hardy enough.
I must wrestle myself into submission: You will learn to like it damn it... there is no lumping it here!

My friends here think I am doing well...I know the truth.

Even those who endure this climate year after year...talk about it incessantly...marvel again and again at the cold.. comparing and contrasting to previous years, predicting the coming year with great passion and conviction.

My God...at least it gives us something to talk about.

I am staying close to the fire today.
Thank God we went and got more wood last night.
I appreciate the irony of a transplanted Maritimer become BC girl...ending up in Manitoba...and living to whine about it.
Everyone here laughs and proclaim loudly and repeatedly that they would take the sun and frigid arctic temperatures over the rain ...but you can see the lie in their eyes.

Oh yes you can.

This cold hurts.

Truly.

Physical movement is painful and sitting in less than comfortable automobiles before they are sufficiently warm is a common occurrence: simply because, to let them warm up that long would compromise our contribution to air quality.

Not that anyone is really concerned about the atmosphere and global warming at -51 degrees.

I have a friend in England who is fascinated with our weather ( a true Canadian in his heart ..despite his British passport) and would just love to be traipsing about freezing his a** off...the novelty alone making it an adventure. He keeps abreast of our weather like someone else would follow the stock market or the hockey scores.

This rant is for him.

Speaking of Passion....

I am passionate about not living half of my life...
( half a year each and every year)
struggling to suppress my abhorrence for this type of cold.

I confess.

I have bad words inside my head...mixed up with maniacal laughter at the inevitability of it all.

I just had to prove I could do it...that I wasn't a wimp:

I could make it through a Manitoba winter and come out swinging...

The rafters in my family room are looking closer than ever....

Sigh...

IMHO...

Life is too short to spend such an inordinate amount of time talking about something that we have no control over except to the degree that we choose where we park our bodies on the map.

I want a new parking spot.

...and about our OCD-ishness on the weather...in this day and age we should have some sort of prescription med for that... some sort of medical diagnosis/analysis that gets me some relief.

Ok...I am freezing in my den...too long removed from the wood stove.

Excuse me....must go exercise my fortitude so as to endure another day... like a true Canadian...

Has anyone seen my leg warmers?