The Storm

Posted on December 5, 2007

This past Monday, the beautiful city of Montreal got dumped on by 17 million dollars worth of snow. Think that seems like a lot? Well turns out it is. Being a Maritimer, storms have always been “the big thrill” of the season. I guess there’s a part of me who still gets excited by huge storms and naively believes that it means that I can stay in bed.

In the Maritimes, snow storms mean shoveling off the driveway. It means staying off the roads for a day while the plows take care of the mess. In Montreal, a storm means being late for work every day for the following week (even if you give yourself plenty of time). It turns your daily commute into a full body workout. It turns the city transit into a wet and salty sardine can of frustrated people. It turns your boots into a soggy and uncomfortable mistake. It means expensive parades of snow removal caravans trolling around the city and waking you up at night. Three dozen centimeters of the white gold on one city means that about five people will get lost in its romantic appeal while millions of others will get frustrated by the inconceivable incompetence of the city to deal with something as inevitable as this. Seriously, it’s going to take at least a week until every street has been cleared. That means that five days after the actual storm, there will still be streets covered in the crunchy and increasingly dangerous mess. Moreover, I read in the newspaper yesterday that it’s costing the city a total of nearly $17 millions to clean this up.

In a city like Montreal, a storm means more than the snow-banks getting a little taller. It means days of lingering inconveniences and painful commute. It also means that you have to be so unbelievably patient with everything and everyone, but most people don’t do that (especially not most Quebecers). I’m not saying we should all be enthralled by the lovely looking fluff and loose our minds in romantic thoughts. I’m just saying that instead of loosing your temper at the countless stresses of the storm, we should all try to get through this together like grown ups. Have a good storm recovery everyone.