Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar 10 2008

14 Feet and Counting

In a post from December 17, I wrote the following:

“There’s the feeling that we’re witnessing something special, a once-every-thirty-years kind of winter that people will talk about for years to come. Come on, Mother Nature, show us what ya got.”

Three months later, I’d like to apologize to the poor citizens of Ottawa for taunting Mother Nature – I completely underestimated her wrath.

This is a winter of mythic proportions. The city has almost become unrecognizable, with streets reduced to narrow canyons weaving between towering snowbanks. Driving has become a game of chicken, with head-on collisions narrowly avoided when one driver squeezes over to take refuge at the end of a driveway. Snow is the only topic in Ottawa (well, that and “What the hell happened to the Senators?”)

Now some of you may be thinking “hey, we’ve had snow, too”. No, you haven’t. Toronto? 190 cm. Waterloo? 246 cm. Montreal? 346 cm. Vancouver? Please.

After the 56 cm we received this past weekend, we’re at 410 cm, or almost 14 feet of snow. When I say I’ve never seen this much snow, it’s true – the record was set during the winter of 1970-71, just slightly before my time. We still have another foot to go to set the record, and I’m hoping it happens. Second place is for chumps, and I didn’t strain my back shoveling for the past few months just to finish behind some lame measurement from the Nixon era.

I’ve embraced the new Ottawa landscape. Our backyard, untouched for the past two months, has become an awesome playground, with trenches, tunnels, and forts of stunning size. As I played with the boys after dinner tonight, I was also struck by a sudden sadness. This wonderland is fleeting, and I don’t have long to enjoy it with Aidan and Kieran before it disappears, perhaps never to return.

So, Mother Nature, now that you’ve dumped all this on us, would it be too much to ask to let it stay around for a while? I’ve got a few more forts to build, a few more holes to dig, a few more muscles to pull from shoveling.

Orleans Snowwall

FYI, our snowbank isn’t quite this high. Luc Guertin from Orleans built this 16 foot monster by hand over the past couple of months.

Mar 6 2008

My Recent Playlist

Here are a few tunes that seem to be constantly playing on my iPod / iTunes these days:

Take Me to the Riot – Stars

Reckoner – Radiohead

Leave – Glen Hansard

Lay Me Down – The Frames

Mutiny, I Promise You – The New Pornographers

Statue – Immaculate Machine

Hymn of the Medical Oddity – The Weakerthans

King of the Past – The Rheostatics

The last one’s been around for a while, but I just can’t get enough of it, especially from 3:01 on. I love the guitar solo, and the falling-down-the-stairs drum fill gets me every time.

Meanwhile, Kieran also seems to be developing some favourite pop songs of late. His list includes:

One Two Three Four – Feist

The Hockey Song – Stompin’ Tom Connors

Good Morning Good Morning – The Beatles
aka The Chicken Song

These songs get a bit repetitive after a while, but it’s better than The Wiggles or Kindergarten Hits.

By The Dearlove • Posted in Music • Tagged
1
Mar 3 2008

Age and Memory

I picked up City of Glass:  Douglas Coupland’s Vancouver the other day.  Among his observations on all things Vancouver, from Chinatown to Wreck Beach, this paragraph stood out:

“Now:  I believed that you’ve had most of your important memories by the time you’re thirty.  After that, memory becomes water overflowing into an already full cup.  New experiences just don’t register in the same way or with the same impact.  I could be shooting heroin with the Princess of Wales, naked in a crashing jet, and the experience still couldn’t compare to the time the cops chased us after we threw the Taylor’s patio furniture into their pool in the eleventh grade.  You know what I mean.”

I find this observation both fascinating and disturbing.  As someone on the far side of thirty,  it troubles me to think that my experiences and memories might somehow have been dulled by the passing of time.  Have I really missed my window to generate meaningful experiences?

Upon reflection, I think what made experiences from our youth fresher, more vital, can be tied to the near total lack of responsibility and predictability that we enjoyed.  Everything was an adventure in those days.  I can remember setting off with a couple of friends in the 7th grade to buy a hacky sack from John Galt Mall without our parents’ permission.  As the sun was setting, and we rode our bikes down 5 miles of busy roads, it seemed like a daring, rebellious act.  Bush parties, underage drinking, awkward first kisses – those moments still retain their clarity.

These days, life can cynically be described as an endless loop of predictable actions.  Pay day every two weeks, car payment on the 15th, swimming lessons on Saturday mornings – it can be easy to mistake one week from the next, and before you know it, February has gone by.  Repeat a few times and you wake up to find you’ve missed an entire year.

I’m not quite that jaded.  There are certainly times I long for my university days, when friends were plentiful, obligations were few, and crazy stuff happened with surprising regularity.  However, the last few years have also given me the memory of my boys being born, and the indescribable feeling of having them fall asleep on my chest.

So, I don’t think the cup’s full.  I just think the water’s flowing a bit more slowly these days.