Long short trip

We had a sudden snowstorm this afternoon: it was rainy and warm at noon, snowing hard by 2:30. It took me just under an hour and a half to come home from the grocery store, usually a 5-minute run. People had been caught by surprise, and all the routes through and around the centre of town were jammed with cars spinning their wheels, waiting their turn. Drivers kept getting out to clean ice off the windshield wipers; it didn't matter, we weren't going anywhere, anyhow.

I took this photo through the window, near city centre. The building to the left is the art gallery.

5:40 PM. The snow is easing off.

"I feel a real spike in energy with this weather," the cashier at the store told me. She'd been out on her break to look at it, and the flakes were big and fat and sticky. Wonderful!

It seems to be a general reaction; everyone was smiling, even as they waded through slush in the parking lot, even as they contemplated a long, slow drive home. Two people told me to be careful out there, but they were smiling as they said it.

Ah, BC! Where else is it an adventure just to pick up a litre of milk?

I had to take 5 runs at my steep driveway, to get off the road where skidding cars could hit me. And then the snow stopped falling.