When I look out the window here at Fort Fumble, I see mostly white stuff, with a few dim shapes moving out on Colonel By Drive and a ghostly arch where the Mackenzie King Bridge should be. Ottawa expects 15 to 20 cm of snow before tomorrow morning, but that just makes getting to work a little more awkward than normal for January, and that's mighty awkward. Most (employed) people here do not consider themselves entitled to hunker down unless the garage door is completely snowed in and the bus isn't running.

Bill D mentions the ice storm of '98 in his post above; I remember giving a writing workshop at Health Canada that morning for 15 people who bathed in cold water, dressed in the dark (one lady regaled us with the challenge of putting on mascara by candlelight) and made the trip to work by way of detours around crashed trees and downed hydro wires. I remember leaving the house in gumboots to protect myself from electrocution because I could see a live wire sparking in a puddle of water in the gutter less than six feet from my front door.

Mind you, the only reason I have for leaving the house on a day like that (or like today) is that they don't pay me unless I do!