Snowstorm Adventures and Some Joy

Southern Ontario received a walloping today. We were well advised of this snowstorm and it came through as promised, not the usual weather hyperbole. With between 30 and 50 cms being dumped in just a few hours (depending on where you were) the roads were a mess, major highways were closed, and there were plenty of accidents and stressful moments. There was also some joy.

I had my own share of stressful moments when my daughter who sometimes works overnight did not return home as expected. Thank goodness for modern technology, I messaged her to ensure all was well, though I of course expected a delay, not one as considerable as it became.

She was stuck at work unable to leave the parking lot. They were snowed in and the plows were coming I was told. Two hours later the plows dug everyone out and she headed home only to get stuck in the middle of an intersection. Did she have her CAA card with her? Of course not!

Again, thanks to modern technology I was able to reach CAA on a different phone and they assured me they’d be there, but could not estimate a time. So of course all she had to do was wait. After a twelve hour shift and two additional hours of waiting, she was exhausted and my heart was heavy for her.

Thankfully, humanity being what it is, about an hour later four young men in a pickup truck stopped to help. They pushed her car out and in minutes she was able to get on the highway home.

Her thought was that these young men were simply going around helping people who were stuck. Such kindness by these young men only restores the fact that most people are good. We just seem to hear only about the bad and then begin to believe that all is bad. She found it hard to believe that these young men just wanted to help without receiving anything in return, except a joyful wave and a thank you yelled out a car window.

When she got stuck again coming down the unplowed side streets towards home, several neighbours came out to help as did her dad.

I was thrilled when she was finally home safe. What joy! The best part, what an adventure and a great learning experience for her in many ways.

The adventure for me was how to breathe while my heart was in my mouth.

I called CAA to cancel the call and the operator thanked me profusely for doing so. Hopefully someone else was able to get help sooner. I’ve heard stories of people stuck on highways for more than five hours. We Canadians are used to snow, but even this is a bit much.

Of course when all was calm and settled again I put on my big girl snow pants and got outside with my camera. Here are some images and a little video of the beauty of this adventurous snow day.

Were you stuck in the storm today? Or any day?

Here’s a news story from one of our local stations. https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/these-images-show-scale-of-snowstorm-in-toronto-and-parts-of-ontario-1.5742781