It's Cold Outside

I'll be the first to admit that I hate the cold. I'm convinced that when God made me, He intended me to be living in a warmer climate. Seriously, I just don't have the body "stuff" for this weather. It doesn't seem to matter how many layers, I'm still cold. I'm not even embarassed, as someone who grew up without the blessing of Southern Alberta's chinooks, to admit it. It's just cold.

Today I woke up to -35 degrees or something silly like that. Windchill has it somewhere below -45. I was up early so that I could be downtown for work at 7:30. At the train station by 6:30 only to find that, because of the cold (apparently), the whole city was slowed down. Three trains sitting at my station going nowhere. Lots of cold people all wondering what's going on. The platform is filling fast. Finally, after 25 minutes of just plain cold, a train arrives and we all pile in...we literally pile in. I've seen cattle cars. This was worse. And it was a slow go downtown. A really slow go.

Now, I wanted to complain. Really, I did...I still do. But with each station we passed on the way to downtown and each time the doors opened and a bunch of cold people were left behind on that platform, I had to be thankful that I was inside the train and on my way. I watched the people outside as we approached the downtown core, some already at their spot panhandling, and couldn't help but wonder how, on such a cold day, they could still be out there, sitting on the cold concrete. I thought about how many people in Calgary spent the night last night outside while I was warm. I thought of how few of them had the luxury of a nice warm shower to start their day like I did. I thought of how they were going to spend their day compared to mine. The office is warm and I have a coffee in front of me to warm me from the inside out.

My greeting as I answer the phone at the office I'm temping at this week goes something like this: "It's a great day at Bowen, this is Stacey speaking." Today I mean it.