So in about an hour and a half I'll be heading out to my new part-time job. I'm learning the Calgary Transit system, and although it can be woefully disappointing (a whole lot of bus routes just disappear after 6 p.m.,when I'm coming home) there still are ways and means to get where I need to go. For one thing, I can sit here at home and phone a number which will tell me exactly when the next Route 48 bus (which would take me to the Light Rail Train, or as they call it here, "the C-Train") will arrive at the stop around the corner. I can time it to walk out the door enough ahead that I won't miss it, but without having to stand there forever saying, "Stupid $&^#@!&% bus!"

Interesting thing about today, I should add, is that again it is snowing. See, I didn't put an exclamation point after "snowing" this time. Of course it's snowing. It's still April, dummy. This is Calgary, not Palm Beach. The high temp later today is to be 33F and we're to get one to three inches. So the snow's not surprising, but neither is the prediction that in another eight days the temp will be back up to 52F. It goes up and it goes down.

Same thing happens in the winter. This past February, Calgary went into the deep freeze a couple weeks (unusual to go on so long) with the wind chill hitting -50. A guy I talked to yesterday told me how driving in downtown traffic he could see steam coming off all the cars and buildings. The temperature differential did funny things. He also said he walked one block without a hat on and at the end had an "ice cream headache." Cool, eh?

But then, by the time we showed up in Calgary on Feb. 18, the temp had skyrocketed. Day after day it was, I believe, in the 50's, Fahrenheit. Again, no Calgary old-timer batted an eye at the turnaround.

Basically, living here you can get the huge switcheroos all the time, season after season. Most of the time, no matter what the temperature, the sun shines brightly in "exuberant skies," and the majority here still think they're living in Shangri-La.