Snow has come. This is the norm of course, and everyone around here acts like this is utterly ho hum (because it is). Back where we came from, this would be said to be an "early snow." Someone remarked to me yesterday on how, nevertheless, the temperature was good (high of 32F)--and how this was the start of six months of winter. Yikes!

So last night I drove my beloved to a meeting she was attending in the south part of the city, just to spend some time together. Then I drove a few miles to the Chinook Mall, which I think may be Calgary's largest. It obviously is a place the well-to-do shop. (I saw no dollar stores.)

The eating area had lots of live trees and plants, skylights, and an amusement park merry-go-round. I could see that going there when the temperature is "30 below" (it's the number everybody keeps mentioning) could be encouraging.

It's always important to remember, of course, that "six months of winter," in the usual way we think about seasons, isn't quite accurate. Sprinkled throughout the winter will be somewhere between 30 and 40 "chinook" days. Warm winds will come melting snow or ice, and we all will rejoice.

Also, there's the fact that, here, the sun shines brightly through the winter. The cold, everyone likes to say, is a dry cold.

And with many other words do we comfort ourselves.