Gotcha, Victoria. Just when Island residents were getting ready to snap photos of the first cherry blossoms and promising ourselves we wouldn’t email them to friends back east, winter hit us with a mighty wallop. Suddenly, the term “polar vortex” was not a reason to congratulate ourselves on moving to or being born on Vancouver Island — it was in our driveways.
Stay calm and be patient. It’s just winter.
We are all brushing off our seldom-used winter skills: how to dress, how to drive, how to find the bus schedule. But we have done this before, and although this blast was later than those of the past few years, we will get through it again.
If there is one thing winter in the rest of Canada engenders, it’s the sense that: “We’re all in this together.” It happens here, too. It doesn’t take long to see neighbours shovelling sidewalks for neighbours, or performing other small acts of kindness.
Keep that attitude in mind, and clear your sidewalk. Too many pedestrians are having to walk on the road just to find a navigable route.
Take that attitude on the road, if you really have to drive. Be patient with other drivers, make way for buses, stay clear of snowplows. If you’re not skilled at driving in the snow, or you have summer tires, take the bus.
And when work is done, find a sled and a hill and be a kid again.
