Spring Snow

It’s snowing right now. It is April 12^th and it is snowing. Yesterday it was 16º and I was outside in a t-shirt. Today it is snowing! Quite a bit too!

Snow in April is pretty common in Calgary. Snow in May is pretty common too. Even though it is something that we have come to expect, it isn’t anything that we want or like. Snow in October or November is exciting, no more cutting the lawn and once the snow comes then Santa can’t be far behind. Oh, and no more gardening either. It is hibernation time.

When we get snow in April, it just means that the grass is going to get enough moisture so that it can grow strong and long. I realize that April showers bring May flowers and I am good with that. You don’t have to shovel showers. I was just out shovelling and unlike the snow we get during the winter months, this stuff is wet and heavy. You can’t push it too far and it is too heavy to lift and toss. I know that I will have to go out again tonight and shovel so that it doesn’t get so deep that I can’t move it.

I remember snow like this from when I lived in Ontario. It is a lot of fun. You can make snow men, snow angels and have snowball fights; if you get enough and you have been diligent in your prayers, then you just might have a snow day. There is nothing better than a snow day! The whole city seems to stop for the day and everything is just so very quiet. If you listen very hard, then sometimes you can hear the angels. One year I had a test that I hadn’t managed to study for and the snow day saved me from going to school and writing the test. I studied a little, but come on, it was a SNOW DAY!!!

We would go out in gangs and push peoples cars out of the snow banks to get them on their way again. You always heard rumours of kids that were given a $20 bill for pushing some guy out, but I never had that happen to me. It was just fun pushing the guy out and having him wave thanks as he drove down the road. Of course, he wasn’t a very good driver and dollars to donuts he would be in another snow bank just down the road. Why, one year we pushed a guy out four times just on Dewey Drive. What a goof! Wait a minute. If he was a goof, then what were we? I know, we were having fun.

This kind of snow killed my dad. I was grown up and living in Alberta at the time. Mom and dad lived in London Ontario where they get a pile and a half of snow each year. Mom was in the basement sewing and for some reason she had locked the doors. I guess because there was a guy with a chainsaw cutting down the maple tree in the back yard that lightning had damaged the previous fall and she didn’t trust him. Dad was out front shovelling and knocking the heavy, wet spring snow off of their bushes when a blood clot stopped his heart. The man came to the front of the house and tried to get in to call 911, but like I said, the door was locked. Mom was downstairs and getting mad because dad was out there and he had his keys. Well, by the time she came upstairs and called 911 it was too late.

They say that diabetics tend to pass quickly like that. I don’t know if it were the snow or if it was just dad’s time to go. I do know that I don’t like spring snow and I like shovelling it even less. I will shovel once more tonight and then I hope that it warms up tomorrow.

The good thing about spring snow is that it reminds me of mom and dad and how much I miss them.