Square Tires and Honking Horns

It was a day of square tires here. The temperature is in the -30's. And I say "is" because that's where it "is" staying for another 4 days. If you've never lived in a cold climate, the concept of square tires would be foreign. You know when you're parked and the bottoms of your tires are ever-so-slightly flat? Not flat, flat. Just a little more level with the ground. Well, once those tires sit overnight (or any length of time) and it's positively frosty, it's as if they maintain that shape so there is this clunking sensation when you pull out. AND as if that was not symphony enough to my ears this morning, it was so cold my car had this high-pitched whine. Uh oh, I thought. This car is really not happy. Another thing my car does when it's very cold is that it honks. Only when I turn the engine over. When it's a little cold, like - oh, say minus 10 or 15, then it gives a little toot when it starts up. Today it blasted like a New York City traffic jam. No sneaking around today for me.

So with this deep freeze wave we're in, I decided there was no way in hell I was going downtown to work tomorrow. This morning, before my boss had time to collect his thoughts, have a cup of coffee or knew what hit him I declared, "I'm working from home tomorrow". I took him by surprise and all he could say was OK. For that I am very grateful. I'm also grateful Old Betsy started up tonight when I got off the train, honking, whining, clunking and all.

No lovely scenic photos of this winter wonderland today. Just my boy. It's getting harder and harder to get any kind of natural picture of him. Whenever the camera comes out, he starts making wild faces and hamming it up. I guess that's what it's like being five. He got 35 out of 35 on his first test today. A test in Kindergarten! It was just some oral reading, but he is the only anglophone in his class, in a french school, and the only one in his class to have gotten all of it right. I'm so proud of him.