my column from this week's paper

as they don't put my column on the paper's website, i thought i would share this one on my blog because i feel this is one of my better ones, and it is an accurate record of the extreme weather that we up north and my family down south experienced two weekends ago...

The one good thing (or perhaps the only good thing) about the Arctic weather front that battered the province last week is that my family down in the Fraser Valley no longer had laughing privileges because they were going through the same thing.
Every day before work I watch the morning news on Global to see what kind of weather “Down South” is having. While the North was in the throes of snow and cold, I would longingly think of their plus-five weather and torrential rain.
When talking on the phone, my family always made sure to ask how cold it was up here, with that “oh you poor dear” tone.
I hoped for some kind of revenge and I got it. You can imagine my glee last week when I heard what kind of sub-zero temperatures they were having.
Unfortunately my happiness did not last long. As the weather commentator moved onto the rest of the province, it was predicted the North would have even colder weather. Darn. So much for gloating.
I heard them tell stories of drifts, not being able to get out of their driveway, accidents, people who don’t know how to drive, and everything being closed down. What a storm they had! It was so cold! I told them to stop whining and try living up here for a change.
So, here, when the wind finally stopped last week and it was a balmy minus 20, I realized that it wasn’t so bad. Albeit reluctantly and with much complaining, I might just be getting used to it.