X Marks the Spot

PHOTO: Clearing off my car yesterday outside the offices of The Mississauga News. I did this at least seven times yesterday. Photo by Sabrina Byrnes

I hate snow storms. I hate that the lower legs of my pants are wet all day. I hate that my toes never truly thaw out. I hate cleaning snow and ice off my car. And I really hate running out of windshield washer fluid while on the highway.

But people change when there are snow storms, and that balances it all out.

I don't have a driveway, but I do have a car, so I have street parking. Unfortunately, after the plows come by, there aren't many spots on the street that aren't filled with snow.

I found the smallest snow bank on my street, and I tried to reverse my car through it. Several times, I tried.

A French-Canadian man was watching my lack of progress from two spots up, where he was clearing off his car so he wouldn't have to do it in the morning.

He walked back to my car, pushed some of the snow over with his shovel, and then spent five minutes teaching me how to parallel park into a snow bank. "This is nothing," he said. "I spent 20 years parking in worse than this (in Quebec)."

(The trick to parallel parking into a snow bank is to not use your brakes. No matter how scared you are that you're going to hit the car behind you, don't use your brakes. You must trust that the snow bank will stop you. It's frightening.)

Then this morning, I walked out to my car, the back end of it housed snugly in the snow bank I left it in.

The plow had come by again. There was a wall of snow up to my knees against the driver's side door. I shovelled myself out. The guy beside me was shovelling himself out. We talked like old neighbours. Then we noticed an old woman trying to tear down the wall of snow around her car with only a broom.

We went to help her.

That French-Canadian guy wouldn't have usually spoken to me. He wouldn't have had a reason to. I wouldn't have struck up a conversation with the other shoveller this morning - we wouldn't have had the time, or any reason. And we certainly wouldn't have gone to spend time with an old lady - it would have been a strange thing for us to do.

The snow storm, however, gave us the reason to interact with one another. And it did brighten my day. It gave us all purpose, individual and collective. And, frankly, it was kind of fun. It's worth the wet pants and numb toes.