Cold Snap

Today was so damn cold. We’re in the midst of a cold snap and the news folks had said that yesterday would be the worst of it. They were wrong. Yesterday paled in comparison to the bitterness that awaited us this morning.

Walking to the streetcar stop, the exposed part of my face felt like it was on fire. Unlike yesterday, there was a bit of wind which only compounded the cold. The freezing air was pushing it’s way up my jeans and my skin beneath the fabric felt raw.

My commute was not a pleasant one. The streetcar I was on was quickly filled with my fellow citizens. No one wanted to be outside longer than necessary so when a streetcar came, people crammed themselves on. I hadn’t seen a streetcar that packed in a long time. People were literally on top of each other.

It was quite the scene every time we approached a stop. There were crowds of people three and four rows deep and as soon as the streetcar slowed down, it was swarmed by crowds. It was like watching a piece of meat being thrown into an aquarium full of piranhas. Since the streetcar was so full, it was hard for people to get off since doing so meant pushing their way through the throng of people in front of them. Tempers flared and tensions rose as one group of people tried to shove their way off of the streetcar and another group desperately tried to find a way inside the car. All the while, the driver was on the intercom yelling, “the car is full! Get off of the steps! The doors are closing!”

I was sitting close to the back doors, so getting off didn’t require much effort, on my part or on the part of those in front of me. Back out on the street, I pulled my scarf up further up my face and quickly walked to the office.

As soon as I was settled at my workspace, I called my mom to see how she and my dad were doing. While listening to the morning news, I learned that there’d been a power outage in a large grid of the city. The power had gone out at 10pm last night and was still out this morning. My parents’ place is smack dab in the middle of that grid.

I got a hold of my mom who told me that the power went out last night but she and my dad assumed it’d come on in a little while. They made their way to bed where they spent the night shivering. She said every time she moved, the new place on the bed she landed on was as cold as ice. A phone call at 6 am from a family friend offering a place to go put my parents into action. While they were waiting for their ride to their friend’s place, the power came back on. My mom said the furnace worked for an hour straight when it first came on.

I went online to see what the papers were saying about the story. In the Globe and Mail, I saw that the Toronto hate continued as strong as ever. Commenters didn’t feel the story should be written about in a national paper. Others called us crybabies. I’d like to see them spend a night in a house that was hovering near -5. I don’t get why the rest of the country hates us so. Other commentors felt that the hate sprung from jealousy. People who criticize us do so because they want to be us, want to have the ‘power’ or whatever they associate Toronto with.

We’re just another place on the map, a hub of people making their way as best as we can. We deal with what’s thrown our way, be it the weather, power outages or just hopping a ride on the streetcar while on the way to work.