There’s about a 6-hour drive between Ottawa and Rochester, where I’ve been spending the last few weeks, which one would think wouldn’t amount to a whole lot of difference weather-wise–when we’re freezing, they’re usually freezing. But there’s been a winter trend that, until just yesterday and today, has been trying to buck the usual tradition. Winter has been playing head games with us. It teased us near to the beginning of November. And just when I thought we might escape the month snow free, not quite. And now, well into the month of December, we finally get serious about winter.

Ottawa got hammered yesterday with its first major snow storm of the year, as did the Pembroke area. And, surprising the hell out of me, as did Rochester. We’re still catching it good out there right now, and I’d be laying money on roads not being very fun to drive on this morning. It played with Ottawa and Pembroke, teased us up there, then finally decided to have at it. It didn’t once touch Rochester all month, but when it finally did, I do believe it made up for the teasing. Ladies and gentlemen, fans of Christmas everywhere can now relax. Winter has screwed your travel plans.

Shortly after I revived this blog in its third reincarnation, we were teased with just a small sampling of wintery weather, which ended up not actually sticking around. We were well on our way to the first snow-free November I can remember having in the Ottawa valley area. Temperatures were still well above freezing, the most threatening of weather we ever had to hear about was the odd patch of fog at 6:30 in the morning, and layers were most asuredly not required. Flash forward to this morning. It’s dipped below freezing, and at last report, was still snowing north of the border. And, also at last report, it’s supposed to dip just a little farther into the below freezing end of the spectrum, at somewhere around -4 C (31 F for those of you reading from the comfort of your US locations). Winter’s definitely moving in. And, like the relative you don’t want showing up but who’ll show up anyway, it waited until I wasn’t home to do so.

I got the distinct impression when I got up this morning something was up. It wasn’t forecast to get all that cold last night, but I definitely needed to add some heat to the mix. Now, I know why. Apparently, at some point before I got around to actually getting out of bed, we were on the receiving end of a little dusting of snow. Hardly enough to do anything except make people reconsider road travel at breakneck speeds, but still an indication. Winter, in all her uh, glory, has returned to the great white north. Now, which box is my winter gear in?