Tomorrow - Suicide

The snow is falling and it is going to be a real white Christmas.  There was already a small amount on the ground when I arrived up north but now it feels like winter for real.  Elli and I went out sledding on the driveway today and it was a grand old time, barring the trouble that she just can't carry her sled up the hill so I end up being the pack mule for both Sno Racers at the same time.  The old Sno Racers sure have done their duty.  They were brutally used and abused when we were young, being used to pull jumps off of rocks and crashland on ground frozen hard as concrete.  They are worn, scratched and the steering is really more like 'steering' but nonetheless they still work and will probably outlast me.

There is a yearly trip to Suicide Hill for a sledding party that looked like it was going to be cancelled but the snowfall today has restored our desire for speed and snowy danger.  Tomorrow we will be flying down the hill at ridiculous speeds and hoping that no one is seriously injured.  In previous years we have seen some spectacular crashes like when The Piper flew upside down with his Sno Racer above him and his head plowed through multiple small trees before he came to rest in a pile.  I remember doing the same thing when I went down the entire length of the hill and hit a bump at the bottom; I have a distinct memory of hanging onto my sled even though it was directly above me in the air and I was wrong way up with my head cruising along a few centimeters above the hard packed ground.  Thankfully I jettisoned the sled and managed to crash with some non head part of me cracking the ground first.  A few minutes were required for recovery but no real damage was done.

We are lucky to be having a wonderfully mild Christmastime.  I recall periods when I was young that we would hit -35 C (without the wind chill) every day and on the trip so far the temperature has consistently sat at -5 to 0 C during the day.  Can't do better than that if what you want is snow to play in, and I do.  You can't beat -35 C for storytelling in Toronto though; I derive no end of pleasure from regaling southerners (relatively speaking!) with stories of real cold when they complain about the mercury going down to -10.