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Odd Thoughts: Snow gives this Langley writer a headache

Snow offered columnist Bob Groeneveld opportunity to take his play to new heights when he was a kid.
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Snow is fun when head hurts

The past year left us with the lights flickering, under threat of a power outage, and watching 2016 graciously burying itself under an avalanche of snow.

And 2017 arrived under the resulting blanket of fresh snow – somewhat more than we expected, three times what was forecast.

But at least it looks beautiful. Sure, it’s a bit of a headache if, like me, you have a driveway that needs clearing.

But it’s beautiful.

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I made two.

First, I resolved to keep a positive attitude about the year coming up.

Second, I resolved to refrain from saying anymore negative things about 2016, because it was such a stinker of a year… oops, there goes one resolution already. That might be a record.

See? Now I feel bad. And that, folks, is why I rarely make resolutions.

On a positive note, the New Year’s Eve snowfall brought me back to a similar weather event when I was a kid.

I’m not sure which New Year’s eve it was – one side or the other of 1970, when we had several cold winters that gave us six feet or more of snow on the ground by the time spring came.

As a kid, it was a gas.

Kids always have a gas when it snows: building snowmen and snow forts, throwing snowballs at each other, slipping and sliding over the stuff.

It was always a gas – until the end of the day, when we had to go home in clothes we suddenly realized were wet and cold, and felt bumps and bruises and freezing fingers from too much fun.

We had a huge barn with a tin roof.

The snow slid off the roof into huge piles creeping up either side of the barn.

It made a huge, tobogganing hill.

But there was a downside. As the snow began to melt, the edge of the roof became exposed in some places. Once , I ran up the snow pile with my head down, and ran smack dab into that roof edge.

Luckily, I was wearing a hat, but I still ended up with a trip to the hospital and several stitches dead centre of my scalp. Maybe a bit of whiplash, to boot.

My head hurt like the dickens.

So you see, there’s always something about snow that gives me a headache.

Read Matthew Claxton’s Painful Truth at LangleyAdvance.com