In like a lion, out like a lamb?

West Coast Family

Two years ago I took a trip to Vancouver to visit my son and his wife, celebrate my grandson's first birthday and meet my new granddaughter. It was a harrowing trip beginning with a massive snowstorm in New Brunswick that threatened to cancel all flights. In anticipation of potentially dreadful driving conditions, my husband took me to Moncton the day prior to my scheduled early-morning flight, so I wouldn't be late in case the roads were bad.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn and awakened at 3:a.m. to discover a huge John Deere tractor attempting to remove the phenomenal amount of snow that had accumulated in the hotel parking lot over night. Although it was obvious that all flights would be delayed, if not cancelled, the airlines didn't post that information so I and my fellow travellers piled into the hotel's mini-van and made the short but arduous trek to the airport. We all checked in the required 90 minutes prior to scheduled flight time and then sat, and sat, and sat for about 7 hours.

We finally got out of Moncton only to land in Montreal where Dorval airport had been closed for 2 days due to the same storm. Supplies were at an all time low as no delivery trucks could get out to the airport with food, cleaning and paper products. And the staff had had enough. Thankfully I was able to juggle my connections and get out of there after only four more hours.

Needless to say, when I landed in Vancouver I swore I'd never travel in the winter again. While I was gone, snow continued to pound New Brunswick.

Why am I bringing up this ancient history? It's now the end of February again. My grandson's 3rd birthday is this Saturday. My sister's 60th birthday is on Monday. My birthday is next Friday. And, starting tomorrow it is supposed to storm, snow and generally be utterly miserable for the next week!

The old adage about "in like a lion, out like a lamb" regarding the passing of the month of March better be true this year!