Got Snow?

2008 brought record wintery weather to Canada's eastern provinces. Snow, snow, everywhere.

That's all well and good if you're a snowplow driver, a three year old, or a snowmobile fanatic. For most people, it means increased complaining and more visits to the chiropractor.

I'm not surprised that many people are out in their yards, battling the snow demons, longing desperately for spring to begin. However, some people are more intelligent about it than others.

In my little mountain town, we received over 4 metres of snow this winter. Piled up in snowbanks, snowblown into the street, it's now beginning to melt. Now, spring arrives much more quickly here in the West. Sometimes it seems the green just appears overnight. It's a much faster process than I remember from my East Coast childhood.

Still, residents can't wait to see the snow go. It is not uncommon, therefore, to see many a person out in their front yard come March and April, breaking up the remaining snowbanks and scattering the remains on their driveways and the streets to melt on the sun-warmed pavement.

Actually I thought it was quite ironic the first year I moved here. People spent months shoveling snow onto their lawns, and then another month shoveling it back off.

Perhaps they need to take a glimpse at what Quebec City residents are doing to get rid of their snow. Why shovel when you can spray?

The city has issued a formal warning to residents to stop watering their snowbanks.

Now, normally you water things and they grow, right? Not snowbanks. Apparently some residents were tired of shoveling, and decided that the melting process would be increased more with water.

Somewhere right now, in this world, there is a thirsty, dirty person who would walk many kilometres just to have a taste of the type of water Quebec residents are wasting on their snowpiles. People who have never had a clean glass of water, or clean clothes, or a bath in pristine shininess.

So perhaps it's time the residents of Quebec City, and the rest of us, enjoy the snow while we have it. Not only that, but conserve the rest of the water we so frequently take for granted.

Some places in the world, people would kill to have what we simply spray away.