This morning at about 6:30 am, the Greater Toronto Area basically shut down in its tracks. That would be the city itself, as well as most of the bedroom communities surrounding it.

For the first time in 8 years, even the Toronto District School Board decided to cancel school in favour of a snow day. They cancel school buses often, but never school.

Today, they canceled school. 🙂

A whopping winter storm has begun and it’s gonna be a mess.

However, despite the fact that everyone is lazying around, there are animals in this house that require attention. The dog we’re sitting still needs to get a walk in today despite the weather; if he doesn’t get a chance to stretch his legs he will be under foot and a pest for the rest of the day which will bother no one but me.

So I put on my 17 layers, hooked his leash on and headed out into the storm.

The white out conditions made it hard to see where the ice patches were, but Jerry wasn’t fazed. He wanted to sniff and do his business and walk here and there with no rhyme or reason…it was a difficult walk for me.

The neighbourhood was mostly deserted. The only people I saw were dog walkers and a few college students. We live next door to a post secondary institution and I know they had also canceled classes today because I don’t always live under a rock. I also had the tv on which informed everyone about all the closures today. I didn’t bother checking twitter or other social media but I know they too advised people to stay home today.

And yet, a few teen-aged boys were walking around with their school bags on their backs, running shoes on their feet (instead of boots) and with no hats on their heads.

?

If the wind hadn’t been howling so loud I would have called them over to tell them their college was closed. It’s surprising, really, that they didn’t know. Isn’t today’s generation the most connected to information in all of human history? Are you telling me they plug into their memes and other stupidity but don’t check pertinent apps with news informing them of things like class cancellations?

My partner teaches at a post secondary school as well, but not the one next door to us. Their website has a message posted that all city campuses are closed today. They sent it out via twitter, emails, all of it.

Ask me how many emails he’s fielding from his students asking if someone will be at the office to guide them to their make-up exams today.

“The college is closed, your exam will be rescheduled”, he wrote back I don’t know how many times.

Sigh.

So. Once again, we’re buried indoors. What was it the rodents said about their shadows again?

Winter is here in full force.