Why Sackville rocks...literally...even though ice picks on crutches are a necessity

So. Question. What do you get when you combine 20 cm of snow with freezing rain the next morning and temperatures juuust cold enough to keep that rain frozen on the ground with a slick layer of water over it from the friction caused by pedestrians? And a campus on a hill?

Answer. You get--school cancellation!

...HA! Right. Maybe anywhere else in North America (by which I mean any of the States south of New York...and Mexico, but they're luckier with climate down there), but Canadians are really a tough and durable population. I'm beginning to think it would take a force-10 blizzard to get school canceled around here, and even then, I'm not so sure. I have a hunch they keep sled dogs hidden away for such emergencies.

But I had my first experience of slamming down on my ass in front of people this morning, and I'm starting to see increasing amounts of people with various degrees of damaged appendages. I wondered this morning if we'd all just be better off ice skating around campus.

In less climate-related news, I went to three (THREE!) shows on Saturday, all of which were AWESOME. The first was on Saturday afternoon--two bluegrass bands. The median age of the crowd was maybe 65, but those of you who know me know I LOVE LOVE LOVE bluegrass. And I thought it was rather cool that the planners of Stereophonic (the music festival this all came through) included something that the elder crowd (and a fair few of the younger crowd) could enjoy. And I found out that the local station has several bluegrass hours throughout the day.

Concert Number Two was at an art gallery (yeah, I know, cool, right??). The Superfantastics, a duo from Halifax were, well...super fantastic. Seriously--if you like catchy indie pop/rock, check out their music. They performed with Calm Down It's Monday, another duo--the girl sounds a lot like Feist. The latter was either super chill or slightly baked (or possibly both), but either way, they were absolutely hilarious between numbers and the music was of the variety that you'd want playing in the background of a soundtrack to your life.

Then we trekked over to this place called George's Roadhouse where the bands were too numerous to mention but all very danceable. Apparently the Tom Fun Orchestra was the big draw of the night--they call themselves a Celtic fusion group, but they were fiddle-less that evening, and a trumpet player covered the parts, so it sounded rather ska-ish. And unfortunately, I'd knocked back one too many beers (bringing me to a grand total of FOUR. Pathetic.) at that point to be fully attentive...but being able to listen to music and dance with new friends and drink and have it be totally legal was amazing in itself.

Come to think of it, the beer may have been the reason why the walk home in -25 was not nearly as bad as it could have been...

Still on the lookout for a good East Coast band with some serious fiddle action, but in the meantime, I'm totally blown away by the music scene here.