by Ruth Griffiths

When the weather turns extreme it’s almost all we talk about. But how much do we know about the weather? Challenge yourself to answer these cold weather questions.

1. How cold can it get in Prince Albert?
   
2. On average, when is Prince Albert’s coldest day of the year?
   
3. On what day did Prince Albert record its largest daily snowfall?
   
4. On Aug. 20, 2010, the temperature in Antarctica dropped to the lowest recorded temperature in the world. How cold was it?
   
5. According to Statistics Canada, the coldest recorded temperature in Canada was on Feb. 3, 1947 in Snag, Yukon. How cold was it?
   
6. David Phillips, Senior climatologist at Environment Canada, says Canada is the second coldest country in the world, with an average year round temperature of -3.6 C. What country is colder?
   
7. The average nighttime low in Canada for December, January and February is -26.7 C. What area of Canada is the coldest?
   
8. What is the coldest inhabited place on earth?
   
9. How cold was the last Ice Age?
   
10. How cold can it get?

I put this quiz together seven years ago and updated it this month. It appears that we never grow tired of talking about the weather. Unless we’re talking about the pandemic!

** ed note: In a serendipitous turn of events, I’m editing this column on Monday, January 25. It was -40 C when I went outside to start my car this morning — a cold weather column on the coldest day of the year so far. It’ s not the coldest Jan. 25 on record, though, that mark belongs to 1969, when it reached -43.9 C. The average low for this late January deep freeze is -25 C. According to Environment Canada, the mercury plunged to -40.4 C, and -42 with the windchill. The ice fog didn’t help matters either!

ANSWERS

1. One source says -50 C on Jan. 20, 1943 while Wikipedia says -56.7 C on Feb. 1, 1893. (Highest temp June 5, 1988 38.8 C )
   
2. Jan. 10, with an average low of -23 C and high of -12 C.
   
3. Sunday, Oct. 11, 1998 saw 43 cm of snowfall. It was the Thanksgiving weekend.
   
4. -93.2 C, brrrr
   
5. -63 C is still the coldest temperature recorded in North America.
   
6. Russia has the honour of first place at -5.3 C.
   
7. Nunavut is the coldest territory in the winter, with an average daily temperature of -33.4 C, while Manitoba is the coldest winter province at -25.1 C. Nova Scotia is the warmest province, with a balmy average of -8.9 C.
   
8. Oymyakon in northeast Russia recorded -67.7 C on Feb. 6, 1933. This is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere, and is the lowest temperature ever recorded for any permanent habitation (on Earth).
   
9. The average global temperature was 6 or 7 degrees colder than today’s average global temperature of 14 C.
   
10. The moon gets to -228 C. Mars is -153 C at the poles. The International Space Station’s sun-facing side heats to 121 C, while the dark side plunges to -157 C. Deep space is -270 C. Absolute zero, theoretically the coldest temperature possible, is -273.15 C.

by Ruth Griffiths

Today is the anniversary of the death of a Canadian icon — the Eaton’s catalogue.

Back when Prince Albert Daily Herald had more than 50 employees, the staff social club put on a Christmas party for the employee’s children.

The kids sat on the floor in the lunch room, ate hamburgers and watched films from the public library. The program always included the 1980 NFB short film The Sweater. In this animated short, Roch Carrier tells how he and his friends worshipped Maurice “Rocket” Richard and wore his number 9 Canadiens hockey jersey. The boy was mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey from Eaton’s. Unable to convince his mother to send it back, he had to face ridicule wearing the blue jersey.

Besides our national love of hockey, the film illustrates the ubiquitous nature of the mail-order catalogue. The film contains the dialogue: “My mother was proud. She never wanted to buy our clothes from the General Store. The only styles that were good enough for us were from Eaton’s Catalogue.”

The widely distributed department store catalogue leveled the playing field for rural Canadians. Someone living in rural Canada could purchase from the catalogue and receive the same products as those living in the city.

The Eaton’s catalogue, first published in 1884, was one of the first to be distributed by a Canadian retail store. The first version of the catalogue was a 32-page booklet handed out at the Industrial Exhibition (now the Canadian National Exhibition). On Jan. 14, 1976 the T. Eaton Company ended its catalogue sales operation after over 10 years of heavy losses and 9,000 employees lost their jobs.

The Sears catalogue was another staple of rural Canadian culture. I especially remember circling items in the Christmas Wish Book. It was more efficient than a letter to Santa!

Simpson-Sears released the first Canadian Wish Book in 1953. At its peak in 1997, five million copies of the Wish Book were delivered to doorsteps across Canada. The tradition continued for 63 years, until the final edition in 2016.

The collapse of Sears Canada put thousands out of work.

This year I was surprised to receive a Canadian Tire Christmas catalogue. Especially when other retail giants, such as Ikea, have ended their print catalogue and moved entirely on-line. At its peak, the Ikea catalogue was said to have a greater circulation than the Bible. In December the Swedish furniture company announced that after seven decades it will no longer publish a catalogue because demand has fallen.

By the way, you can watch The Sweater on YouTube. It’s only 10 minutes long but it will bring back a lifetime of memories about hockey and the mail-order catalogue.

by Ruth Griffiths

For more than two decades, a host of dedicated older adults have met weekday mornings for a group fitness class. Many of the senior women have been attending the class since it began … a testament to their desire to maintain health and fitness.

Marliss McIntyre was one of the original instructors of the morning fitness class at the Margo Fournier Centre. She has been teaching fitness classes for 42 years.

She continued to lead group fitness classes after she moved to Red Deer in June 2001.

Diane McDuff led the class for several years and called it Faithfully Fit.

In 2009 I started leading the class each Monday. When Diane’s work schedule changed in 2010, I inherited the class and renamed it Easy Adult Fitness.

This drop-in class is offered by the City of Prince Albert each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at the Margo Fournier Centre. Attendance has been as high as 33 but averages 15 enthusiastic participants.

In 2014, the group fitness participants were angry because the City was considering selling the Margo Fournier Centre. But Terra Lennox-Zepp helped us lobby City Council to continue a program that was an important part of our lives.

The class continued with enthusiastic participation until fitness classes halted on March 17, 2020. due to the Corona virus pandemic. For several weeks the City offered no fitness programming but then it moved on-line. From the safety of my own home I was helped to videotape three short fitness programs that were free on the City’s website.

When fitness centers were able to reopen, the class sprang to life again on July 13 but at Alfred Jenkins Field House. We were glad to be able to exercise together again but we missed our downtown gym.

We were overjoyed to be back at Margo Fournier Centre when classes resumed in September with pandemic protocols… keeping six feet apart and extra sanitizing of equipment and hands. As the second wave of the pandemic peaked, we again modified the program. In mid-November, class size was capped at eight for aerobic activity, so I modified the programming to reflect those restrictions.

On Nov. 27 masks became mandatory while we exercised a minimum of three meters apart.

Class size was capped at eight, including the instructor. How could 15 people participate in a drop-in class and still honor the new health guidelines? Curtis Olsen, Erin Hurd and other staff quickly pivoted to a registration format.

Participants had to register in advance for one of seven spaces in the class. So, for the first time in its history, Easy Adult Fitness expanded to two time slots each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, allowing 14 people to participate each day.

Easy Adult Fitness is a pandemic survivor. The first class for 2021 was on Jan. 4.

It will continue in its new format for the foreseeable future.

by Ruth Griffiths

Usually at this time of year I challenge myself to make a few predictions, but how can you predict the future in a time where everything changes overnight?

Who could have predicted a global pandemic? Well apparently quite a few experts did predict it, but like earthquake predictions, we know it’s coming but we just don’t know when.

I confess, this year I got a little jittery. Every time I did something, I wondered, “Will this be the last time?”

Will this be the last time I get to hug my grandson? Will this be the last time I teach a fitness class? Will this be the last time I meet friends while quilting?

We’ve had some serious health issues in our family this year and I wonder, will this be the last time I see my love one (never mind not being able to hug)?

This year has forced me to learn, and even embrace, some new technologies. I learned to do Zoom meetings. I now love to pay bills by electronic transfer. I learned to order products on-line. I even did Sunday worship by Youtube.

Our book club meetings have moved on-line and I love it. I can’t drive at night and I certainly don’t drink and drive, so when we meet on-line I can drink tea or chardonnay, my choice, and participate well after sundown. I hope we can continue this type of meeting in the future.

The same goes for board meetings where people live all over the province. It is so much easier in the midst of a Canadian winter to meet on-line. No traveling, no time wasted.

My granddaughter hurt her hand and I phoned the walk-in clinic. Well, apparently you don’t just walk in and wait anymore. I phoned the receptionist who arranged for the doctor to call me at home. Waiting to see the doctor is a whole lot easier when you are at home. It turned out the doctor wanted to see the injured hand for herself so we drove to the clinic, sanitized and masked, and walked directly into the treatment room. No more sitting in a waiting room full of coughing patients. I love it! I hope we can continue this type of pre-screening in the future.

I attended a church Christmas music fund-raising concert on-line. Zoom had a hard time with the sound, but I was able to switch to Youtube for an almost simultaneous version that I greatly enjoyed. Singing carols together is an important part of Christmas for me. I stood at my computer all by myself belting out Joy to the World. It still gets the heart pumping.

A few months ago I said “change” should be the theme word for 2020. I wonder what 2021 will bring? I find it very difficult to predict.

I do know that our appreciation of family and personal relationships has increased this year. Economic hardships are real and many of us have less this season. But we can better appreciate what we DO have.

We have a health-care system that cares for rich and poor without bankrupting us. Our municipal government provides services without dividing us into blues and reds. We have an education system that emphasizes learning but also teaches citizenship, cultural diversity and leaves no child behind.

I predict that in 2021 the headlines will move from counting the number of C19 infections to counting the number of vaccinations. I predict that this year we will embrace some of the changes that have been forced upon us by the pandemic and reap the benefits of living a kinder, healthier lifestyle.

Happy New Year to all!

by Ruth Griffiths

With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas (more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas), here is my 2020 take on the classic poem.

A COVID CHRISTMAS

’Twas the ninth month of Covid, when all through the home,
No devices were beeping, not even a phone.

The stockings were hung by the front door with care
In hopes of a touchless delivery there.

While Ma in her curlers and Pa in his CPAP (mask)
had just settled down for a long winter’s nap

When out on the street there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter!

And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a trio of trucks delivering gear!

The jolly lead driver, so lively and thick,
I thought at the moment it must be St. Nick.

He lined up the vans, parked them all in one lane
then whistled and shouted and called them by name:

“On FedEx, on Postal, on striped Purolator
we’ll deliver these gifts … sooner or later.”

The caravan halted and out jumped three guys
masked, gloved and shields placed over their eyes.

They slid open van doors and lowered tailgates.
What did they have there? I hardly could wait!

They lifted out packages – large, medium, small
from Amazon, Kijiji and one from the mall.

They brought a few packages up to my door
then went to my neighbor’s to place a few more.

I stepped out and called to them, “Who are you guys?
you look like St. Nick but you wear a disguise.

“I can’t see your cheeks or or droll little mouth.
Your mask covers your face, you’re expression’s gone south.

“Are you really and truly the famous St. Nick?
Are these masks a disguise, or just some kinda trick?”

“We’re the Christmas delivery crew keeping six feet apart.
We’ll sanitize everything before we depart.”

They closed all the hatches and got set to move.
They’d done all they could and had nothing to prove.

But I heard them exclaim ‘ere they drove out of sight:
“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

Ruth Griffiths

Sometimes I feel like I am running on empty. I feel depleted of energy and less capable. My New Year’s resolution is to fill up my tank by taking care of myself … body, mind and spirit.
Psychologist Virginia Satir wrote about a large black pot that stood on her family’s porch. At various times of the year it contained, in turn, homemade soap, manure or stew for the threshing crew. If you planned to take something out of the pot you had to know what was in the pot and how full it was.

In her family counselling sessions, Satir used the pot as an image of self-esteem or self worth. In her book, People Making, she wrote:

I am convinced that the crucial factor in what happens both inside people and between people is the picture of the individual worth that each person carries around with him – his pot.
Integrity, honesty, responsibility, compassion, and love – all flow easily from the people whose pot is high. They feel that they matter, that the world is a better place because they are here. They have faith in their own competence. They are able to ask others for help, but they believe they can make their own decisions and are their own best resource. Appreciating their own worth, they are ready to see and respect the worth of others. They radiate trust and hope. They don’t have rules against anything they feel. They accept all of themselves as human.
Other people, however, spend most of their lives in a low-pot condition. Because they feel they have little worth, they expect to be cheated, stepped on, deprecated by others.
Expecting the worst, they invite it and usually get it. To defend themselves, they hide behind a wall of distrust and sink into the terrible human state of loneliness and isolation. Thus separated from other people, they become apathetic, indifferent toward themselves and those around them. It is hard for them to see, hear, or think clearly and, therefore, they are more prone to step on and deprecate others.

My resolution is to be more intentional this year about filling my pot. Each week I will write on a slip of paper something for which I am thankful. It might be something that happened during the previous week. I will put the papers into a jar to keep them safe and organized. At the end of the year I will open the jar and read the many things for which I have been thankful throughout the year. I will have given myself a gift of thankfulness.

Ruth Griffiths

In his 1939 Christmas Day broadcast, King George V quoted part of a poem by Minnie Haskins:

I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied, “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.”

Great Britain was at war and desperately needed to face the future with hope. The King’s message might have helped Britain and her Allies rally for a common cause as they entered a new and uncertain decade.

We too are on the brink of a new decade. We tut-tut U.S. politics and moan about rising personal debt. Again we stand at the gate of the year.

The year 2020 seems like something out of science fiction or the Back to the Future film series. How can I possibly be living in “the Twenties”?

The third decade of the 20th century was nicknamed The Roaring Twenties. It was a period of economic prosperity The Twenties was a decade of change. It started with a roar and ended with a crash.”

The Roaring Twenties led us down the Rabbit Hole into the Great Depression. But before we hit rock bottom, the period of prosperity following the First World War provided an opportunity for great social change, particularly for young women. The Flapper with her short hair and shorter skirt is the most recognizable image of the Twenties. She was a fast-talking, cigarette smoking social butterfly. Women in the United States finally got the vote in the 20s. (Most Canadian women were granted the right to vote 1917–1919; Prince Edward Island in 1922; Newfoundland in 1925; Quebec in 1940; 1960 for Aboriginal People without requiring them to give up their status as before.) Even though they were equals at the ballot box, women lacked equality in the workplace. Married women rarely worked outside the home and single women still worked mainly in domestic roles.

What will be the nickname for this coming decade? What changes will it bring? Will it roar in like a lion and go out with a whimper as did the 1920s?

Perhaps the King’s message holds true: “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.”

Ruth Griffiths

The Christmas pageant usually includes the presentation of gifts. Three “kings” from the East troop in with offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Maybe you’ve heard how three little boys in a nativity play got a bit mixed up. The trio paraded up the church aisle with tea towels over their heads and presented their gifts to a fidgeting Mary and Joseph.

“I bring you gold,” piped the first visitor.

“Murmur,” whispered the second boy.

“Frank sent this,” said the third.

The Bible story about the birth of Jesus places the arrival of the royal visitors at least a year after his birth. It just makes for a more colorful story when we bring on the kings while the baby is still asleep on the hay in the manger.

According to the Bible, shepherds were the first to visit Jesus.

They had been watching their flocks when an angel appeared to them in the night and told them to look for a miraculous baby in Bethlehem. Then, as now, farm laborers were not wealthy. But when you visit the parents of a newborn, you are expected to bring a gift. They brought their adoration.

They gave him their love.

The carol, Little Drummer Boy, might drive you mad with all its “pa rum pum pum pums” but it underlines one of the principle themes of Advent. Christmas isn’t about giving expensive gifts. It is about giving all you have… your love.

Christmas is a birthday party for Jesus.

Far too often, we just give gifts to everyone except the person whose birthday we are celebrating.

This year, as you bask in the glow of giving and receiving Christmas gifts, think about what you could have given, if you had given all you are.

Ruth Griffiths

Joy is a spontaneous outburst of happiness. Joy is an exuberant emotion that bursts forth both with the expectation and the attainment of pleasure.

The first time my granddaughter lisped, “I love you Grandma,” I thought my heart would expand out of my chest with joy.

The pleasures of parenting mellow as our children become adults; a new baby in the family rekindles moments of joy long forgotten.

For me, Christmas is all about family and other loving relationships. I get a lot of joy from caring for plants. I know other people get a lot of joy from their pets because they put so much effort into caring for them.

Relationships are built on giving, rather than getting. Caring for someone or something builds the relationship and creates joy in the relationship.

I also feel joy in the mere realization of being alive. Walking in the crisp air with the sun on may face creates a euphoria that makes me want to skip and sing: I can move! I can feel! I’m alive!

During the few times in my life when I have been sick and unable to get about as I usually do, I feel more vulnerable, more dependent on others and less like myself. However, those times of limited independence help me to be more compassionate toward those who deal with limitations every day. It makes me more grateful for the good health I usually enjoy. It encourages me to work to take care of my health and live a healthy lifestyle.

Christmas presents and parties can bring us momentary joy, but day-to-day joy comes from other things… like a sunset, coffee with a friend or a baby’s smile.

For me, joy comes from anything that makes me feel more alive… more at home in my own body.

Each year during Advent (the four weeks before Christmas), I try to write about the Advent themes. Next week I will write about Love.

Ruth Griffiths

Peace might be the absence of discord but it is also a state of tranquility or serenity. I have found that simply removing yourself from the hubbub of daily living doesn’t instantly produce tranquility.

At a time when I had some decisions to make about my life I sought the peace and tranquility of a lakeside campground in Prince Albert National Park. I thought I would find the stillness I was seeking if I spent some time alone amidst the healing beauty of nature. I was only partially right.

It was mid-September and the beach was deserted. A sunny morning had turned cold and it threatened to snow. I built a tea fire and huddled into a blanket. The wind in the trees and the lapping waves created a soothing white noise that helped to quiet my mind. But the jumbled thoughts in my head continued to rob me of the peace I was seeking

A member of the park staff stopped by to check if I was OK. Outside of another visitor driving through the campground, he was the only person I saw all day. Solitude failed to soothe and the cacophony of thoughts continued unabated.

I became increasingly frustrated with my failure to find peace and solitude on that empty beach. In tears, I decided that the endless activity of my brain was never going to end. I gave up my search for stillness and sank even deeper into my blanket.

As I stopped focusing on my thoughts, I began to focus on the far horizon, the patterns of the shifting clouds and the spicy bite of the air. That’s when a different sort of peace happened for me. I made peace with myself. I decided that it was OK to be who I was, complete with my inability to quiet my brain.

Like the rustling poplar leaves, the lapping waves and the rushing air, my mind is constantly in motion.

Peace arrived when I stopped fighting myself so that I became reconciled with who I am.

Each year during Advent (the four weeks before Christmas), I try to write about the Advent themes. Next week I will write about Joy.