My Name Is Jasper

Girl From The North Country

If you're travelin' in the north country fair

Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline

Remember me to one who lives there

She once was a true love of mine

Girl from the North Country – Bob Dylan (318)

Today is Valentine's Day. Julie prepared a special breakfast for me: crepes with Speculoos (319) spread and fruit. And bacon, because of reasons. The main reason it being bacon. We promised each other not to buy gifts, but rather put the money in our Paradise Falls jar (320). After all, we made some big decisions for the new year, but I'll get back to that later. Julie's crepes are fabulous, but as good an tasty they are, they can't win from my moms. Can we all agree that there are two dishes that no one can make as good as your own mom: Spaghetti Bolognese and crepes? Hands down.

Although we are enjoying a very cozy Sunday, this weekend the Curse of Valentine has struck again...

We were planning on going skating on this weekend in Arrowhead Provincial Park. In that park some three hours North of Toronto, there is a kilometer-long trail through the trees that we discovered last year. We drove up Friday through ghastly weather conditions, but finally arrived in a beautiful resort close to the park.

"If the weather stays like this we might not be able to skate the trail." Julie admitted while we enjoyed a fantastic dinner. "We'll see; I really hope we can. Last year was so much fun." Outside a snow storm was raging and temperatures dropped to below -40ºC. So far the Torontonian winter has been pretty mild, but on Friday night it felt like we've travelled to the Arctic, instead of Huntsville Ontario.

During breakfast we saw a small number of people outside, fighting their way on through the cold on cross country skis. They were too far away to clearly see their facial expressions, but they didn't look like they were having a great time. We put on layers of extra clothes in an effort to be somewhat comfortable on the trail. Walking across the resort's parking lot made us realize our effort was in vain. "Fuck it is cold!"

When we got in the car, the frozen doors squeaked as we opened and closed them. "I hope the car will start." I said, only half joking. "Damn..." it didn't...

The resort's staff came to help us in just a few minutes, by which time the cold had already made my face go numb. I didn't even notice the blood running out of my nose.

In the warm comfort of our home, while watching a movie as we devour Julie's crepes, I'm happy we quickly decided to cancel our skating plans. Luckily the car was jumpstarted in just a matter of minutes yesterday. Last year we had a little more trouble....

Julie and I started our Valentine's getaway skiing in the Blue Mountains. After spending the better part of the day on slopes in -40ºC plus wind-chill, Julie all the sudden grabbed my attention mid-run. Apparently I was showing early signs of frost bite on my nose. I hadn't noticed anything, but Julie's screaming order "You have to get inside now!" left little to the imagination. My natural reaction at that exact moment was to touch my nose. There was no feeling in my nose at all. Very weird. A few minutes later I inspected my face in the washroom of one of Blue Mountain's Village bars. My nose had a gray colour. Seeing that was even weirder than not feeling it... Luckily the regular color of my nose and the sense of feeling in it returned pretty quickly as we warmed up over hot chocolates.

Later that day, we were on our way to find the B&B we had booked. It was not that far from the ski resort, but still quite secluded. The blizzard that had started to rage was not helping. Thick snow wasn't just falling from the sky, it came at us as machine gun fire. Roads that had been cleared by plows throughout the day quickly filled up as visibility was reduced to zero. At roughly 100m from the B&B the amount of snow on the road was too much for my humble VW Jetta. The white powder sucked us off the road and we got stuck in roughly half of meter of snow on the road's shoulder. Desperately I faced the howling winds, the falling snow, and the coldest temperature I have ever felt. I started to dig in the snow to get the tires loose. With the windows down, Julie (who had taken over the wheel) and I tried to communicate as the snow and ice invade the interior of the car. The elements are waging a blitzkrieg on us, and it is clear who's losing. She floored the gas, I tried to push. All efforts in vain.