We’ve had more rain than normal in Quebec this spring, which combined with a fairly rapid snow melt is resulting in flooding in many communities near rivers and the temporary displacement of hundreds of people.
I can’t remember ever seeing as many weather warnings about rainfall. People are genuinely afraid of rain these days, and I suppose it serves as a reminder that we humans live on islands surrounded by great seas that could rise and wipe out our civilizations in the proverbial 40 days or less.
As you can well imagine, all this grey weather is causing waves of depression, too. Many people are just plain cranky these days. We want sunshine. We want to sit on the outdoor terrasses of cafes. We want to start firing up the barbecues on our decks. We want to start planting those tomato plants we started indoors from seeds. We want to go canoeing. We want to go skinny dipping . . .
You get the bleak picture. We all have cabin fever. We’re champing at the bit for some decent weather so we can peel off the outer layers and get closer to nature.
Alas, such is the nature of May: it teases us with a couple of summery days early on, then clobbers us with remnants of winter for a few weeks before almost grudgingly allowing summer to arrive. Hence, the reason why traditional planting time here is Victoria Day weekend around the 23rd of the month. Before that, there is too much danger of frost at night.
My g/f is starting to wilt under all this rain. She is a deck person — she lives on the deck for much of the summer. So, she is just plain ornery these days, which is why we are resorting to shopping therapy today. For a couple of hours, we’ll put this grey world behind us as we take in the bright spring colours in some department stores, and she will emerge with some new duds and, perhaps more important, the feeling that brighter days are ahead.
I wonder if the stores will be packed with other people suffering from spring rain fever . . .
And I’m wondering how people who live in rainy places like England and Vancouver cope? Do they get used to it? Or do they just shop a lot?
Sigh . . .
So, how am I holding up to all of this? Well, I’m just happy that all the precipitation isn’t arriving in the form of snow, which is Public Enemy No. 1 in my books.
— Jillian
Photo credit: Martin Katerberg via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
Jillian Page 
Was wondering how you were doing in the wilds of Convent By The Lake with all the rain, and if you had had any flooding. Although I can’t say I enjoy gray skies, at least it gave us an excuse to use the fireplace a few more times. Had estimated that I was going to run out of wood before the season was over (which I would have – no pun intended there), so got a bit more, then seemed to have too much. Will be close at the end (yeah, first world problems). Anyhow, Nom just got back from shopping, although mostly for the kids. I got a half day to be lazy. I need to spend half day taking care of them and letting her go shop as therapy. (Therapeutic: (a) shopping – well for you female half the of human race, anyhow, and (b) time off alone.)
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Listening to the news from across Quebec, it’s difficult. The father and two year old who were swept away after their car was swamped, but the mother was able to grab a branch and held on.
When they went from measuring expected rainfall, yesterday, in millimeters to centimeters, that made me shudder.
People who barely had time to get out of their homes in the middle of the night when the water came up so fast. And, those who are learning their insurance won’t cover their wiped-out homes.
Hearing Mayor Denis C. refuse to discuss, on CBC radio, deficiencies in preparedness. That sure brought some strong reaction from listeners. (Something tells me Denis isn’t going to be measured by the success of the 375th events, so much anymore, in the upcoming election. I think empty sandbags may be a new political symbol.)
I had noticed that Montreal and Ottawa temperatures were a good deal warmer, during the rains last week, than down south here in Boston, but now you’ve got frost and it’s cold enough to snow. Jesus!
Good news is, the forecast for Quebec does show warmer days after Tuesday. And, not much more rain!
I sure know how it can drag everyone down when it’s just gray for days and days. You should get your sweetie one of those compact U.V. lights. I had one, one winter, and it was pretty good for those long dark days, (although, that was in February. Shouldn’t have to deal with such issues in May!)
Here’s to sunnier days, soon!
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A UV light is a good idea: I’ll look into it.
I have suspicions that all the flooding is partially a man-made problem, i.e. regulation of dam flows and such. I live by a lake in the Laurentians and although the water level is high, it came nowhere near to flooding its banks. And it only has two little outlet streams. We got just as much rain here as the Montreal area got, and we always get much more snow up here.
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