Safe Harbour

• Published in: CM (Winnipeg) Vol. XXVI; no. 32
• Main Author: McMahon, Ruth
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Winnipeg CM: Canadian Review of Materials Association 01.04.2020

Excerpt: “Is this hypothetical… are you really planning on sleeping in a boat in the winter in Toronto?” “That’s the plan. But I get the sense you think there’s something wrong with it?” “Nothing wrong, I guess. It’s just that most Canadians store their boats in the winter, due to the lakes freezing over.” “Even the big lakes freeze over? Like Lake Ontario?” The man nods and presses his lips together as if he’s delivering catastrophic news. It makes his moustache and beard touch so that his mouth completely disappears in facial hair. I wonder if Dad knows about the ice issue in Canada during the winter. I make a mental note to talk to him about it next time he calls and wonder about starting a list on my phone. I already have quite a few things to talk to him about: did he remember to charge the auxiliary battery at the first of the month; does he still have a spare phone; ask him again why I had to come to Toronto alone (I’m seriously starting to wonder how he talked me into this); and now, did he know the lakes freeze completely over in Toronto, including the Great Lakes.