Winter in the City

Snow squalls, but mild - and sun coming out now - temps 2 degrees

But, since this is Canada, our temperatures are in celsius - which means - our zero is 32 degrees in the United States. So our plus 2 is just above freezing. It's actually quite easy. Freezing is '0'...then everything else radiates from that....plus or minus. But like most things, it has taken a while to learn. I'm in the 'shoulder' generation. I was in my mid-20's when the switch from fahrenheit to celsius was made. So I grew up with hot being 80 and cold being 20. Freezing was 32 and zero was desperately cold.

We also switched speeds to kilometers from miles, and that has also taken a while to learn. Our speed limit on highways is 100 kilometers an hour....but when I learned to drive it was 65 miles an hour.

I still think in both. When the gas fireplace was put in the 'kids' (young men) who did it apologized for the temperature gage being in fahrenheit, and said they could come back and change it....we said, 'It's OK' - both Michael and I were secretly relieved. I think temperature in F still makes more sense to me. Whereas for anyone under 40 it is a completely foreign 'language'.

But I realize I now think in kilometers. When we travel to the states and I see something is 50 miles away, I think 'kilometers' and then am surprised when it takes so long. Our speed gage on Michael's car is only in kilometers, so we pretty much take a 'best guess' at what speed we should be going. (Michael's guess is lower than mine).

We are a dying breed...those who remember and still, sometimes, live in the 'old days'. Before TV remotes. Before cable even. When we still talked about HiFis and records, and cars needed to be 'broken in'. When I bought my first 45 (Summer in the City) and there was one telephone in the house, attached to the wall. We played outside and took the bus and subway without fear and kids sometimes still died of polio.

I sometimes wonder what those young men who installed our gas fireplace will have to adjust to, when they're in their mid-fifties.

I wanted (on a different note) to thank the Indie Literary Awards. This is the second year they've handed out these awards and the first year they've had a category for Mystery Novels. A Trick of the Light has been nominated! Also on the shortlist are:

Missing Daughter, Shattered Family by Liz Strange (MLR Press)
The Cut by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur/LIttle, Brown)
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Press)
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown)

Congratulations everyone - wonderful books!

The Indie Lit Awards are compiled in different categories by an association of internet literary bloggers....so the nominations come from all over the place. A panel of judges has been assembled and the winners will be announced in mid-March. I am thrilled to be on the shortlist! Thank you so much.

We're in Montreal now - drove in this morning. Am about to do an interview with the Journal de Quebec for the launch here of book 4 - Defense de tuer.

Tomorrow we have a few appointments (including dentist for me and accountant for Michael) then back home before the snow on Thursday. the line edited manuscript for The Beautiful Mystery has arrived. We will get to that on Thursday.

As you see - 'time off' is a flexible term.

Hope you're enjoying your week! Speak soon -