Deep Freeze Winter Festival

The seventh annual Deep Freeze Winter Festival was held this past weekend on Alberta Avenue (118 Avenue) in Edmonton, featuring the theme "The Vikings are coming!" Some friends and I decided to check it out.

The ice and snow sculptures were awesome

Women sat around a fire in authentic costumes and did Viking handcrafts, including naal binding (knitting with a single needle)

Jane and Liz check out the handcrafting

Demonstration of a hand bellows to stoke the fire for iron working

Deep freezer races using real freezers on skiis!

Brian warming his hands at the wood heater

There was also musical entertainment, stilt walkers, an artisan market, etc.  We were lucky that it was a relatively mild day, only about -3 degrees, but the wind had a bit of an edge to it, so we warmed up with coffee at the Carrot Cafe.  A fun afternoon and a chance to embrace our cold northern climate.

My first car

One of the blogs I read on occasion, called Life & Other Crises, is doing a series where every Monday the blog author writes about a First.  As in, "first time drunk", "first kiss", "first fulfilled wish".

I wasn't particularly interested in delving into an account of any of those firsts.  But the topic of Firsts twigged a memory from my teenage years of a very significant First of my own.

My First Car.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to my first car.  A yellow AMC Gremlin.  This is actually a picture of a Gremlin that I found online, but it looks identical to the one I had.  And if that isn't the ugliest car on God's green earth, I don't know what is. 

Some time after I turned 16, I got a part time job and, since we lived in the country, a 20 minute drive from town, I needed a car.  My dad knew a guy who was a mechanic, and asked him if he knew of a good used car that I could buy.  The guy showed Dad this baby and said he could have it for $700, which my dad thought was a pretty good deal.

Now, it's important to realize that I was not consulted, or even present, at anytime during this discussion.  If I had been, I am confident I would have either burst out laughing or burst into tears.

Instead, by the time I found out about it, it was a done deal.  I was the new owner of a mechanically sound, albeit hideously ugly, yellow Gremlin, and I owed the mechanic $700.

A few days after my momentous purchase, I was invited to a party in town.  I arrived in my yellow Gremlin, which none of my friends had seen.  I quietly parked on the street and went inside to join the party.  A short while later, my best friend happened to look out the window and saw the Gremlin on the street and declared, "who on earth is driving that ugly yellow car?"

It didn't help any that she had just received a brand new Ford Escort from her parents for her 16th birthday.

I console myself with the belief that driving that ugly car was a character building experience.  You know, the old maxim, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."  Yup, that's me.