For one day the other day, it was warm enough to smell the ocean, and it was quite a shock; once you've lived near the ocean for a while you stop noticing the smell of it, so it was nice to be aware of it again. Now we're back to the weather I moved here to get a break from. This old guy on the bus today said it was the worst winter he's seen in 25 years, and the guy he was talking to said he'd been here 57 years and it was the worst he'd ever seen. Not that it's really cold, mind you, and not that as an emigrant from the prairies I can legitimately complain about the amount of snow, it's just that I miss the wet, gray saltiness of winter in Vancouver. Bright and freezing just doesn't fit here.