Ottawa got snow this morning; from the caterwauling I’ve heard today, you’d think that people here have never seen snow before. It’s as though they’ve completely forgotten that winter comes once a year.

Maybe there’s something to that, at that:

Wednesday’s snow wasn’t deep enough to cover the toes of most people’s boots and it quickly began melting into slush.

Even so, there were over 40 crashes in Ontario east of Napanee by 9 a.m., and Highway 417 was particularly bad, reported provincial police Const. Kevin Davidson.

“We have vehicles driving too fast, going into ditches, off the shoulders, colliding with other ones at intersections, rear-enders — the whole gamut of people trying to rush and hurry when they should be taking their time,” he said.

“It always seems to be this way, that people have to rethink winter driving over again every start of every new year.”

(Emphasis mine.)