Jann’s Guide to the Hitchiker's Galaxy
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jan Arden Show and Podcast. Once again, we are going to bring you an action-packed, fact-filled, fun-filled extravaganza, 46 minutes. I'm here with Sarah Burt, who is lovingly and kindly and generously and talentedly, that's right, sitting in for Caitlin Green, who's had a child and is parenting like crazy and has a very

um, challenging baby. Is Will being challenging this week? Well, I will is, um, Caitlin, we say this with love in our hearts because my dog is challenging. Okay. Being constipated is challenging to me. So my version of challenging and Caitlin's, but no, Caitlin's her little guy is he's a crier and, uh, trouble sleeping and

I'm probably getting this all wrong, but anyway, it's very challenging and I cannot fathom parenting. And Adam Karsh, but guess what, guys? I'm in Toronto. Yay. We're all here. I'm coming to you from my little crash pad in Toronto. And yeah, here, I've got dogs.

Oh my God, so many dogs are here. We have three dogs here today. My road manager's dog, Lorelei, is here with Poppy. They're quite confused. But anyway, we have a lot to talk about today. For one thing, it's 85 Days Till Christmas.

Jesus. Is that appropriate to react with a Jesus? I don't know. Well, probably. It is his day of birth. Not really. They really have no idea why that started, I think, on the 25th of December. Probably something to do with the stars in the sky, I would imagine.

But maybe you as Jewish people could tell me a lot more about the birth of Christ than I actually know. But I don't want to offend anybody. I'm just saying that I don't think he was actually born on the 25th of December. I think you're right. There's lots of stories around that. I'm not sure why they chose that day. But anyway, that's the day that the world has.

And I guess since we're talking about this, I'll tell you exactly that there are quite a large group of people now that are completely prepared on this day in September for Christmas. I mean, shopping, food shopping, gift shopping, everything's done.

And I, are you guys, like Sarah, do you celebrate Christmas? I'm sure you do with friends and family a little bit. I mean, it's kind of there. It's like Chinese food basically for us on Christmas. Yeah, that's our thing I would say on Christmas. But my boyfriend the other day said, oh, I already got your first of eight Hanukkah gifts. Like, are you ready? And I was like, whoa, it is not October yet, dude. You get eight?

See, that was the best part about dating a non-Jewish person. I told him there has to be eight gifts. He still believes me. Well, the thing of it is, I don't know how to get my head around that, but a lot of people obviously do shopping online. But to be ready now...

to go. Um, like literally when remembrance day happens, November the 11th, which I think is the right thing to do, you know, the following day, you know, the trees go up and, and all of that stuff. But these people are ready. Like it's, I don't know if it's a, an OCD kind of thing or a, uh,

like just part of the brain that they can't rest until it's done. And maybe Caitlin would, maybe Caitlin would weigh in on this. You know, I think too, when like now that she's become a parent, when kids go back to school, the parents are like, okay, I have time to get organized. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. I kind of, I'm probably more, my legs on the other side of the fence of buying things at shoppers drug Mart on the 24th.

Yeah, yeah.

in Calgary there's a couple of them actually that start their Christmas music November the 1st and it goes it goes until December the 31st so the day it goes right up till New Year's so 8 weeks of Christmas music that's a lot

There were times working at SiriusXM because they have like a lot of holiday channels. There were times where they would start talking about the plan for the holiday channels in like June. I'm not even kidding. So I think all around this is a thing now. But what I will say is that I've sort of enjoyed getting into like the crafting and the like baking or cooking. Do tell.

Right? Because how else as a Jew do you include yourself in some of the traditions? I'm like, oh, okay, if we're going to so-and-so's place for a Christmas gathering, I'm going to try and make that assorted mix with the crackers and pretzels that we did last year. You know, things like that, and then I feel like I'm part of it. Oh, I do like a good giant vat of nuts and bolts. Right? Yes. I mean, I'm totally into that. There's nothing more exciting to me than

hitting the grocery aisles, grabbing the shreddies, the Cheerios, the pretzel sticks, the peanuts, the Chex Mix, the plain one. So you like to make it from scratch yourself then? My cousin Tracy has the most extraordinary...

nuts and bolts mix. Um, and our friend Julie Van Rosendahl also has gifted me with a curry version of the nuts and bolts mix, which is, I don't know if it's garam masala and curry or cinnamon and cumin and all those things, but it is a ramped up version of that. So yeah, I mean, I love all that. I'm not, I'm not saying that it's not cool to

kind of prep and do baking and be part of the, the cookie exchanges and things like that, where you have 12 people and then everyone has 12 different cookies at the end of the day. Like, yeah, whose kitchen are you going to use? Not mine. Thank you very much. Um, but to have all your gifts shopping done and I mean, wrapped and sitting in a room. So it's there, there, there are a faction of the doomsday people. I'm sure that, that are ready for the end of the world. People are just ready for Christmas. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to say it's a little too early for all of that. A little bit too early. Like, can you take a breath, please? Well, are you a Halloween person? I think I was at one point. Oh, I had a great costume one year where I did the nurse from the front of the Blink-182 album cover. Oh, yeah. Like I've had fun.

I've had fun with it, but I will say that I'm quite over it now. And now I just like, I call it the morning after walk viewing. That's my favorite. The morning after Halloween watching people do their walks of shame. Oh, she's not talking about the children, folks. I have not been to a Halloween party in probably 40 years, like a Halloween themed party. I'm not really a Halloween person.

I don't get kids. We've spoken about it on the show before. I don't get kids out to the house because I live in a rural area. Yeah. And the one time that my neighbors did bring their kids over, they rang my gate and I let them in, you know, Halloween apples or whatever they're there where there's cutest could be. It was like a bumblebee in a, in a fairy or something. And I didn't have anything, but I did have a couple of full size chocolate bars and

I thought you were going to say, I gave them all of my cutlery. I had nothing else in the house. It's close, Sarah. I gave them CDs of my CDs. That's amazing. They looked at me like, here's Living Under June and here you take Love's Daily Soldier. Have a good day. But they were quite excited with the giant Eat More bars. But yeah, so I don't do that. An ex of mine who lived in Nashville said,

It was the Halloween there was so insanely done up this one street. Everybody brought their kids from all over the city to go and Halloween on that street. And I mean, there were people in these mansions that had a hundred, like a pyramid pumpkin in front of their house. It was so ornate. And these kids would just do this circle and they would get hit these houses like four or five times to get candy.

That's like the bridal path here in Toronto, right? What's that? Oh, what's that, Adam? Do you want to weigh in on that? Well, it's where Drake lives. I mean, the bridal path is a very exclusive area. Massive homes, massive properties. I know the real estate agent I met. It's apparently my girlfriend who I lived with. She married into this family that the real estate agent for that house, Drake's house. And they let kids just Halloween there?

Well, I don't know about how easy it is, but I know that there's been talk of people, you know, rolling up and parking and then going on a walk in the bridal path. Well, one thing I'll say about the Nashvilleites, the Nashvillians, is that there was no discrepancy. There was no security. They didn't have, they weren't letting people in. They wanted them to come in. And they really, they even like went to the great lengths to let people know it was inclusive and,

And that if you're in the south or the east or the north, wherever, bring your kids. You know, there's fun activities. And it was a really posh street. And I don't know, it just hit me in the right place in my heart. I got to ask you, Jan, what if Poppy wants to celebrate this year? Well, Poppy, I do have Mitty's old witch costume probably kicking around somewhere. Mitty hated any kind of clothing. But there is a witch hat that I could put on his head.

He could be a witch. I think that'd be very cool. I love witches. I love modern witches. I love the whole idea of witches and crones and all that stuff. I think if I was to go Halloweening tomorrow, I would be a witch. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

So funny because my parents have a new dog. The dog is like seven months old and, you know, little things like sweaters and raincoats and all these things are suddenly coming up. And I'm just like, what are you guys going to do to this poor dog for Halloween? Well, I don't know who would see Poppy exactly. I guess I could parade him down, go to a little neighborhood called Lakeview in Calgary and walk him around. But

I haven't even looked at my schedule to where I am. I don't think I've ever worked on Halloween. I don't ever recall having a gig, corporate or otherwise, on the 31st of October. I think generally the music business probably avoids that. Maybe there's a lot of ravers or DJs that have tons of work October the 31st. To bring this back around and to wrap up our conversation on early holidaying, do you have Christmas gigs booked yet?

I have one Christmas gig that is the Pacific National Expo. It's something to do with the Peony out in Vancouver. Okay. And this particular job wants like Christmas music and like my pop catalog. Okay.

So that's pretty cool. It does come up. I mean, November is a little bit early to do Christmas stuff, but going into December, normally you guys, I go out with symphonies like every second or third year I go out and I do a whole Christmas program with symphonies. You know, we even do matinees probably on the Sunday, right? You come in at an a around 2 PM and then we regroup. I wash off my armpits and then we do another one at eight. Yeah.

Well, now they got the dry shampoo and all those things, Jan. Can you imagine spraying that into your armpits? We're going to research that. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We are out of the gate. Don't go away. We'll be back. We've got lots to talk about today. Lots going on in the world. Lots of inspiring stuff. Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. Don't go away.

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Swapping out topics quite drastically, I think we'd be remiss to not speak to something really incredible that's going on around the other side of the world from us that speaks so much about what freedom actually is, what it is to live in a country where you can wear what you want, be who you want, drive, be unescorted. You don't have to have your uncle, father, brother,

husband with you, taking you around. And I'm speaking to Iran. What's been going on there? You've been under a rock if you have not heard the story of Mahasa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdistan young woman who traveled to Tehran, got off the train. The police deemed her head covering to be not as modest as it should be. She was arrested. And three days later, she was deceased.

So the unbelievably brave, fierce women of Iran of every age, you're seeing young women, children, young girls, older women, women in their 70s, 80s, possibly 90s are taking their head coverings off. They're cutting their hair in the square. They're

risking, and I mean their lives, to stand up against this kind of oppression, this kind of religious oppression. And I've cried about it a few times, I'm not going to lie, because as an empath, and I know there's a lot of empaths listening to this show, you just kind of take stuff in. It's very visceral, very palpable, and it's scary. And it also causes anxiety, like watching these women, you guys, this last few weeks, and

what they're willing to do. When you're standing, when there's a woman standing, yelling in front of, the visuals are incredible, of 50 armed to the teeth, police, army, whoever it is that they have. And then these women continue to march. I think it's a story worth speaking of. We are certainly not a news program, but we have been facing a lot of dialogue in this country the past two years about what freedom is.

And I'm sure the convoy people don't even find this. Well, that's what our country is going to be like someday. No, it's not. So grow the F up and stop talking like that because our country is not going to be like that. This is thousands of years in the making.

So anyways, thoughts, Sarah? You know what? I think there's a few really striking things about this story. First of all, you know, this young woman, she's 22. She just got into university. We've talked a lot about university on the show over the last few weeks and school and preparations for your life. You know, most of the people in university over there are women, which is also striking knowing what we're seeing.

There's so many inspired individuals who are ready to take on the world and make change over there. And just before she got the chance, this is what happened. And then the idea, the people who stopped her getting off the subway with her brother, they're called the morality police. It sounds like a joke, the morality police. Right? It's something you would say to a girlfriend at a party over your outfit. What are you, the morality police? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. And my hair stands on end saying that because, you know, these are people that are basically policing what women are wearing in terms of the hair covering and curves. Those are the two things that they care about being covered the most there. And if you actually go and look at some of the images that were circulated about her hijab, it didn't actually look very inappropriate. It looked like she was following the rules. So it's like, you know, it almost seems like there was a target on her.

So that's, those are the things that really strike me about this. But to see women protesting everywhere, risking their lives, like you said, the woman who broke the story, the journalist, she's arrested. She's, and who knows if she'll make it, you know what I mean? So yeah, very inspiring. We can't not touch on it, but at the same time, like it just reminds me, you know, here in my cozy little condo in Toronto, how, how lucky we are. Well, I don't know if I would have the fortitude or the courage to,

to take myself out onto the street and stand up to that kind of oppression. I don't, maybe you find it within yourself. I feel so kind of helpless. I'm glad to even speak about it though, because I think in our own little way to address the story and,

to even the dog agrees story to, and I know people have heard about it a lot, but there's still people that haven't heard about it. And you know, this story is about a woman who did not have her hair covered. You know, you've heard a lot of stories about middle-aged women saying they are afraid of our hair. They are afraid of our hair. And you see them with these

old shears standing in front of the morality police cutting their long beautiful hair off i mean i don't know anything about the religion or the religious practices but you know the fact that men don't have to cover their hair like it's misogyny it's so amplified yeah

It's hard to believe that this country in the 80s was one of the most progressive, modern,

You know, you see pictures that are so kind of romantic of something that looked very, I'm going to say Western, but it was very Eastern for them. It was, they were sitting in bikinis on the beach. They were driving cars. They were in nightclubs having martinis and smoking cigarettes and they were out with their boyfriends and they were going to school and they were, they were protesting and they were part of the world. And then there was a change, a massive change in how this country was ruled. Yeah.

Imagine what those people went down in a matter of moments, what went down for them in their households, not being able to have credit cards or have a bank account or any of those things.

And thinking about the parents too, like I wonder how many parents actually, you know, want to see that world become a different world, you know, or how many are actually under that belief system with the morality police, right? Because as a parent, you'd be afraid for your life to step outside of that box over there, even for your child. Yeah, it's certainly a quandary, but I'm...

It's a story that we'll definitely keep following. Yeah. I wonder if we will see change. I wonder if the women will be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish, which is exactly what we're doing right here to get our attention, to get the world speaking, to have other women and men, human beings across this planet addressing this. And they want us to see what is happening to them.

And I think that's incredibly important and really inspiring and necessary. And we can't let the world keep going in that direction. We just can't. And I wonder too about here where we live. We've seen stories about the hijab in school systems, right? And how that's been treated. Will those women who wear hijabs still fight for that moving forward, knowing now what it represents to them, which is...

There's two sides to that now. There's definitely two sides. You're hearing those stories come out as well. We want the uniformity. We want to cover ourselves. We want to be modest. I think you're always dealing with varying degrees of your religious beliefs.

And everybody's different. But I think at the end of the day, the only way forward is it has to be about personal autonomy. It has to be about your choice. So if you are a person that believes in this extreme form of modesty, wants to cover yourself up, you want to wear a burqa, whatever you want to wear, that should be entirely up to the individual. So go ahead and do that. But unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You know, you want a 16-year-old girl that doesn't want

a head covering. She doesn't, she wants to wear jeans and a tank top. And I don't know if they'll ever get to that point. Inspiring to say the least. It is. And I certainly, I wouldn't even know where to begin to untangle all this stuff, but it's a heartbreaking story for the family of the 22-year-old from Mahasa, Amini.

Whose life was cut short. Who knows what she would have ended up accomplishing going to university. And you're right, Sarah. It's predominantly women going to universities that want to educate themselves and climb out of their oppression. And I'm sure being educated is something that they know will be a tool to help them going forward.

both personally, politically, you know, intellectually, all those things. I certainly am standing in solidarity with these women and I wish them, you know, so much strength at this time. And, and I just, I hope that it's somehow resolved. I don't even know how that's possible. I certainly, I hope someone a hell of a lot smarter than me can, you know, step up to the table and find some peaceful conclusion or some,

some meeting place where at least these dialogues are open and it isn't steeped in violence because this is very hard to watch. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast, Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. We will be right back. Welcome back to the Jan Arden show and podcast here with Sarah and Adam. Um,

I don't know about you guys, but I grew up in a very rural community. It's very hard to say rural. I have trouble with that word every time. Rural. Rural. Rural. It is not an attractive word. No. Like right away, you just feel kind of dumb. Rural. So true. So anyways, I was living in the country. There you go. And we hitchhiked a lot.

Really? Yeah. And I'm talking 12, 13 years old, certainly as 15, 16, 17 year olds, we hitchhiked. We thumbed. It was thumbing. Oh, are you thumbing? You just like stick out your arm and have the thumb out. You thumb out. Are you thumbing it? Yeah, I'm thumbing it. Like thumbing it. And I was never, ever picked up by a stranger. I mean, me and my pals, it was always people that we knew.

And that, I guess, is how much the world has changed that you do. My parents certainly harken back. Well, in our day, but I find myself doing that now. When we were younger, we could hitchhike and never worry about being picked up by somebody nefarious. We knew everybody. Where are you? Where are you three going? Does your mother know you're hitchhiking? I mean, there was always that modicum of concern, but they would get it. They'd go out of their way to get us to where they're going.

But have you hitchhiked? Never. Never once. Never. City folk. Not once. Never. Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? Never. Not even 20 years ago? Not once. No. No. This is like a new concept for me. I mean, I still see in Alberta, especially in the summer, dozens of hitchhikers. On the TransCanada...

And from varying degrees of guys walking with literally a small paper bag with, I would assume, a Mickey in it or people with full camping regalia strapped to their back. My mom and I, not so many years ago, probably 15 years ago before my mom was really in Alzheimer's land, I think she was just beginning Alzheimer's.

to get forgetful. Or maybe even she, I think she was quite clear then 15 years ago. She's, she's been gone three years now. Anyway. Oh my God. That was a long wind up to this. We were coming back from visiting my brother in jail as you do. And there was a girl on the side of the road, standing there with her thumb out. I went by her and my mom said, you can't leave her there, Jan. I, that poor girl. So I, I stopped and I pulled back cause I thought,

I don't want to pick somebody up with my mom in the car, but she is the one that recommended it. So we pulled back and it was this 20 some year old girl, late twenties. Her car was in the ditch. She's, she said my transmission, you know, blew up or whatever. And she goes, thank you. Thank you for stopping. I'm, I'm trying to get to my sisters. It was for Thanksgiving, which is, this is an appropriate conversation. And, um, she said, I, can I just grab my stuff? And I'm like, okay. Um,

And so she came, it was sitting in the dish and it was a big canvas bag. And it was filled with a large rolled up thing of knives. Oh God. She goes, before you let me in, I just want you to know that I'm a butcher by trade.

And I have all my knives with me and I need them, you know, because I'm going to my sister's and my mom says, that's fine. You know, I'm like thinking this could be possibly the worst decision I've ever made in my life. And I'm thinking, could my mother and I overtake this girl? Yeah.

If need be, would we be able to? And her bag of knives. So I just thought it was funny, but she was very forthright. I do have a bag of knives rolled up in here because you could hear them clanking. Very large vat of soup in a Tupperware container, huge Tupperware container. I thought, well, I don't, I've never heard of a murderer that carries Tupperware containers filled with soup. So I felt pretty okay there. Anyway, we got her in the car.

I was not going to Banff. I was going south the opposite direction. Banff was west. I was, however, going to be crossing over the Trans-Canada Highway and right at the junction of the 22 and the 1A, there was a giant petrol can. And I thought, she can get a ride from there. At least she'll be going in the right direction.

And, you know, we were chatting a little bit. We were only a half an hour away from that point. So she was telling me about her sister and Banff and what she did. She had no idea who I was. That was my next question was like, does she know she's riding with the Jan Arden? She had no idea. And I had, you know, a ball cap on. And mom and I probably look more like murderers than she did. Right.

We were the ones that should have been a concern. So I told her, I said, listen, I'm going to get you to the Petrocan and it's a trucker thing and really Banff is 55 minutes away from there. You should be fine. And my mom looked over at me.

And her little bony hand came over and tapped me. And she's just like, just drive her. And I'm just like, the woman is 18 inches from my head. She's going to hear you talk. Not like the movies where we're suddenly having a sidebar conversation where someone's sitting in the back seat, right? Right. They're not privy to your conversation. She can hear you going, can you just take her? So I got up there. I pulled over. She's thanking me.

you know, Oh, thanks a lot. She's like gathering her stuff and she's got her giant Tupperware wrapped in her arms like a child. And I'm like, Oh, I'm going to take you. I'll just take you. And my mother, mom says out loud, well, thank God. I'm like, Jesus, can someone be on my team here? So anyway, we took the young woman out to Banff and, uh,

There was no SatNav in those days. Like, I don't recall there being any kind of, you know, that kind of an app on the phone. I don't even... I think I had a BlackBerry in those days. I don't even think I had an iPhone. iPhone wasn't even... Was it born yet? What year was this? I'm going to say 2002. No iPhone yet. No BlackBerry. Yeah. So...

She got us there. We were, I don't know, some miracle. We found her, her sister. They were all waiting for her and they were so relieved to see her with all her stuff. And her sister knew who I was. There we go. When I dropped her off, you know, I'm kind of getting out and mom was like, I wouldn't mind an ice cream. We're here anyway.

So we kind of made a whole thing of it. But the juxtaposition of coming from the prison, visiting my brother to picking up a woman with a satchel full of knives and driving to Banff. And then her sister was just the look on her face when I stepped out of the car. I'm like, hi, I'm glad we could get her here. And

Hope the soup's good. Well, why don't you guys stay for dinner? And my mom's like, she was like there for it. Staying for dinner. We are going to go. So I guess the lesson on all of this is, you know, sometimes it's okay to trust people.

I think we're the ones that needed to be trusted. You know, she was in peril. Her car was left in the ditch. I would have loved to have known the end of the story. Like if she got her car back, what happened? You know, if they still talk about that. Do you remember when Jan and her mom picked you up hitchhiking outside of Olds?

And, but it's a fond memory for sure. When I think about my mom and how intrepid she was, you'd think it would be the opposite. You'd think it would be, you know, not my mom cajoling me to pick somebody up or drive them. The other way around. But it was such a, it's such a,

It's such a cool story about who my mom was and how she was and why I'm the way I am. You're so nice, Jen. You're so nice. I can be an a-hole, Adam, when I... And I've apologized many times in my life to people that I have not been fair to. And I'm learning as I go. I still... I have my days where I'm just like, I know I've been terrible and...

and not thinking and, and unkind. And, and you, we work on that as people. We just, we keep working on that. I wouldn't recommend hitchhiking. And the Jan show is telling everyone out there, don't hitchhike and don't pick up hitchhikers because, you know, back in my day, it was different and maybe it was different, but I guess you have to use your judgment, um,

Anyhow, I'm here with two people that don't really do Christmas planning because they're not Christian people. And I'm also here with people that have never picked up or hitchhiked. So I'm really glad you enjoyed that segment. That was amazing. You're listening to The Jan Arden Show. We'll be right back with Sarah Burke and Adam Karsh. Don't go away. Welcome back to The Jan Arden Podcast. This show, as always, goes by so quickly.

Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh joined me. And what I want to know is how fall and winter affects your moods. I have a friend of mine who does one of those lights. And she sits in front of a light, like starting right about now. The days are getting a lot shorter. When I landed here yesterday, I was like, holy crap, it's dark. It's 741. It was overcast, but it was definitely quite dark.

And you sort of lay in bed in the morning waiting for the sun to wake you up. And that ain't going to happen anymore. You have to get up in the dark. I'm not too affected by that stuff. Are you, Sarah? I'm pretty good. And one thing I actually love about this time of the year is because I'm right on the lake in Toronto on the West End, I have a beautiful view of the sun coming up over the lake this time of the year. So that's my favorite, to be honest. Yeah.

Do you get moody? Do you get sad? I just get cold. I just get cold, I think. One of the lucky ones because that seasonal kind of brain stuff is really, it's very common with people to be affected by anxiety.

the absence of more light. Adam, do you get more kind of blue in the wintertime? Yeah, a little bit, I guess. I'm a summer person. I'm a warm person. I don't like the cold. I'm a winter person. I like the summer. I love the winter. Are you a skier and a snowboarder or any of these things, Jan? Nothing, nothing like that. You know, I think they should have ski hills open for people like me at a reduced rate that just want to go up the rides.

Yeah. I just want to go up the lift with my camera, but I want to wing around the top and go back down. Got it. I want to get off with my skis. And have your hot cocoa in a little mug. Oh my gosh. I just, I love that. You're just bundled up. You've got your pocket warmers on. You've got those, God, they got patches that stick on your back now. These giant heating patches. I don't know what the long-term effects of those are. Right. Yeah. I really do like it. There's nothing like a fire.

snow falling. We have some pretty idyllic winters in Canada, I would say, right across the board from coast to coast. It might be a little wetter in the west coast, maybe not quite as much snow, although I have been on Vancouver Island with a foot of snow. Nobody can drive.

Everybody's in the ditch. Everybody's sliding down hills. Everybody is, the snow shovels are sold out at Canadian Tire because, well, we've never needed a shovel here before. I've lived here 35 years and we've never, we have snow, but it melts right away. Well, welcome. Welcome to snow.

Yeah, I think here in Toronto, people are into the snow tire thing. Like you said that you were at the dealership this week. I think that's become more of a thing in Toronto now. But it's taken a while because, you know, the winters have become more extreme, I would say. So the ice, right? The ice storms have been the biggest problem with like power and that kind of stuff. And not to mention what's been going on with our friends on the East Coast. At least it's not winter yet over there.

Well, you'd think it was with everything they've gone through, hurricane season. We don't deal with that in Alberta or Baltimore.

I don't even think British Columbia, I was thinking, oh, you got to be on an ocean. But it's that Gulf Coast. It's that whole thing that happens in the Caribbean. And it is quite something to behold, those systems that build. I love all the graphics that they have where you can see the trajectory. And, you know, you're looking at Prince Edward Island and then there's the little numbers that are going. It's going to be 110 mile an hour winds because it's like 170 km's.

But that was very hard to watch. And I have lots of friends out there. There's some people still, it's Saturday today, that have no power on PEI. And I, anyway, it's, to even prep for that, it's got to be so harrowing. Like boarding up your stuff, tying your dog down. You know, I would worry if you had animals. It's got to be so difficult. I know there's quite a bit of dairy on PEI.

And just worrying about your animals. Man, if you live on the ocean, there's a lot of stuff that's going to be going on.

Yeah, you get like, you know, many perks and advantages, but then there's these few moments where it can be kind of scary. I wanted to vacation to PEI this summer in the place that I love the most, that Stanley Bridge area, Cavendish. It got wrecked this week, but you wanted to talk about vacations, you were saying, Jan. Well, I just, yeah, it's, I love planning like winter vacations. I think it's really important. And I'm not talking about, you know, going to

Hawaii or, you know, can be very expensive. And Lord knows these are really tight, difficult times. But I was just reading an article about the staycation is they say how important it is during the winter to have something to look forward to. And a lot of places, because it's not seasonal for them, they're not by a ski hill. So they're not cap. They're not, you know, getting in on that part of the action, but they offer like weekend getaways and,

Some of them include the breakfast and everything, two nights for under $200. You look online, there's a lot of stuff going on. But yeah, this woman was writing this op-ed piece just about how important it was to even have something in six weeks, you and I and the kids, because these people have like whatever, are going to go. And she's like, there's literally things that you can do for under $500.

And I was like, is that possible? But then you do, you look at the stats. It's not seasonal. It's not their high time. And people like Expedia, um,

So many of those apps that are looking for the greatest deals for hotels, I would highly recommend it. Going on there and looking for something to get away even for a weekend. I think it's important to have something to look forward to. And, yeah, you have to come home again. But I think you have less of a ways to go. It's almost like you cut the winter in half. And I love doing stuff like that. I love just even, you know, meeting friends for a night somewhere. Yeah.

And going out and getting out of your house and packing up the car. But yeah, in a perfect world, who wouldn't want to go to Mexico for two weeks? But that's not always something that we do. Yeah, and I've been thinking a little more about the...

you know, your footprint and climate change and all that stuff too. But I was thinking about this even last winter. We ended up canceling because of COVID, but my boyfriend and I were supposed to go to New York just for New Year's for two nights because we had a wedding. Perfect. In Central Park of all places. We didn't make it and he was very upset. He's like, I had this whole plan to tell you I loved you in front of the giant tree and all these things. And I was like, you know, I'm Jewish, right? But...

Anyway, we might look at like a New York, which is just a little jaunt, right? Well, for you guys, that's the funny part. Yeah, New York is what? A 45-minute plane trip from here? Or a pretty easy drive, is it not? I've driven. Yeah, you got like eight hours? Yeah, you can do it in under 10. That's pretty good. Ours is Vancouver or ours is Seattle. I'm from Alberta. You know, people in...

that live in BC and Vancouver, they're literally 40 minutes from the border. So they can do Seattle, Portland, they can go down that Oregon coast. But if you can, if you can figure out, you know, a day away or, or trying to cut up your winter, that's going to be really great. And for those of you that do have that mood, um,

thing going on in the winter, make sure you take your vitamin D. Like we're not doctors here on the Jan show. But you know, vitamin D has been, you know, tried and true proven science. I double up on my vitamin D during the winter. And whenever the sun's out, I try and get my head out there.

Um, and just be standing in it or go for a walk and bundling it up. I love a winter walk. I love putting on like 19 jackets, boots. I stopped the dog in my coat. I got to figure out what he's going to like or not like going forward. But, um, anyway, I, I just, I'm thinking about you guys get your light books out. That's what they're called. Light books, um,

And enjoy. It's going to be great. We're going to talk about wintry stuff. We've got so much Christmas stuff to talk about. We're really going to nail Halloween next week. I think we've really got to discuss how to go forward on Halloween. And we're going to give you helpful tips. No, we're not. Well, Sarah will. Maybe Adam will. I'll try. I'm the person laying on the floor with the lights off. Anyway, you've been listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. Look after yourselves and we'll see you soon.

And let's keep thinking about those brave women in Iran and all over the world who face oppression and who face incredible religious, you know, misogyny. And women are going to change this damn world. They really are. I believe it. See you next time. Toodle-oo-doo. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.