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Emerging from the snow bank
1. Haven't had this much snow since 2008, a year whose dates fall on the same days is this year's. (I notice things like that.) What was I doing this week in 2008? Shovelling 15 cm dumps of snow, Thursday and Saturday and next Tuesday as well.
2. Agreed the snowstorm was less blizzard and more steady downfall from morning to evening, still-- everyone but the downtown UofT campus decided to close Friday morning. UofT didn't close until 3, which was useless, since the campus was deserted all day. And all the kiddygarden kids had trudged up to kiddygarden so their parents had to go there to pick them up.
3. While I was shovelling the south side of the Baptist Church yesterday (as one does if one wants to get to the supermarket and bus stop) something I've always wanted to happen happened. I was crouched with my mighty iron chopper lifting up chunks of snow-- snow being at that state of packdown known as 'wedding cake' because one must slide the blade horizontally beneath it if one wants it to move. (Didn't know there was a technical vocab to this, did you? There isn't; it's my own invention.) Guy passes me with full shopping bag, the usual 'scuse me' 'oh sorry' exchange. Ten feet down the road he dumps bag onto stoop and comes back. 'Want me to give you a hand?" Oh yes, yes indeed, because I was near my limit by then. Guy breaks ice all the way to the corner and I shovel it up.
And then it happened again today as I was shovelling the east side of the Baptist Church. Guy alas did not break ice to the corner, just by the crosswalk where the 'God Damn The Pusher Man' snowplower had shoved a great range of Alpes Maritimes across the sidewalk. *I* shovelled to the corner, with the thanks of many of my fellow Torontonians as I was doing so. Baptists of course were inside their church singing hymns, hmpf.
4. Had a date with The Helium Baby last night, who luckily lives five minutes from my house, or ten in last night's conditions. (God Damn The Pusher Man again.) The Helium Baby is large, round, mild, and placid, with the features but not the disposition of some debauched later Roman emperor, though Licinus isn't the one I was thinking of. I wish Helium Baby lived up to his soubriquet but no: he is a lump, and last night (our first date outside daycare) was a lump who didn't want to go to sleep in his crib. So he sat on my lap in the rocking chair clutching his bankie and eventually fell asleep. Am so so glad for my lost ten pounds, because I don't think I could have gotten up from the chair at my last year's weight.
Is still nice to spend an evening with a baby again, after a good five years of nothing but preschoolers. Preschoolers are, I agree, easier on the back, the neck, and the rotator cuffs.
5. I know one must practise non-attachment, but I remain attached to certain long-term possessions. And now I've lost one: my orange shoehorn, bought in Asagaya in 1997, back in the days when I knew the Japanese word for shoehorn. I had it Thursday morning at the doctor's and do not have it now; must have fallen out of the backpack somewhere between doctor's and daycare. 'Farewell my shoehorn' doesn't have the same ring as 'Farewell my old coat', but the feeling is the same.
2. Agreed the snowstorm was less blizzard and more steady downfall from morning to evening, still-- everyone but the downtown UofT campus decided to close Friday morning. UofT didn't close until 3, which was useless, since the campus was deserted all day. And all the kiddygarden kids had trudged up to kiddygarden so their parents had to go there to pick them up.
3. While I was shovelling the south side of the Baptist Church yesterday (as one does if one wants to get to the supermarket and bus stop) something I've always wanted to happen happened. I was crouched with my mighty iron chopper lifting up chunks of snow-- snow being at that state of packdown known as 'wedding cake' because one must slide the blade horizontally beneath it if one wants it to move. (Didn't know there was a technical vocab to this, did you? There isn't; it's my own invention.) Guy passes me with full shopping bag, the usual 'scuse me' 'oh sorry' exchange. Ten feet down the road he dumps bag onto stoop and comes back. 'Want me to give you a hand?" Oh yes, yes indeed, because I was near my limit by then. Guy breaks ice all the way to the corner and I shovel it up.
And then it happened again today as I was shovelling the east side of the Baptist Church. Guy alas did not break ice to the corner, just by the crosswalk where the 'God Damn The Pusher Man' snowplower had shoved a great range of Alpes Maritimes across the sidewalk. *I* shovelled to the corner, with the thanks of many of my fellow Torontonians as I was doing so. Baptists of course were inside their church singing hymns, hmpf.
4. Had a date with The Helium Baby last night, who luckily lives five minutes from my house, or ten in last night's conditions. (God Damn The Pusher Man again.) The Helium Baby is large, round, mild, and placid, with the features but not the disposition of some debauched later Roman emperor, though Licinus isn't the one I was thinking of. I wish Helium Baby lived up to his soubriquet but no: he is a lump, and last night (our first date outside daycare) was a lump who didn't want to go to sleep in his crib. So he sat on my lap in the rocking chair clutching his bankie and eventually fell asleep. Am so so glad for my lost ten pounds, because I don't think I could have gotten up from the chair at my last year's weight.
Is still nice to spend an evening with a baby again, after a good five years of nothing but preschoolers. Preschoolers are, I agree, easier on the back, the neck, and the rotator cuffs.
5. I know one must practise non-attachment, but I remain attached to certain long-term possessions. And now I've lost one: my orange shoehorn, bought in Asagaya in 1997, back in the days when I knew the Japanese word for shoehorn. I had it Thursday morning at the doctor's and do not have it now; must have fallen out of the backpack somewhere between doctor's and daycare. 'Farewell my shoehorn' doesn't have the same ring as 'Farewell my old coat', but the feeling is the same.
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I'm glad you're surviving the dump o' snow that graced the East coast!
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Toronto wasn't as badly dumped as other Ontario locales, to say nothing of the Maritimes. Is going to rain tonight and tomorrow; I need a canoe.
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Ugh, such crazy weather! If I were closer, I'd help you shovel at least.
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Glad to hear you're safe and warm.
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Mind, I always figured there might be a Tom Sawyerish element to wanting to wield the ice chopper. *So* much fun to see the white paving stones come up: and I fancy from his enthusiasm that Mr Saturday fell into that category.