Musings on a Small Life

It's Sunday morning just before 11 AM as I start to type this and whoo boy, do we have winter! What a contrast from a week ago, when last Saturday was plus 11C and I was cleaning windows, it was so glorious out. We've been having snow and snow squalls since late yesterday and are still in the middle of it, 80 km wind gusts. The big plow came through in the middle of the night, then again around 9 AM. He'll have to come back when this all dies down. However, while we have no progress on Spring's arrival right now, I have made progress on the kitchen.  I took Friday afternoon off work to go to the showroom again, was there for almost two hours. I finally settled on the configuration of the lower cabinets, with lots of help from the planner and the other staff person who was there (office admin/manager, I assume). There's very little space to work with, but in the end, he'll be able to give me a 21" lower drawer unit (the current one is 11"), as well as a...

We woke up to this today, another late-season snowfall. (Click to enlarge the pics for best viewing.) I made my way on foot to the grocery store, with lots of stops and detours along the way to snap pics with the phone. It was breath-takingly beautiful, but all the same I hope most of it will be gone by this time next week with the forecast warmer temps. I'm so ready for Spring! As for Derry, here's how he's managing the endless winter.  :-) Take care and keep well.

We had our first major storm of the winter season yesterday, snow falling so quickly that 20 cm (8 in) of the 38 cm (15 in) we had by evening news time had come in just four hours. Blizzard warnings abounded. Even so, other areas got much more; I heard this morning that Oshawa got 55 cm of snow yesterday. That's a LOT of snow to have to clear in a large urban centre. Even here it will take the city's plows (road and sidewalk) quite some time to clean up the mess. (And frankly, they do a really poor job of it anyway, particularly the sidewalks.) I know this is eastern Canada, but it's extremely rare to have that much snow in a single day! The good thing about working from home was that there was no need to commute to work (just as well, since most buses/routes were cancelled till evening). The bad thing about working from home was that there was no snow day, we all could work anyway.  :-P I'm lucky to have a very short driveway, but whoever the property management compan...

It's up and down here, as we continue to try to settle into a new routine. Every now and again I have a sob session in my cubicle, or on the bus, or in a store; I don't have control over when that happens, and while I do try to be discreet, I frankly don't care if anyone notices. Actually, people don't really look at each other anyway. Or care, if they do. It was bitterly cold on the weekend, with a snowstorm on Sunday afternoon/evening. (Some of you in Canada might have heard about the 30+ car pileup on highway 401 in our city on Sunday afternoon, with one fatality and a few still in critical condition.) Derry spent much of the weekend doing a face-plant into the cosy blanket on the couch.  I made a batch of chili on Sunday, not vegetarian, but with added zucchini, fresh mushrooms and green onion for extra flavour. Yeah, once in a while I do cook easy stuff.  :-D Below, the view on campus on Monday morning. We got 13 cm of snow all told. I...

I'd gone to the city greenhouse yesterday, the first Sunday of their annual open house, to soak up some much needed colour and warmth. When I was heading home, I could see a military plane circling around overhead. Since we have a base here, and there's a larger one just west of us, I assumed it was a training exercise of some sort. Not an uncommon event. However, what was uncommon for me to see was two jumpers parachuting out of the plane! Even at a full 40x zoom, that was the best snapshot I could get, being so far away. I presume their landing target was somewhere on the base...not out on frozen Lake Ontario! The plane continued to circle for quite some time, but I didn't see anyone else jump. Maybe all but the last two had done so while I was enjoying the flowers! Anyway, it was an interesting sight, as I was standing in the cold, waiting for my bus! Now we're bracing for another snowstorm tomorrow, with snowfall amounts expected in th...

So tell me what the deal is with the whole show of dominance thing, because Nicki will do this all the time, and has for years. He'll be sleeping soundly in proximity to Derry, suddenly wake up, then get up and clamp down on Derry's neck, presumably in some show of dominance.  A little bit of grooming...    Often a bit of a tussle ensues, and if not, at the very least a standoff...      Then Nicki will settle down again, soon going back to sleep. Derry too! I get the dominance thing overall, but I don't understand why Nicki suddenly wakes up and does it . He can't be the only cat with this behaviour, so if anyone can shed a bit of light, let me know. Anyway, those snapshots were taken last weekend, and I haven't taken another pic of anything since then. I suspect we'll all be hunkered down inside for the next two days, as we're anticipating quite a snowstorm. Our Weather Network continues to forecast about 25 cm of snow (about...

Surely it can't be a cold virus for two solid months, keeping me this congested every. single. day. I must be allergic to winter. It was a quiet weekend at our place. I had to run up to Walmart on Saturday to return something I had bought online (they sent me the wrong size), and for the first time ever, I wussed out and took a taxi to go shopping. The windchill was minus 38C at the time and I. just. could. not. bear to stand outside waiting for a bus, even dressed in layers. I didn't even leave the house on Sunday. It was minus 35C in the morning, with the wind, and I'd had enough. I went back to bed at 8:30 AM instead of heading out. The boys had the right idea: Nicki, above, was sitting on a small stool covered with one of the Ikea faux "sheepskin" rugs. (I have two others in the house for them, one on the living room floor, one on the bedroom ottoman.) Derry, meanwhile, snuggled up on the couch. Smart cats! Today is "war...