We had our first snow of the season this week! It was terribly exciting (for me). I love snow. I love everything about it: the fact that no two snowflakes are the same, how slowly the flakes waft to the ground, watching how it slowly covers the ground – first, wetting the grass, then a soft, icy layer and then how it slowly builds in thickness. Very few people go out in it while it is falling, and that first crunch under your feet just enthralls me.
We only got 2 ½”, but it still felt like our first real snowfall. We usually have had a lot more snow by this time of year, but I think winter only really started a week ago! Then, there’s the rush of kids to the slopes! Any slope will do! Our local park has a great small slope for kids to slide their plastic sleds down and there are snow angels dotted around the area too.
It was the first time I had to sweep and scrape ice and snow off my car. It took quite a while, but I layered up and wore gloves. My car started first time (YES!) and I put all the heaters on to help defrost it while I scraped. Once the car was cleared, Greg brought the snow shovel and salt upstairs for me and I tackled the driveway, sidewalk, and path. Luckily, it was fluffy snow so not heavy.
Greg had to go to the office and even though I asked him many times if I could take him, he declined, saying that he had his YakTrax and would be fine. I’ve learnt to stop feeling guilty when he walks to work in snow, ice, rain because he tells me that he needs the exercise and enjoys his walk. I’m certain that all the neighbour’s think I’m THE most awful wife “making my poor blind husband walk to his office”. I’m not, it’s at his request. He’s quite a sight to behold, layered up like the marshmallow character with a huge laundry backpack strapped to his back.
I love the immediate quiet after the snow has fallen. The trees are beautifully covered with icicles and the mix of white on green and brown is startling. The slight breeze causing the fluffiness to blow off, usually onto my nicely cleaned off sidewalk, and instantly freezing to ice. I must keep reminding myself that even though the paths look clear, there’s usually a great deal of undetected ice making it look like glass and as slippery as, well, ice! Seldom a winter season passes without me skating on the path by mistake.
Today we are getting a lot of rain which will wash all the snow away. Hopefully, we are not finished with the snow for the season and we’ll get a good dumping before spring. For now, today I will watch the last dredges of snow melt while sipping my hot chocolate and playing with my cats.
Month: January 2021
Inauguration Day – January 20, 2021
It’s an extraordinary feeling! It has been such a tumultuous previous four years and I can almost feel the global relief as the world finally lets out their breath that they’ve been holding onto for 4 years. Colour is returning to our faces and I have a sense of peace and calm.
I always wonder why anyone would want the job of president. Who would want that kind of power, distinction and responsibility? I know that on a global scale, it’s just far too big for me to deal with, but locally I’ve been involved in community things and that’s the scale that suits me. Sometimes even on that scale it can be very overwhelming and infuriating too.
I’ve developed a newfound admiration for VP Kamala Harris. She strikes me as a very real person, and I look forward to seeing how she handles this new position. We all know that President Joe Biden is everyone’s friend. They have their work cut out for them undoing all of Trump’s ridiculous work. Restoring the nation’s trust is going to be a 24/7 job.
I do wish people (media) would stop referring to Kamala Harris as the first of everything. Yes, we all know that and we’re all as pleased as punch about it, but let’s focus on her accomplishments and her ideas going forward and not about her race, colour, creed etc. That is not the focus of who she is.
Joe Biden’s speech was a refreshing, positive and uplifting call for peace and unity. At the end of it I just wanted to leap up and hug him and then follow him around the White House all day. The poem by Amanda Gordan was exceptionally inspiring and she oozed meaning and hope. Thinking about the inauguration, the word that springs to mind is “refreshing”. Under the previous administration everything seemed to be so abrupt and uncertain and left people hating one another. Rational people have been perpetually aghast and disgusted and its finally a thrill to see a light at the end of the tunnel, that is not an on-coming train!
Today is the beginning of restoration. It will not be easy and it’s not as if a magic wand has been waved, but it’s a start and I’m embracing it! Are you?