Seek Shelter

Well happy birthday to me....

no driving according to environment canada....
Worst storm of the season is expected tonight.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

--------

The Messy Melt continues...

Perhaps I am impatient, but it does seem this snow-turned-to-sludge has outworn it's welcome.
The huge burms roadside, created by the snowploughs, have ensured a lengthy melt-time.
The virginal white beauty of last week is now sullied and sodden.

Even by the water, at the very best million dollar addresses, the driveways are treacherous still.
Just because your home is valuable, does not mean you value your guests and staff enough to have a safe entry point. In fact, it seems more likely that you do not as you, yourself, most likely are sitting comfortably in your warm chair awaiting your service.

Another amazing thing I have observed is the reluctance of large dog owners to dispose of their pet's droppings. Okay, just to be clear, it is not the pet owners who are large, but the dogs.
Little dogs, like little people, get away with alot more. (Spoken like a true bigger person, no?)


In a place where a clothesline is not allowed to hang in a private back yard, where each and every new business is vetted through the town council, where the new homes built along sight lines in the main shopping district must conform to the English faux country resort theme, there are no bylaw enforcement officers about. Amazing.

The growth here is frightening still. Although I commented above about million dollar addresses, truthfully, that's not saying much these days. A regular old house in the town centre is over 300 thousand now. A nice regular house is about 500 and a newer home in the downtown area is over 600k. If you want waterfront that's 800 and up. For a million dollars you might still just have a 66 foot frontage. 66 by 122. One home I attend on the water has 7 acres. The property next door to it sold last year for 5.5 million. *whew*

Tomorrow I would like to open my eyes to a day without snow. Perhaps even a little sunshine is in order. If not, well, there is always the next tomorrow.

-------------- *

"The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand". Freeman Dyson

Slushing through the melt....

December is here!

Lights and magic and goodwill t'ward all mankind from the Divine.

The really big snow has turned into the really big melt. What a mess!

Driving down the hill on the highway, I remembered why they call it "snow-blindness" albeit too late, alas, too late. There is a white dot imprinted on my irises.

As long as the sun melts the snow in the critical areas of the highway on the return drive I will be fine. On all-seasons you take what mercies the road hands you. I would rather drive uphill than down.

There have been so many terrible accidents this week, it is a very good thing to be taking extra time to consider all aspects of the drive.

Cookin' & Fear (food factor)

Where to start?

The icy roads everywhere?
The drivers crowding my back bumper to endanger all our lives when next they went whizzing past shooting ice and sleet onto my window?
The way I managed to be both late and at the wrong address more than once?

About the roads: They are not just bad they are awful. The highways are passable and the main intersections are fine (all 6 of them) but venture off and you are on your own. No one in their right mind is attempting the drive.
Except HealthCare providers.

Paradise is known for a temperate climate. There is very little in the way of snow removal equipment about in the City yards, and even less manpower to operate it.
One perk of serving the wealthier-than-thou is the private road management.
A few millionaire contractors scattered hither and yon the tony areas I service keep the driveways clear. Oh Thank God for small mercies.

A very good samaritan pushed me out of a scrape today when I was caught on a hill and couldn't quite get going. Still wonderful people around in these terrible days.

Now I am cooking a stuffed flank of pork to have with my mashed potatoes and cabbage.

A little fear was good for me.

--- *

C-c-c-c-c-cold out there

Last evening I DID go out and I DID stay out until the end of the event and I DID drive home in the slick startings of a good snowfall. Then I promptly went to bed where sleep eluded me due to,oh, 7 cups of coffee and about 13 desserts, and two extra strength tums.

Not thinking to check my messages, nor even worried about it, I set my alarm and got up fashionably late. This was due to a later than usual start time. Plotting where I would enjoy my morning coffee, I opened the door to winter. How could snow have eluded my mind? It was thick and heavy and UNploughed. The morning coffee routine went into the waste basket.

Whether the city workers were themselves snowed in, or some other cosmic misalignment came into play, the roads were bloody awful. As I drove past the same giant firs and cedars that last week were bending dangerously in the wind, it occurred to me that the weight of heavy snow might be more dangerous.

Parking two blocks away from my destination due to unploughed roads me and my gumboots hiked in. My clientelle is heavy and two workers are required. No surprise, worker 2 did not show up.

I expected the telephone to ring all day but it did not.
That's because it had rang last night and this morning and I had not heard it nor the messages exholling me to call in for changes to my schedule.

--- oops

Well - - - *MY* clients got service.
--- *

I am so very grateful to be home in one piece.
The driving was not without a bit of trepidation, and I did actually do two half doughnuts on the main drag when someone cut in front of me and my brakes were forced into useage. Not fun.

-----

When driving on ice or snow, allow plenty of room to stop and start. ...

Cold White Wet Weekend

Snowing.

Not even one tenth as excited as the people under 15 are about it I sit in my bedroom heat cranked up and heavy wool vest on. Winter is not only cold but now it's slippery as well.

I have another fundraiser tonight to attend but truthfully, it is getting less desirable by the moment. Not a night person. Not a snow person. Not a....
am I a person still? Sometimes I am not entirely sure.

Last night I dreamed I was sitting flicking through Tevildo's wedding album.
Now, where did THAT come from?

The good part about tonight is that a large part of the entertainment is desserts of all sorts. Yummy Yummy. So is my distaste for evenings greater than my love for chocolate?

We shall see.

-- *

Forget love -- I'd rather fall in chocolate!!!

Patterns

Since I abandoned my other blog and deleted the *big* one, this is all that remains of digital rantorama avec moi. Never bothering to check beyond content, I bah-logged and blah-ogged to my hearts content. ♥ ♥

Now things are a little different as I explore the structure of different webpages to see how things are done. It is really interesting to explore the HTML and yes I know its so 1996 but remember I lost ten years of my life so I am relatively current.

This last while, in November's dark dreary days, I am exploring the way people collapse their archiving. No doubt you can do this with the click of the right button but searching through the code is more fun.

Binary girl.
oh who am I fooling. I remain analogue girl in digital world.
But I excel at spotting patterns. It is one of those weird traits I have in spades.

Some of my best skills are really Chinese curses.
Interesting but..... difficult to live with.