Merry Christmas 2015

This year, was an unusual year. It will probably go down in history as the warmest Christmas in Ontario history. I'm fine with it. I'm old and don't need snow ever again. On the other hand, we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Our activities began with the annual cookie making and gingerbread house creating. A friend came over and we made "martini" cookies. The only part of this activity that had a martini in it was my tummy...oh, and of course the shape of the cookie cutter.

This was followed by the annual gingerbread house creation. My daughter and I agreed that despite the weather, we miss the tropics, hence this property, complete with pool, palms and clothesline. Of course, no house is complete without a gingerbread family (courtesy of my daughter).

We visited the Primrose Donkey Sanctuary for the annual carolling with the donkeys. This was actually one of the cooler days of the month, but nonetheless, the donkeys sang their hearts out.

One evening, we strolled downtown to enjoy our lovely annual Christmas light display.

Afterward, we admired the store fronts, the beautiful town hall, and the gingerbread houses. The houses were fabulous but we were satisfied with ours. One particular window caught Carmen's eye.

Christmas Eve was an interesting time. We walked on the beach and hubby barbecued our lunch. Then we enjoyed the festive evening with family. No frightful weather, no delightful fire, no snow. It was fine with me.

On Christmas morning, all the eager ones were awake bright and early. They ate and opened gifts....exhausting.


Merry Christmas to all, and to all....goodnight.

Groundhog Day 2014

This morning I spent many minutes putting on  my boots. It's another one of those daunting tasks that I don't perform anymore unless absolutely necessary. It was necessary. You see, today is Groundhog Day. That means, the North American world is alert to the fact that a rodent will be predicting the upcoming weather. I decided that I wouldn't count on Wiarton Willie, Punxsutawney Phil, Winnipeg Willow or Shubenacadie Sam to decide my fate. After all, what do they know about weather in this town? 

Instead, I checked with Cobourg Calhoon. Here's his story.

After digging his way out of the snow and today's new layer of ice, Calhoon suffered a slight whisker injury. Being a consummate professional, he soldiered on.

He moved rapidly from under the shelter of a tree to a location where he could more clearly determine whether or not there was a shadow.

 

He saw none. On the other hand, he thought, "How can any northern hemisphere groundhog see his shadow at 8 a.m.?" After looking at his surroundings and wondering how he would survive in this while living outside of his burrow, he decided, to turn tail, shadow or not. The prediction therefore is still, six more weeks of winter.

The lesson learned from this story? Given the choice of staying outside in the current conditions or inside, the groundhog finds six more weeks of this...life in a dark hole to be preferable.

Weather Related Ranting & Rambling

I don't want to make light of this issue for anyone who suffers from a debilitating phobia, but I might be developing one of my own. I am definitely feeling a deeper understanding and empathy for people who have such a disorder. There are some specific phobias to which I am beginning to relate.

After being pelted with what can only be described in today's terms as a polar vortex of blizzards, white out conditions, ice storms, cryoseisms, and sub zero temperatures, I haven't left the house in days.

To realize the gravity of this situation, you have to understand that I'm not one who can normally stay in the house for more than an hour without developing a restlessness. It's not that I need to go anyplace or even that I have anything to do, I just need an outing to see or experience what's going on in the world on any given day. I need changes of scenery and find that spending an hour wandering around a store, visiting with friends at a coffee shop, or going to the gym will alleviate this problem for me.

I am currently being held captive by the weather. Travel of any kind, and this includes walking, has been treacherous and almost impossible. There are daily reports of traffic pileups on the major roads and highways near us. Besides that, it's been brutally cold. I hate cold. I'm always cold, so opportunities to become even more cold are not welcomed.

If I were to be totally honest, it's not that I couldn't go outdoors, it's that I have no desire to do so. Why would I want to? It's dull, dreary, gray. Did I mention it's cold? It's snowy and were it not for the occasional bit of lovely scenery (during the ice storm, after the whiteouts and so on), I could hibernate. Yes, I could be a bear. Bears know how to survive. They eat whatever they want, then sleep in their huge warm coats. The best part is that when they wake up, it's warm outside and they've lost up to forty percent of their body weight without any effort. I'd like to be a bear.

There's a kind of tranquility, a contentment that comes with hanging around the house. Sure there are things to do. There are always things to do. But they don't really matter. Even if you only do one or two things a day, you get more done than you would have if the weather had been better and you'd been distracted by fun activity options. On the other hand, I haven't felt motivated to do much.

As I said, I've gotten to the point where I do not want to go outside. Let me just reiterate. I don't like to be cold! I don't even want to be cold while I'm in the process of going someplace where it might be warmer.

So I've thought about how people develop phobias. For example, agoraphobia keeps people housebound. It is not a phobia in and of itself but one which develops from other factors. Perhaps it could begin in winter with frigophobia... a fear of the cold, or chionophobia... fear of snow, or maybe even cryophobia...a fear of ice and extreme cold.

Many phobias develop in childhood and how they're dealt with might make some difference in how well people cope throughout life. I had strange experiences with cold and snow wayyyy up north in McKenzie Island during my formative years. Perhaps it's taken this long to manifest itself.

So after listening to weather reports describing the upcoming week,  it's unlikely that I'm going anyplace. Let's hope that if and when it gets warmer, less snowy and less icy, that I'll be able to push myself out the door once again in an attempt to continue my normal walkabout activities.

World of Weird Weather

I am currently sitting around in my pajamas. Church is cancelled. Our front door is frozen shut. The tree limbs are dropping. There are power outages and lots of unhappy dogs. We are blanketed in ice.

My daughter came home Friday night and was unimpressed that I booked a hotel room at the airport. I refused to drive home. It turned out to be a good choice. We made it back here safely yesterday between storms.

Our power was out during the night and therefore we had a shaking dog and no cpaps. We are fortunate that hydro and heat are now restored. We had naps.

We are watching the news and seeing joggers in shorts running through Central Park in New York. Egypt had its first snow in over one hundred years. Tornadoes, snow, and ice are threatening throughout the U.S. and Canada. Streetcars in Toronto are cancelled because of iced wires. Bizarre.

As much as I'd like to venture out to take photos after our door thaws, I won't. I heard from a nurse friend that emergency was packed with people with broken bones. I don't need that. So, here are my pictures out the windows. Lovely, but treacherous.

Front door from inside

I Say, Then She Says, Then I Say...

My daughter is a brat. She has a twisted sense of humour. I'm not sure where she gets it. She's in Curacao and we have been texting and sending pictures using a free phone app. Ahhh the wonders of modern technology!

I recently sent her photo. Before I had a chance to write a caption, she returned the favour.

I sent a picture of the winter traffic on the 401. She sent a picture of the traffic outside her residence.

I told her we were at Winterlude and saw ice sculpures. She said she was at Kokomo Beach making sand castles.

 I sent her a picture of a nice place where we recently ate lunch. She sent one of where she and her friends are "forced" to eat.

I thought she'd be interested to know our temperatures. She just "knew" I'd want to see hers.

I baked cupcakes. She found a really cool mix.

Since then, I have received these photos taken from her dorm. I'm afraid the view from our house can't compete.

When I received this next picture, I made it official. I declared her the winner of the photo wars.

 

Weather or Not?

For the past two days we have been hearing warnings and forecasts of today's weather nightmare. After an extremely mild winter, it was predicted that we would receive an entire season's accumulation of snow, all today. Meteorologists threatened up to 20 cm. Fear loomed. Town maintenance workers cropped dangerous dangling tree branches. School buses were cancelled. Those in a position to do so, took the day off work. Ready or not, it would begin at midnight.

I planned ahead...something which is not in my nature to do. In case I was to be snowbound for any length of time, I would be prepared. I didn't want my coupons to expire before I could use them, so I grabbed the dog and all my February grocery vouchers. Off we went to Walmart. After picking up most items on my list, I checked out. This is most of what $17.53 got me with a savings of over $20.

Tassimo worth $9.99 was free and I made a profit with my coupon on the Finish dish detergent. I had big value coupons for all the rest of the items except for carrots and lettuce which only cost a total of $2.


My next step was to move the car into the garage and grab a large snow shovel and broom. I took out the trash and gathered up the accumulated dog deposits from the lawn. Then I dug out my hat, mittens, boots, winter coat and scarf, stowing them all in our foyer. Was I ready or what?

This morning, we woke up at the usual time, 6 a.m. It was soooooooo dark. Was the snow covering the windows? Had it piled up so high that we were buried, trapped? With trepidation, I edged toward our large living room window. It was worse than I had feared.

Alas, our 18 foot tall pine tree was barely visible above the mountains of precipitation. What to do now? Did I dare go outside? After mustering up all my courage, I ventured through the door. I trudged. I plodded. It was a challenge to lift my legs out of the huge drifts on the driveway.

I knew that sooner or later I would have to begin shovelling. I looked down the street. No neighbours were visible. I smuggly walked back into the house realizing that they must all be too frightened to do what I just did. Perhaps they weren't ready for this. Don't they watch the Weather Network? Didn't they listen to Frankie's warnings on Breakfast TV?

Alas, as I write this, my footprints are disappearing under the mounds of precipitation. The last remaining tip of our massive tree has almost disappeared. It's time to brave the elements and begin the hours of shovelling.

Lest there be any doubt, this entire blog was written facetiously. I used to check the weather by looking outside in the morning or by bravely sticking my head through the doorway to guess the temperature. I believe my accuracy rate, using no more equipment than my eyes, skin and sinuses was more accurate. What do you think?