Snow Day Part 2, Monday!

Today looks to be a bit chilly. We shall see. I just hope we have sunshine. It makes all the difference.

I am terribly happy I chose to do the snow half way through the storm. The snow just kept falling on the weekend! That was yesterday's post for Part 1. The clouds cleared away, and the sun shone Monday. 

My second job was the sidewalk. I didn't do the sidewalk on Sunday, despite doing the driveway. It's  crucial for getting out in an emergency, not so the sidewalk. I knew, too, that the wind was going to blow, and move the light, fluffy snow flakes to end up on the driveway. 

This was Monday morning. There is a sidewalk there. Honest! We had gusty wind all night.

Storm Feb. 16

🌤Behold, the glorious sunshine!

How much snow did we get? Mebbe 30 cm. It's really hard to tell, what with blowing snow. A lot of this was blown off the roof, but it still had to be moved. I couldn't get to the bird feeder. That is a metre/yard stick behind the shovel.

There was about 30cm in the middle of the sidewalk. I took my time. I had to. The birds were winging, and singing. They were happy I cleaned off the feeders! The oak leaves are blowing everywhere. Someone in my house has to sweep out the garage.

That done, I had to start work on the driveway for the second day in a row. This is what the driveway looked like as I made it to the highway. It was daunting.

This is heavy snow, knee-deep. It took a lot of work. I had to take little bites out of it over several passes.

This is a respectable pile of snow. It's almost too high to blow it over the pile off the drive. Almost. Aside from the wind flinging it in my face, I made progress.

The highway wasn't too bad, but I'm going to have to wash my coat. When traffic roars by, it splashes the slush. Most drivers are kind and pull away from me at the side of the road. This wasn't true for the propane tanker. It flew by at top speed, and splashed me. Fortunately, I'd turned my back as I know what happens. 

The house looks cosy, nestled in the snow. We had a propane delivery last week. They'd never get through the snow to get to the tanks on the far side of the house today. It's about 60 cm on the front lawn.

I'm nearly done. Progress was being made until...

Disaster struck. I ran out of gas. Just metres away from the garage the motor sort of flickered and I put it in top gear to hurry. I had to resort to two extension cords to restart it after I put gas back in. 

Thanks to another face warmer from Jean in New Zealand, I lived to tell the tale. It snowed all day, into the night. My hat belonged to my late father. It was a gift from BJ.  It says Bee Jay's Grill Breakfast Club! That's where mom and dad used to get their take out meals in Bala.  

This used to be BJ's in Bala, Muskoka! Once dad had his licence taken away due to his brain tumour and subsequent dementia, they would phone in their fish and chips order. Mom would drive in. BJ would bring them their meal to the car window and they would take it home to eat.

This was BJ's place! He was a sweet man. His older parents helped him at the grill, as he was mentally challenged. Eventually it was sold. Ah, good times!

Cinnamon was mushy! After I'd shovelled out, and had a hot shower, I got into jammies and got my blanket.

 

I suspect we may have two Labbits! I'm seeing our bunny about, more on that later.

 

Snow day Sunday!

That was a storm. It lasted from Saturday afternoon to late Sunday night. I woke Sunday to a lot of snow on the back deck. I wanted to shovel it to get to the 'rain' gauge. This was 7 a.m., vs 10:30. 

By the afternoon my work was for nought!

I had to do the driveway, even during the storm, as it gets so deep at the highway, and slushy from the heat of the tire friction, that it is slushy. My snow bank!

Can you see the snow blown off of the roof? Drifting snow is a problem.

When I was done, I was somewhat snowy. Many thanks to Jean in New Zealand, I was wearing one of her warm toasty mufflers. I was quite relieved to grab another shower and lunch.

 

🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬 🌬

🛬There was a horrible crash at Toronto's Pearson airport Monday. A jet from Minnesota flipped over after landing. People were hurt, but of those 21 people were taken to hospital, all survived. One thing one has to remember when you are travelling south you need to have warm clothes on you in an evacuation. CBC has posted an article with photos.

We have lots of people who will investigate it and determine what happened and prevent it in the future. I wrote about the NTSB investigation in the U.S. of a plane/helicopter crash. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will investigate, following protocols, and will invite the NTSB and/or the decimated FAA from south of the border. The plane is laying upside down on the tarmac, covered in snow and burned. Two runways are still closed.

Things to remember, when you are given a minute to evacuate and your plane is on fire, don't to  an Instagram post to show us you using the emergency exit. Just sayin'.

Lots of crews responded

This is an interesting read from the Weather Network, about the winds at the time.

Winds may have been a factor...

Just in case you are worried, you should be. I'll just leave this here!

We are under attack!

 I went to bed to read Friday night. Then I heard a helicopter after 9 pm. Poking my head out back in the dark, it was a helicopter, for sure. It looks like some poor soul was taken from Perth Hospital to somewhere! Mystery solved. No attack...

Historical Notes

I live with someone who remembers the World History. Since High School (1960s) he was a keener on such. Joe will pop out some gems I either did not know or have forgotten. Of course, he'll read a 600-page book which examines two months in one particular war or another. He'll give me the Coles Notes version.

This is what Joe talked about most recently...

Munich Agreement 🇩🇪

In 1938, Neville Chamberlain gave up part of Czechoslovakia, without Czech input, to appease Hitler in the Munich Agreement. Hitler annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March. Then he began by invading Poland in September, which began World War II.

With #47 vowing to end the war on Ukraine, and Vance overseas demanding Ukraine sign off on lost territory, history is trying to repeat itself. It's about land, rare earth minerals, and power.

 Budapest Memorandum 🇭🇺 (1994 Wiki):

The world struck an agreement between the parties involved^[3] :

The memoranda... prohibited Russia, the U.S. and the UK from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations." As a result of other agreements and the memorandum, between 1993 and 1996, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons.^[4][5]

This is the situation, with U.S. working in cahoots with Russia to get Ukraine to give up for a peace deal. The U.S. is doing this behind Ukraine's back, without their input. 

 

You can understand how upset Canada is, with threats of annexation and being the 51st state. History only repeats itself. 

The phrase "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" is attributed to George Santayana, who wrote it in 1905. 

Then, there is Puerto Rico! It's not a state, not treated equally, and is an 'unincorporated territory' of the U.S. The felon from Mar-A-Lago is not empathetic towards weaker people who need a hand up. The poor, refugees, disabled, unhoused, those needing healthcare, LGBTQ+, elderly, are on their own.

The U.S. government has a long history of invasions: most recently Vietnam, Afghanistan, and they annexed Mexico back in the day. I had no idea. 

A good read:

This is what is going on over at Twitter X: so much for freedom of speech! He and his goons in short pants have somehow gotten access to personnel files, the treasury, USAID, CDC. 

Even the snow is attacking us! I'm going to have to go out and shovel some snow. Last measurement gave us 25 cm.  I did the driveway Sunday and konked out. The sidewalk will take some time as it snowed from Saturday until Sunday night. After this the winds began to create piles of drifting snow. 

Rant over, time for coffee. 

Another snow day!

 Our Vancouver grandkids (Bryony and Cluny) are having fun in the snow. It appears they went to another race event last week! 

I've been out playing in the snow, as well. Critter action on the trailcams has been limited. The snow is knee-deep, and critters are better hunkering down and saving their energy. This includes Nutmeg!

 

Meantime, Cinnamon was fishing. I cleaned the tank yesterday, scrubbed out the pump and filter. Then I added a piece of plexiglass from my spare tank. 

Joe bravely went out for groceries with the impending storm. He mentioned that the Canadian flag was broken. You can see the depth of snowcover. I knew snowshoes would be mandatory.

Spring is coming, I keep telling myself. I'm ready for a change from winter.

It's not so easy in towns and cities, as there isn't anywhere to throw it on a small property. 

I tried going down the hill to the meadow, but even with the snowshoes I was too tired.

The forest was quiet. I've moved a trailcam, this is my non-mental note. You can see it on the left, below.

This is hard work! 

Meantime, it began to snow again. Just a light one in the day, then it picked up. Honestly, I'd rather have snow than rain or freezing rain. I just saw the snowplow go by, lights flashing in the dark. I mentally thank them!

I visited Track My Plow. Lots of humans out there working on our roads. Thank goodness for our tax dollars at work. They deserve a living wage.

 

This is what I can see right now. It is supposed to snow all day, too. 

Two cats are out on the front deck. You can see Cinnamon looking around. We shall see how long they last. It's -10℃ and there is blowing snow, with horizontal gusts. The bird feeders show the depth. 

I cleared a path on the back deck to measure. It's 7 a.m., and we've 17 cm that has fallen.

I don't know if I should start after coffee and brekkie, or just hunker down until it stops falling. The wind blows it right across the driveway. We'll see you on the other side.