We interrupt The Tale of the Journey to bring you an
up-to-date post about SNOW.
We’ve had blue skies until this morning. Beautiful blue
skies and amazing sunsets. A bit of falling snow, the Christmas card sparkly-flake
kind.
The sun rises and sets beyond my kitchen window, and I’ve
been basking in sunlight like a big ol’ turtle the last couple of days,
catching up on writing time after the move froma long break due to the big move. I take breaks playing with the dogs. I can’t help but oooh and awww over glitter-like sparkles covering our deck, especially after sundown.
Today, however, we woke up to cold, gray skies and deeper
than expected snow. Most businesses and all schools cancelled and, depending
on the weather, may delay openings. According to the news, 24cm of
snow have fallen. You do the math. It’s not 24 inches.
Houston would come to a halt. Power would be out. Here,
this is nothing too special, but there is still TV news hype involved.
While the dogs and I were still asleep in bed, Phil snow-blowed
the driveway. By the time the dogs
and I got outside, falling snow had covered
it up.
I know most of my Texas friends have no urge whatsoever
to experience Real Winter and most of my northern friends are sick of it. But I
think Real Winter is very romantic and lots of fun. It’s what makes summer spectacular. I know Real Winter is hard work, but it also provides the Free Unavoidable Aerobics Program.
Here’s how FUAP works.
FUAP Warm Up/approximately 10 minutes: First me—scarf, coat, hat.Then dogs. Fasten the leash through Annie’s two
layers—sweater and coat. Carefully harness Layla who is afraid of strangers,
cars, strange noises and who can get out of anything. (She’s a furry Houdini.) Finally, put on boots, jam pant legs into boots, pull
on my gloves and grab the leashes and exit the house.
(Before leaving the house, there must be a towel by the
door for wet paws or there is additional aerobics involved.)
FUAP Intense/between 4-10 minutes: Walk the dogs til they do their business. Now that they
know the white-stuff is not going away, they put up with it. Layla has already
taken a leap head-first into a snowbank just for the fun of it. Annie has already
put her mini-schnauzer sniffing skills to work. There is definitely another dog
(or critter) who walks past our house—she will find him. However, add freezing temp or super sloppy wet stuff under
their paws and Annie and Layla get their business done in record time, like
Olympic champs. I’m not sure which will get the gold or silver medal in the
Return to the House event.
Returning from FUAP Intense can be a big wet mess. What
is still snow on paws and boots will melt and make a puddle in the front hall
which will require aerobic mopping if there is no towel waiting. Our massive collection
of towels and the boot trays I bought at Lowe’s in Houston are in our shipment
which is hopefully getting closer to St. John’s at this very minute. We need
those boot trays pronto.
FUAP Cool Down/5 minutes (still burning calories, of course): Remove dog coats and sweaters and
leashes, my gloves, hat, scarf, coat and boots. I am done unless I forgot to leave a towel by the door and there is mopping to be done.
Repeat this series at least two more times
each day, if not three.
No, Winter in St. John’s isn’t easy. I simply expect to get less done than I would in Houston where I used to jump into my
clothes, step into flip flops and run out the door (even in the winter most
of the time.)
This morning I fell down the front steps in the snow and
landed on my butt when I took the dogs out. There are two steps, I believe. They
are buried. Side note to Dear Friend who told me to count my steps when I could
see them, I failed to do this. At least it wasn’t the many steps off the back
deck! As soon as I can see them, I will count my steps out the front door.
The good news, Annie and Layla did their business in
record time this morning—vying for the gold, I’m sure. I’m none the worse for wear and most
likely already burned off the calories of the bagel and cream cheese I’ve just
eaten for breakfast.
I expect good things, and good things keep coming. Little
did we know, when we rented this amazing house, a neighbour two doors down owns a snow plow. A REAL snow plow,
perfect for REAL winter. And our driveway. Seriously, we are so blessed!
Yes, I will embrace Canadian spelling. When in Canada…
I’ll get back on track about our complicated and somewhat harrowing journey from
Houston to St. John’s another day. I pray
when we return to Texas for good, it will be colorful autumn-time and we can drive the scenic
route. With the dogs.
Do you have any winter advice you’d like to share? I’d be
grateful!
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