Snow Girl and Concluding Bulletin

A NEW LEARNING
She stands proudly in our back yard. “She”, I said because this is not a snow man. She is a snow girl. She is a feminist statement if ever there was one, with a flowing skirt, and dried up hydrangea hair and road hockey ball nose. She was built over Christmas by our family. I think the feminine influence was compelling during the construction. Only then? Who am I kidding?

Snow still covers Canada like a comforter. This Christmas we have been the true north, with a White Christmas from coast to coast. The snow was a great help this year. Our children’s families came for 11 AM Christmas brunch and stayed for the day with a great dinner, compliments of Christine. What are you going to do for ten hours with five grandchildren all under eight years of age? Well I have a backyard of snow unlike any other season in our eighteen year history at this home. Son in law Tim came one evening before Christmas to carve a snow cave out of the eight foot mountain of snow from my driveway. It accommodated four adults and five children. So on Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day children and moms and dads had a blast in the backyard, burning calories and energy.

On occasions like this Christine and I are glad for this large home. The rest of the year it represents a lot of square feet to clean.

Time was that I tried ploughing my car through any amounts of snow. Now I don’t even want to venture out at all. Maybe that is an age response too. More likely it is because I was among the thousands who had good intentions to purchase snow tires but didn’t do it. The CRV has the height to get around but it needs a grip that all season radials don't provide. My MX5 won’t come out of the garage for some time. She has the clearance of a salamander.

It's going to snow all this week and next as well The Weather Channel tells me. How much load bearing capacity does a cedar shake roof have? Groan! It's already up to my yin yang.

Now I have good intentions to purchase a couple of kayaks but I likely won't do that either. I hate to think of the flooding that will occur when the rains begin soon and the temperatures rise.

(The Cedar Shake link takes you to a Bob Vila video clip.)

Bulletin: I wrote only days ago, Dec 24, of our Canadian grief at the death of three more soldiers in Afghanistan. Today we sorrow for three more brave men who died since Friday. We mourn for Warrant Officer Gaetan Joseph Roberge and Sgt. Gregory John Kruse and Pte. Michael Freeman.