And So It Begins......

    Although we had snow earlier this month, it didn't stick around. However, yesterday's snow may be here to stay. In other words it may last until March or April with more loads added along the way! At least I can put away my lawn mower for the next 3 or 4 months.

   See my trusty snow shovel! I do have a small snowblower but only use it for major snow falls.

  The city sends round a little snowplow that clears the sidewalk but the driveways are left to the home owners. It took me just under an hour to get my car cleaned off and the driveway cleared and that was my exercise for the day. I did it early to take advantage of the sun to dry off the paved areas. It was rather chilly (-10C) and I worked until my hands were icicles then went in to warm up before going back out to finish the job.

   There wasn't enough snow for the big snowplows to come around to clear the street which meant no windrow across the end of my driveway - a bonus, for sure as it tends to turn to ice and weigh a ton!

Finally Socializing

    Thought I'd better check in - it's been a while!

   Thursday was the Probus Club Christmas lunch and although the meal was a bit disappointing and expensive, it was lovely to see so many familiar faces. I won't complain about my other social group's lunches ever again (when and if we get to return to them) as they are far superior and quite a bit less in price. We were rather a small group of about 30 (usually over 100) as many were nervous about mixing. However, I had a lovely chat with the ladies at my table and left much cheered. We are heading into increased safety measures starting on Monday so we just sneaked in ahead of restrictions in numbers.

   Got my booster shot yesterday without too much trouble and no side effects except I had a rather long nap this afternoon - it may not be related but that's my excuse for being lazy!

   Snow today and quite a lot of it so I didn't go anywhere. It's still coming down but I shoveled a bit (just so it's less to do tomorrow). I have started making lists of things to do between now and the 25th., mostly involving sprucing up the house for visitors, even though it's just family. I even got out a few Christmas decorations although the grands are going to decorate my tree when they come over for lunch.

   My favourite Christmas song from the movie "Love Actually". Hope you like it.

Hold Onto Your Hats!

   Very strong winds here today - just praying my roof stays on as I have already had to have parts of it replaced this year. I can hear the wind buffeting stuff outside and it's set to continue overnight.

   While I was out running errands today I had to be careful when getting out of the car as the wind would grab the door out of my hands, that's how strong it was. Tomorrow will be interesting to see what has been blown around the neighborhood. Fingers crossed there is no serious damage but there have been tornados down south in the States, part of the same weather system.

This and That

    At a loose end this afternoon so decided to tidy out the closet in my office. That turned out to be a bigger job than I could possibly have imagined and, after filling three garbage bags, I abandoned it for another day. Who knew I had accumulated so much of what can only be described as rubbish? I tend to shove things in and close the door, always a mistake!

The mess in my office - and that's just half of what was in the closet!

    I continue to investigate vegetarian options and this week I found a reduced package of veggie burgers. I have used two so far - the first I ate as a filling for a wrap but even with a healthy dollop of brown sauce and some salsa, it was a bit dry. Next day I crumbled another and added it to spaghetti sauce - that was much better and made two satisfying meals with the addition of more vegetables. I probably won't buy it again as, even with the reduced price, it was more expensive than ground meat. I guess you get what you pay for!

It did have quite a nice spicy taste and the texture was "OK".

 something I have found disagreeable with other products.