Wild Weather

 It's blowing a hooley out there - minus 13C and winds of 40 kph - so I am huddled indoors and plan to stay here until at least tomorrow afternoon. I did go out and shovel snow for a while this afternoon (it was at least 10cm. deep at that point) but by the time I stopped tha path I had dug was already filling in again. My weather app says it feels like minus 24C so I am definitely in for the night!

High Excitement!

     Tuesday afternoon is my Bridge game. Around 12:45 we had just played one hand when the fire siren in the building went off. There were about 24 of us in the room (less than our usual 40) and we all studiously ignored it until the building manager arrived to tell us to vacate the building. No one rushed to grab their coats but gradually we did realize that there was a distinctly smoky odour in the air. Yes, the building was on fire!

    We gathered outside and a few minutes later a fire truck could be heard in the distance. Still no flames or obvious smoke which is lucky as the fire truck went to the adjacent building! Eventually it rolled up and the firefighters donned their gear and set off to investigate. Then another fire truck arrived, then another and another - all told 8 trucks arrived, plus their supervisor and a police car. A little bit of overkill in my opinion.

   Eventually it transpired that some guys working on the roof had been using a blow torch for some reason and had ignited something. However, we weren't allowed back in the building except to gather our possessions so that was the end of Bridge for this week. We will be back on January 2 providing there is no lasting damage and we will have lots of tales to tell those who weren't there today!

Digging Out

    We only got about 5 cms. of snow but this was followed by rain so it was very soggy and weighed a ton. Most of my neighbours were out shoveling before the rain started but I left it until today. Ooh, my aching back!

  This was my morning's work. I got it done later in the afternoon. You can just see my neighbour (she's 88) tidying up her driveway. She has a guy with a plough clear her driveway but it still needs a finishing touch. Most of my other neighbours used snow blowers but my little one wasn't up to the job with the snow being so wet.

Well Stocked Up

     The weather outside is frightful so, before the storm arrived, I made a quick dash up to the library to stock up on books in case we were snowed in. As I came home the freezing rain started. Then it rained for a while but has been snowing since early afternoon. A nasty mix!

This should keep me going for a while. I also hit the pharmacy post office and got the last of my Christmas cards in the mail.

   I also picked up a couple of DVDs in case the TV is rubbish. Now I have the fire on and a blanket over my knees so it's cozy inside. Photos of the results of the storm tomorrow once it has all blown over. The wind was wild today!