Eight Pretty Towels

 

Did you count ↑ the eight pretty towels?

They are in the tiny closet-sized bathroom by the front door. Did you get that? Tiny bathroom with eight towels.

It gives us a lot of choice. Right? Wrong!

Because we don't use them!

We look at them but do not use them. We use the single, plain towel folded by the sink.

Yup! That is the towel that we use. The only one we use.

I am reminded that early in our married life, Sue took to keeping the phone inside the clothes closet near the entrance — on the floor, if you please.

Because  . . . 

Because the living room looked better without the phone, doncha know.

What's not to love about this woman?

A Sneezy Morning and Runny Day

My body stirred me into wakefulness just a bit before 5 o'clock. It was the bathroom thing, plus some leg pain, and a general chill because we allow the temperature to go down to 16C/61F at night. Up until recently, I had the thermostat set to 15C/59F overnight but increasing it that extra degree (or two) does make a difference. I bundled up and moved to the chair, but I pretty well knew that sleep was done for the night. I'd had 5+ hours, and while that isn't quite enough for me, I can only get back to sleep after 5 hours about once in a millennium, and since that event has already occurred, I was pretty well scuppered.

I turned up the thermostat which would take about an hour to get the house up to our standard 19C/66F. Meanwhile, I bundled up under two hoodies and a blanket, brewed my first coffee, finished and posted a blog, read blogs and then did Wordle, the Mini, Waffle and two games of Sudoku. Sudoku takes time; I play a difficult level, so most games take 15-20, with the occasional really difficult one possibly taking even longer.

All that time, and it was quite a long time, I sneezed and blew my nose. It was crazy. It wasn't a cold, but something triggered a series of significant sneezes shortly after I had settled into my chair, and that in turn set my nose to running and running. I have a sensitive spot in the left nostril; when it gets excited/agitated my nose run copiously, sometimes for many hours.

After almost three hours fiddling and fiddling in my chair with the tablet, I finally went to the computer in order to attend to my FB group in way that I couldn't manage on my tablet. I then began to compose this post. The cat sidled up beside my chair for our ritualistic feeding of the kibble although the crazy puss has a full bowl in the bedroom just across the hall. Then, Sue got up, and I whinged to her about my nose and managed to demonstrate my predicament. I am sure she greatly appreciated my blow by blow demonstration, accompanied by sound effects.

And that was the first three hours of my day. I refuse to recount the whole day, but if  we get a few more snow pics, I will append them, below.

=================

Mid-morning I went out front to check the drifting by the garage door and front door. I am happy to report that there hadn't been much drifting, but I cleared up what there was. I wandered across the street to take a picture of the fire hydrant. People are asked to help keep the hydrants accessible, and the neighbour takes the request seriously. Notice the attached arm. If the hydrant gets completely buried, that arm should still stick out. They will remove the arm in April or May and reattach it in October or November.

On the way across the road and beyond whatever windbreak the houses provided, I discovered there was a fierce wind. It was also very cold, which meant that we should forego our daily trudge. I told Sue this when she was snapping this photo on my way back.

We decided that picking up coffee and taking it to our usual spot would make a nice change. As you can see, the snowfall and subsequent plowing obscured our view. so it wasn't exactly a huge treat.

As for my runny nose, it kept up all the livelong day. There were times when I couldn't go longer than a minute without wiping and blowing. I got some relief by plugging up the left nostril with a wad of tissue. It helped somewhat by stopping the air from going past that sensitive spot, for even breathing seemed to trigger the running.

It was driving me mad, I tell you. Late afternoon, I went to the pharmacy to seek desperate relief. I was offered a nasal spray after assuring the pharmacist that the runny nose was not symptomatic of a cold as pathetic as I might look.

================

It is now the next morning (Wednesday). Once again, I was up at 5, brewed my coffee and have been snuggled into my chair while the house heats up. The nose was reasonably well behaved, but I was on tenterhooks all night. I have stuffed tissue back in as a preventative measure since this is when it all started yesterday morning. If it continues to behave itself, I will meet the boys for coffee later. I should also do the grocery shopping at some point. Maybe I should go at 8 when the store opens and get it done before coffee at 10. Or shall I wait until afternoon?

Aftermath

The Sunday storm abated before we went to bed. Sue took a photo of the back deck (left) in the dark and another on Monday morning (right). By that Sunday evening there had been quite a bit more snow after our mid-afternoon shovelling. Oddly enough, the night winds worked in our favour by blowing quite a bit off the path. More work will still be required, however.

After looking out back, Sue went to check out the front walk and took these photos when she got to the door. I find the first, through the wreath, very arty.

She did get a photo of the walkway (left, below). While the winds had helped us out back, they sure didn't work in our favour in the front, for snow had drifted back in, as it always does in that spot. Then, I took one from my window (right). It shows the snow on the roofs of the opposite houses and the depth of it on the lawn. I have never seen it that deep; even some of the lower tree branches have been covered.

Meanwhile our neighbour posted a picture of our lawn and tree from his viewpoint. Crazy, eh? How much higher can that pile go? There is not a melt in sight, I can tell you, and there is more snow in the forecast although not right away.

I looked out again and saw a neighbour from across the street helping our next door neighbour, who hadn't hired a contractor. In Canada, this is what we call friends with benefits. 

We did go for a walk in the windy cold. On our own street we walked on the road because although the sidewalk had been plowed, there were a lot of cave-ins from the adjoining properties. Once we turned the corner near the park, there were no adjacent properties to mound up the snow, so the sidewalk remained walkable (left photo). Back home, the accumulation on our yard (right) is higher than I, so it is well over than 6 feet tall. I converted these photos to b&w because the colour was really off.

Here I am at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, and all is calm although I expect we’ll have to clear the front path at a minimum, but that is for much later. For now, I sip my first coffee under much cover while I wait for the house to heat back up to a livable temperature after letting it drop to 16C/61F overnight. 

Twenty-Year Storm

If the Wednesday dumping was not enough, along came Sunday's bigger and more blizzardy snowfall.

Once I finished my annual shower on Sunday morning, I went into the bedroom to mention something or other to Sue, but I found myself talking to an empty room. She wasn't downstairs either. No, she was out back shovelling. She had already cleared this ↓ path when I finally caught up to her. 

We don't use the bbq in winter, but we have propane cannisters under there in case we have power disruptions for our camp stove so it is good to have ready access. I really should have filled the actual bbq tank before winter set in, but my good intentions only serve to set me on the broad road to the hot place.

This little path is what she had cleared by the time I got down there, shovelling away even more snow after what she had done on Wednesday.

By the time I arrived, she was off the deck and digging out in the narrow space between the deck and the fence. The furnace and dryer vents are back there, and they should be kept clear. She was tossing snow back up to the shovelled deck because there was no where else for it to go, and I got out there clearing the path once more.

Look more closely at her hat.

There is also much snow accumulation in the well by the basement window. If it were to melt and flood into the house, insurance would not cover the damage. It is quite a drop down off the deck: too much for us, so I have asked JJ to clear it once the storm ceases.

We checked out front. The driveway blower had been by once and would come again later. The big machine can't get right to the garage, so we clear that part ourselves, but our good neighbours had already done it twice and assured us that they would come back again.

They live across the street but help us out in winter without being asked.

There is also a little path beside the garage to the front door. Although kind neighbours had cleared it twice, a little more snow had drifted in. Not a ton more had accumulated, but I cleared it again while I was out.

Sue wanted a record of the depth of the snow in the yard, so I posed briefly before we headed back inside.

The storm wasn't done with us, but at least we had managed one shovelling.

As I write this, Danica has told her workplace that she couldn't make it in. It is a fair distance, so they understood, and they know that she is very conscientious. Meanwhile, Jonathan attempted to beg off work, but it was unacceptable, even though the public had been advised to stay off the roads. His job is to deliver groceries to the parking lot to vehicles that have ordered pickup, and you have to wonder how many people will actually bother pick up their orders on such a day. He still could have refused, but Monday (today for you) is a stat holiday, and he wouldn't be paid for those holiday hours if he didn't show up for work on Sunday.

===========================

It's past 4, Sunday. When I peered out the window around 3 o'clock, I saw that the contractor had cleared the driveway for the second time. I mean, I could tell that it had been cleared but it was already starting to fill in again.

I decided that I should also do a second pass. I went out back first; a lot more had fallen since mid-morning.

Back out front: you would have thought that we had never shovelled by the garage door. Too bad we didn't get a before picture.

The front walk was also really drifted in although it had been done thrice already. It really drifts in that corner.

I got to the point where instead of throwing the snow up onto the already high banks, I would walk it back to the driveway where the plow guys would eventually get it with the big blower. You can see me beginning to turn back toward the drive in the next photo. 

I am calling this a 20-year storm because that is how long we've been here, and I think it is the biggest, and as I write this at 4:30 in the afternoon, it isn't done yet.

Oh, and by the way, JJ didn't go into work, choosing to forego a few hours of holiday pay in addition to the hours not worked today, Sunday. We are not pleased with the grocery store over this treatment in such conditions when people were being advised to stay home.

It is just as well that Monday is a stat holiday since things will still not be moving well, and the schools would be shut regardless. Snow clearing efforts will proceed.

===========================

It is now Monday morning, and all is calm, the storm having ceased early last evening. When I peered out the window at 5 this morning, I could see that the contractor had made another pass — his final one for this round. We are getting our money's worth this winter. It makes up for last winter when he had life pretty easy.

Argh! Those Banking Apps

What a rigamarole! If I'd had any hair left  . . . well, you know . . . 

I have two credit cards and two banks. Oddly enough the two banks belong to the same company and even exist in the same building in out town, but they are treated separately, as if they were two different banks. I could go into the history that got them and me to this point, but that isn't relevant to the remainder of this post. 

It was a few months ago that I could no longer log into credit card A which is my main credit card. It is the one without an attached bank account although it used to be attached to account B, below. Back then, sometime last autumn, I phoned the Help Desk for assistance in logging in, and they said the solution was to delete my computer cache. I did. It worked, and I could log in — for awhile. 

Even though it worked — for awhile — it was a pain to have to find and type all of my passwords to all of all of my online sites again. Then, believe it or not, this same A credit card locked me out again. I knew what to do — delete my cache, type in my passwords — one more time! Once again, it worked for awhile — a very very short while.

I wasn't going to go through that business again if I could help it. So, I found the relevant app for my iPad. Nope. My old tablet would not support this app. However, I was able to add it to my phone, and it has worked ever since then.

I don't like or want to do banking in the small phone screen, and on a device that I carry around in public, but that is what I have had to do for months. Poor me. (Fortunately, I can now get the relevant apps on my new tablet.)

But wait there's more!

This week I could not log into into bank account B. There is no longer a credit card attached to B, but it is my main bank account. I would enter my bank number and password, and absolutely nothing would happen: no rejection, no anything, just me staring at nothingness spinning before me. The first few times, I thought the site must be down, but after multiple failures, and on the third day of this nothingness, I decided to make a new password. It worked but not completely. (Although I hadn't been able to log in, strangely enough, I could reset my password because I've have that 16-digit code memorized for decades, and they had my email and phone number for verification.)

Details are about to follow in this post that is already boring me, not to mention you, but there is more: so much more.

Anyway, I eventually got B  partially (key word) sorted and went onto bank C, where there is both a credit card and a bank account.

Wasn't it just the same %$&^ thing all over again‽ No message, just spinning nothingness. As with account B, I eventually prevailed — sort of. (I am trying to shorten the narrative here.)

Now we get to the extra silly part. For years, I have logged into C with the bank card number — years, I tell you. Once in, I could see both the credit card info and the bank account info. Life was easy. I knew those 16 digits backwards and forwards and inside out.

However, life was too easy for me, and we couldn't have that. So, naturally, they changed the bank card numbers. It took some time, but I had just about mastered those new 16 digits, when they threw me this new curve ball, perhaps more of a knuckle ball. Once I delved into it and revamped my password, I discovered that I  now, I must log in, not with my newly-remembered bank card but with the sixteen associated credit card digits. They don't like the bank card numbers any more. Sigh.

Just a note in passing. I don't mind having normal passwords stored in computer cache memory, like Blogger's password, for example, but I do not want my financial numbers to be stored anywhere. For security reasons, I want to enter them manually every single darn time, so now my poor, ancient brain must learn 16 new numbers for the second time in several months.

 But wait there's even more!

With my virus checker, I have an addon called Safe Play, in which I have long been able to log into financial sites in a very secure way where, supposedly, prying spyware would find it very difficult to follow. Nope! Can't use that app any darn more. I must now log in on my less secure regular web browser, or on my phone or tablet since I have had to download the app for C too.

I can't tell you how much backing and forthing and ining and outing I went through to get this all sorted. Well I could, but even writing this is driving me nuts, just as reading it (have you made it this far?) must just about causing your head to slump down onto your computer desk. I hope you didn't bang your head too hard or destroy your computer or whatever device that you are using.

Computers do not always make life easier, my friends, or at least they may make it very difficult in the short term in order to, perhaps, make it easier in the long term. Perhaps.

Caturday 76: Oranga Pretty?

We were visiting Sha and the kids for JJ's 16th birthday. As often happens Sabine began to attack the sceensaver on the tv. As usual, I took some photos with my phone from thee couch, but you've seen that at lest once before. Then I forced my ancient body to rise to get a closer photo.

The background had been one of those busy aquatic-life scenes, but as I lowered the camera, it turned to a very unbusy, semi-solid orange, and Sabine also turned to look at me, and I had a much better photo than I had thought I would get.

The Big Snow

There wasn't as much snow as predicted, but there was enough to reduce mobility. Of course, school was cancelled, and Shauna's driveway was socked in enough that she  didn't venture forth to work. It takes much to keep her home because she wants to be a good example to her employees, but most of them do live closer. She did check that all was running smoothly, and when she got a good report, she made the decision to forego the rural highway drive.

Sue and I did go for our daily walk, but it was a somewhat truncated version. We walked on the road, not on the obliterated sidewalk. Our sidewalks do get plowed, but the town was a bit overwhelmed on that day. We didn’t go into the park but turned around and retraced our road-steps back to home. 

Sue walks the road and keeps her ears tuned for approaching vehicles.

Back home, the snow that the machine has blown is so high that some of it came tumbling back down onto the driveway. Sue had cleared much of it before I got out for the walk, but then I mugged for the camera and pretended to do my share.

The only way we could time getting the snow to fly off the shovel
was to put the phone into live mode and then extract
the frame that captured it.

I had Sue pose by the side of the driveway to show how high the snow is. We've had it higher than this at times in the past.

We expected our plow guys to make one more pass, so Sue messaged and asked them to try to blow the snow just a bit farther to avoid it tumbling back down into the driveway.