Licensed

Before we even left the house, we learned that Jonathan had passed his driver's test. We do have a graduated license plan here, so I don't have his road permissions all straight in my head, but I think he's able to drive around town on his own and on secondary highways as long as he has a fully licensed driver riding shotgun. Later in the process, there will be another test to pass.

The drive into Ottawa was interesting. The highway was clear on a sunny day, but once we hit the city, we had to approach intersections with caution because we could hardly see the snow-blasted traffic lights from Tuesday's big blow. Here's one picture but some lights were even more snowed than this one. 

Once we arrived, the food was good, and my almost-79-year-old wife was looking pretty good too.

The Snow and the Driving Lesson

We had plans to head into Ottawa yesterday, but the likelihood of a fierce wind blowing newly fallen snow onto a rural highway dissuaded us. So, the trip and lunch are on the agenda today. But I must say that it looked pretty yesterday morning when I first looked out.

The bright snow at the bottom was on the window ledge.
I included it deliberately.

But it was not fun to be out there, and we weren’t about to go for walk in the frigid gale.

I keep wondering when the final shovelling session
will occur, but it probably won't be for awhile yet.

The day before, Jonathan had asked if I were available for a driving lesson. Sue requested that I take some photos of the event, so I sent a few back to her to composite for me. She sent many layouts, but I will limit myself to only including four of them here. Some versions are whimsical. Well, maybe they all are whimsical to some degree. 

When we say "driving lesson" we mean that I will mostly just sit there in silent mode while he wanders about the streets and into parking lots to practise parking.

Before I leave, I present a selfie with the boy.

Checking In

As March grinds on, I seem to have less to write about than usual, which, I suppose, many must count as a godsend. While it went up to 13C/55F yesterday, it is presently -6C/25F and bright and white after an overnight snowfall. Unfortunately, it will get even colder as the days goes on. Nevertheless, we shall, possibly, still drive into the city for a pre-birthday lunch.

We have gotten out for little walks but kept to the neighbourhood yesterday. The milder weather, as noted above, was pleasant enough, and we heard some birdsong, particularly a Mr Cardinal who was calling from a treetop up the street. We did the bridge trial walk on Sunday, but it was almost bitterly cold, partly because I underdressed. While photo ops seem few and far between in mid-March, I did take one of Sue shooting a boarded-up window, and I photographed the window too. Fortunately, or otherwise, my shooting did not break any glass.

A few days before that, we did a different sort of selfie in a downtown window. It's all reflection.

On another downtown stroll, I photographed a mural in a narrow alley between two buildings. Even using a wide angle plus a pano sweep, I could not capture it all in that narrow space and missed some of the top. Pano distortion also resulted in a curve although the wall is really straight. Fun stuff.

Since we are here, all together like this, I'll show you the old clocktower once again. It is a mono conversion of the colour version that I posted not too long ago.

I guess that's a wrap for today.

Caturday 89: At the Cat Show in 1971

I've recently been digitizing more old slides. It being SatCaturday, I found some that I could post.

Being friendly with a cat lady back in 1971, we were encouraged to enter our household pet in a cat show just for fun. Off we went to London, Ontario with Dusty in tow.

One of the judges liked her and awarded her a ribbon: second place, I believe. She behaved well.

A friend of our friend was showing Persians, and I very much liked this little red classic tabby kitten.

We took Baron home. He grew a bit although he never became a big cat.

Here is a somewhere blurry photo of a very hairy me, holding the pair of them. You can see how calm and happy they were to be held.

Simple Pleasures

It's Sue's birthday month, so we try to get out a little more than usual although enjoying March isn't always easily accomplished in Eastern Ontario. I posted earlier that we did have a few decent days, but then there was ice followed by a little bit of snow which was, in turn, accompanied by miserable winds.

We had breakfast out last week, so I purposed to take her out for lunch this week, but Sue opted for our frequently enjoyed take out sandwich and coffee. In honour of the occasion, however, we added a chocolate chip cookie to our usual order.

Our view from the vehicle revealed a light dusting of snow after the rain, but the prodigious winter cover is gone for the year, except perhaps for a storm or two that won't remain on the ground for long.

On the way home, we found a patch of trees with still some ice on the branches. The light wasn't great, but I thought it was worth a shot regardless.

Sue was happy to opt for the simple pleasure of a car lunch, but there is still the opportunity for a restaurant meal, perhaps two, before the birthday and month are over.

Snow Removal Questions and Answers

One doesn’t think how customs that we take for granted are so completely foreign to those in other climates. A recent somment about snow removal caused an Australian blogger to pose some questions.

I’ve never heard of ‘snow removal’ before so have questions…..where does the truck take the snow to….what’s it used for….and how do they load it on to the truck? Does this only happen in your city or is it a national service. Do home owners and businesses pay or is it part of the yearly rate charge

You’ll have to do a post explaining for us warm climate colonials 😊 

And so, I shall explain although this may be redundant for many. 

You must understand that we had a big snowfall on November 09/25, and snow is still with us on March 12. It doesn’t always come and stick that early in November. Some years, it doesn’t stick until December and even late December. It always lasts until well into March and even April in some years. Indeed, I once removed snow from over the flower bed in April to see that tulips were already growing under there.

That is the background, so here we go with your questions.

where does the truck take the snow to….

I don’t know where they take it exactly, but I expect to an empty lot or field somewhere or other. There is one such empty lot near us where they dumped quite a bit of snow, but I haven’t seen them do it, and there have to be more dump sites.

what’s it used for

It is useless stuff, which is why it is removed from forever clogging roads and parking lots. 

 how do they load it on to the truck?

There are dedicated snow blowing machines that blow the snow into a truck travelling alongside the snow blower. When that truck is full, it goes off to dump the snow, and the next truck in line takes its place.

Sue reminded me that I did a whole post with steps, photos and even a little video clip a few years ago. I copied the above photo from there, but you really should go there for a fuller explanation as it was a pretty full descriptive post. (The AC is On: Winter Excitement in The Great White North)

 Does this only happen in your city or is it a national service

Communities make their own contracts and arrangement, and we pay for it through our property taxes. Bear in mind that the need for snow removal does vary in this big country. While we still needed the service in our city, in the other end of the province where we used to live, it was not quite as big of an issue as it is here in Eastern Ontario. The west coast of Canada doesn't really require the service at all. There are palm trees in British Columbia, believe it or not. Of course, snow is a concern in most of Canada.

On private property, it is up to homeowners to clear their own driveways and walkways as they see fit. Some people shovel manually. Others have their own little snowblowers. Many of us hire a contractor for the winter. We have paid almost $500 (with tax) to have our driveway cleared this winter. If the accumulation is a couple of centimeters, they will come by and do their thing. We take care of lesser amounts on our own.

A kind neighbour used her personal snowblower to help us out many years ago before snow blowing businesses became common. This was a major storm, up to her knees or higher. They aren't all like this.

The snow was very high that year, well over my 6' frame in 2008. I think that was the year when the tulips started sprouting under the snow because the mound remained well in April. It isn't always this deep, but it was again last year.

Just this year, I posted a picture of our contractor blowing our driveway. They blow it from the driveway onto the lawn. The pile on the lawn gets pretty high, so it takes some time for it to melt away.

Winter Is Starting to Pack its Bags

When it happens, it happens quickly. When I walked to the mailbox, it dawned on me that there was no snow on either the street or sidewalk, and the banks between the sidewalk and road were simply gone. While there remained an abundant pile in our front yard, it was beginning to lower and pull back from the edges, exposing ground, particularly on the south-facing sides. Our back, our yard was 3/4 clear, and there was very little snow on the soccer field on the other side of the road. 

That was on Monday and Tuesday. This morning, we are on the edge of an ice storm. It may or may not hit here, or not much or maybe a lot, according to your forecast of choice. At least we can appreciate that winter is beginning to lose the war and is simply fighting rearguard battles. Jonathan can enjoy what could possibly be his last snow day of the year. We usually get some late storms, however, so you never know.

Winter is, indeed, starting to pack its bags, but there remain clothes strewn about, and the toothpaste still occupies its place by the bathroom sink.

As winter draws closer to the end, I have a few photos that I have, somehow, missed posting.

For some reason, snow machines intrigue me. The first is a snow removal truck crossing the little bridge. It seems that we can't walk along this bridge without two or three trucks going by.

That abandoned factory by the back bridge. I liked the snow on the branches on this day.

We only saw the trumpeter swans in the distance this year, but I have this photo from a previous year.

This isn't really a winter photo, but it's Sue's photo of me in the recent fog, but I like it and want to share it, and there is snow in the background.

And there is also a wee bit of snow on the roof by the older, languishing clock tower. The clock tower on town hall is still functional, but this relic requires some TLC.