Winter Living

We have fairly long and cold winters here in the Ottawa region, so it's really best to make peace with that fact and embrace the weather as best one can. To that end, Cuppa and I gave the kids a sleigh for Christmas. Nikki Dee was the first, and so far the only grand, to try it out. With Buppa as the horse and even attempting to sing Jingle Bells to the bonnie wee lass, out we went the other day. As the picture tells, Nikki Dee was quite content to ride whilst Buppa Horse pulled her back and forth and forth and back.



As my bald pate might reveal, it was relatively warm on Friday, but yesterday and today were bitter, with the low temperatures being aided and abetted by a harsh, north wind. Nevertheless, we stopped by Canadian Tire to get her a little snow shovel so she could help Buppa clear the driveway. It was even colder when we finally got around to our shovelling in the evening, but we all bundled up and felt better for the outing. She didn't quite grasp the concept of shovelling onto the pile and not off the pile, but that's okay.




Then, she'd put some snow into my shovel and I'd fling it into the air to great cries of excitement.




Cuppa took some dark an grainy video clips of our work session.



After shovelling, Buppa Horse was called back into action. We had a decent video clip that got lost somehow, so pictures will have to do.




We had another frosty session this morning before lunch. The kid had got up at the unearthly hour of six o'clock and was tired but fought a morning attempt to have her nap. So, we decided that another session in the cold followed by lunch might do the trick. It did; she napped for an hour and a half after lunch.






Cuppa got into the spirit of things too. The lady can shovel it with the best of them, I tell ya.



I also have a video of Cuppa shovelling, but this is me taking pity on you ...

The Good Neighbour

I know, ya gotta wonder how many snow and snow-shovelling related blogs I can come up with. But please bear will because it's winter here: quite a winter after the past few milder years. In case you doubt, by way of contrast I have pictures such as this one from mid-January last year which reveal almost no snow. And since I can't recall seeing an accumulation such as this since I was a boy in Montreal, surely I can be forgiven my present obsession?

Anyway, this really isn't about snow per se; it's about The Good Neighbour who lives across the street. I have mentioned her more than once and already presented you with a picture, but here she is again (below).



I guess you can tell by looking at her beyond-rosy cheeks that it was quite cold that day, but she still came over to blow our driveway out. She doesn't confine herself to performing this good deed to us but goes up and down the street cheerfully helping many. When someone asked her if she was making a lot of money doing this, she replied that she wasn't but that she was making a lot of friends.

What a great and refreshing attitude!

I wish more people had it — Good Neighbour's fantastic attitude. Of course, some do, but can't display it so obviously. For example: it was just a few years ago that I did my bit by frequently shovelling-out our neighbour's place in Sarnia and sometimes two neighbours. But these days, to keep Cuppa's worry-level at minimum, I confine myself to my own driveway. And because of Good Neighbour, I don't always even have to do that. By contrast, after our first big storm, there was another neighbour (and I use the word loosely) who plowed his lot with a plow attached to a riding lawnmower, which must make it easier than blowing, don't you think? But you know what? He just did his own place and went back inside without glancing to the right or left. I wonder how much joy he gets out of life?

While I never expect Good Neighbour to clear my snow and while I can enjoy shovelling my own moderate amounts, I am always appreciative of her good deeds. It's not just that it saves me some labour (although there is that), but it gives me a warm feeling about my fellow humans. And I am becoming rather fond of experiencing warm feelings in the midst of a cold winter.

Psych Job

New Year's Day and it's snowing out — again! I cleared the driveway this morning before heading to the kids' for brunch. When we returned three or four hours later, there was more than there had been earlier. Good Wife assumed that I would rush back outside to clear the drive off again but I haven't, for I am rather hoping that Good Neighbour with the blower will come by. She was out when we drove in, but I don' know if she still is. Whatever the answer, she hasn't done ours — yet — but I live in hope.

After reading previous posts, you would be forgiven for thinking that I love and live to shovel snow. In point of fact I don't or not always anyway, but I can usually condition myself to enjoy the activity. However, I was speaking with Althegal, my younger daughter who has a degree in psychology and is working on her Masters, yesterday and she opined that I was experiencing a phenomenon known as Cognitive Dissonance. It is her opinion that my brain is tricking me (in a sense) into enjoying a repetitive, boring, and unpleasant task. Apparently, there are studies to support this kind of occurrence.

While I concede that she might be correct in her assessment, I am inclined to humbly disagree. I think it's an act of will on my part. I will myself to develop an attitude that will result in me enjoying the chore as much as possible, and I try to perform said task in a way that will increase the likelihood that I will, in fact, enjoy it.

I don't think that's my brain playing tricks on me but visa versa. I know that seems to be impossible — to trick my own brain because, by default, it seems pretty darn paradoxical to claim that I can use my brain to trick my brain. But I say that it's a complex organism up there above my neck and that I I have the ability to choose to use the willpower that I can muster in one part of my grey matter to affect how another part of my brain perceives the task. Maybe I'm really using my conscious brain to affect my unconscious brain, which may, in point of fact, be opposite to the occurrence Cognitive Dissonance, but I guess I should leave those ruminations to the experts.

Regardless! I do rather hope that Good Neighbour will still happen by in the next hour or so because old AC is rather tired on this New Year's Day and would love recline in warmth with a good book. But I rather doubt that will be my lot and that I will quite likely be forced to psych myself up again. And I can do it, by golly.

Being Wise on a Snowy Day

It's back — winter and snow, I mean. After huge mountains of white were reduced to only large mountains of white by a day of rain on Sunday, we had a new fall yesterday, with more expected in the next few days. Which means that after week of respite it is high time for AC to get out and shovel.

But I don't mind shovelling. In fact, my perverse side rather enjoys it ... up to a point at least. It's good exercise, and it's usually not too much of a strain if one applies a modicum of common sense. You do need to be cautious, however, because snow-shovelling can be dangerous: hard on the heart. During the pre-Christmas accumulations, for example, a 45 year-old man in our town dropped dead in his driveway after shovelling.

That's why Cuppa worries and frets when I get out there. But while nothing is completely safe, I don't think she needs to worry much because I try to exercise caution and vigilance over my body as much as possible. When I feel that I'm beginning to breathe too hard, I pause and lean on my shovel. Sometimes, to reinforce the necessity of taking it easy, I actually put the implement down and/or move back into the edge of the garage and lean against the car. I catch my breath a little before re-commencing to push more snow around.

I try my best to enjoy what I am doing: the exercise, the invigorating air, the chance to wave at a neighbour or two. I think that's a key: to see it as an enjoyable opportunity and not just an odious chore to be dealt with as quickly as possible because I'm pretty sure that's when the catastrophes occur. Snow-shovelling and many other chores really can be enjoyable if we go about them in the right frame of mind.

I learned some this from my father. He had a bad hernia, but he'd get out there frequently and just sweep the snow aside. While that approach wouldn't have worked with our excessive pre-Christmas dumping, it often worked for him during ordinary winters. While I don't have a hernia, I try to follow his example by attending to the snow frequently. On one or even two days a week or two ago, I went out at least three times, so that no single shovelling event became too onerous. Fortunately, nice neighbour with the snow blower came to the rescue the few times that the load got a bit beyond comfort level.

Maybe, there's a certain wisdom that comes with age (not that I'm terribly old, but, at sixty, I'm no longer young either). I find that the younger set doesn't always get it that less can be more. For example if one needs to shift a load from here to there, making two trips carrying fewer bags or boxes can actually be easier than overloading oneself so that it can be accomplished in one trip, thereby possibly saving a whole minute or two. It's the same with shovelling snow. Three light shovellings can be a lot easier than one big one, especially if you slow down enough to enjoy it.

So ... I don't think Cuppa needs to worry when I head back out there to do my duty in a little later this morning. But she will.

More Snowy Pics

Yesterday, I posted this photo of the disappearing bbq, taken mid-morning.



Here it is early in the afternoon.



And by mid-afternoon.



In the evening.



The snow is piling up like crazy. I went out shovelling three times.



The last time I went out, I took some night photos.