Yesterday, Jack and Jill were delighted to be introduced for the first time to Canelle who is their next-door neighbour. Canelle lives with Lynn and Daniel, and she's fourteen, slowing down a little. She was a hellion in her day. Rambunctious and a bit of a whirlwind, temperamental as well. She always loved to see people. Lynn and Daniel were a little intimidated by her because she could get pretty snarly sometimes. Like when Daniel wanted to get into bed at night and Canelle decided she wouldn't let him.

Jack and Jill kept popping in and out the front door while I was speaking with Daniel who had just returned from a street walk with Canelle. He wanted to tell me, in my husband's absence (he was out doing some shopping) that their snowblower was at my husband's service any time he needed to use it. At the very least, he said, until this winter and its snowstorms were over. They were set to go off on a two-week vacation to Hawaii, leaving their son Nicholas at home to look after things.

When this family first moved into the house next door they were the second owners, and Nicholas was four, his sister two years older. She's a pediatric nurse now at the Children's Hospital and she lives in her own house, not too far from her parents'. Nicholas has aspirations to join the RCMP, he's working with a security firm at the present time. He had done a stint with the cadet Reserves when he was younger. They're the sweetest kids imaginable. Nicholas, in fact, was prepared to use their snowblower himself and blow out our driveway after snowfalls.

But the problem, if I can call it that, has been solved in another way. My husband decided to put our 25-year-old snowblower to rest. True, it's not operational in any event, possibly a drive belt, since my husband changed his mind about the problem leading to its collapse. So out he went this afternoon and brought home a new snowblower. Just in time for a snowfall expected to begin this evening.