As the hoary old adage goes, 'it never rains but it pours'. referring as an aphorism, not to the weather but of things that can and will and do go wrong. If it's not one thing it's another. And when things do go wrong often enough having addressed the issue you're confronted with another. The snow plowing company that does most of the houses on this street of retirees was remiss this week. Usually, as soon as a municipal plow comes through to clear the street of excessive snow, the end result is that most driveways get blocked with mounds of ice and snow deposited where the end of the driveway meets the street.

 

This tends to be really heavy stuff; a mixture of snow and of ice. Tough to shovel, the kind of shovelling not recommended for elderly folk. The company with the most clients on the street failed to respond as usual by following soon after the plow and cleaning out the driveways. Other, smaller companies with fewer clients were around as expected and did their due diligence in the clearance.

The last time Irving used his snowthrower a few weeks back (for the walkways) he found the chains on the wheels such a nuisance he decided to remove them. One came off easily enough the other was resistant. So he bought a chain snipper from Canadian Tire and went out today to use the snowthrower meaning first to take off the second chain. It was a struggle, but he finally succeeded. And then set about clearing part of the walkways that I hadn't done while shovelling last week.

 

Just as he was finishing up after addressing the long walkway from the front of the house along the side to the backyard, an operating mechanical chain broke and fell off the snowthrower. This is a fairly new machine, bought several years ago and it hasn't seen all that much use. Irving called around some local repair shops and one of them agreed to order the part, and to reinstall it. Meanwhile, there's a storm in the offing predicted to last for at least two days, perhaps three. There's never a good time for things to go awry, but there are some times worse than others.

 

On a sweeter or at least a more savoury note, we enjoyed last night's spaghetti and meatballs. I had given Irving three choices: Shepherd's pie, spaghetti and meatballs, or meatballs in mushroom gravy over kasha. They're all 'favourite' comfort foods for him. But he chose the spaghetti. It's amazing how many pots and pans one simple meal can take. One for the sauce,l another for the spaghetti to cook, another to steam the spinach that accompanied the meal, and a pan for the meatballs, since Irving likes them done separately.

 

A little earlier than usual we decided to hustle out to the ravine for our afternoon hike, uncertain whether the storm might start earlier than nighttime. It didn't, but we did get out earlier and so enjoyed more light than on previous hikes of late. Days will now begin to lengthen in increments of mere seconds a day. but one can hopefully imagine noting a (delusional wishful-thinking) difference already.

 

The storm we've been told to expect will ruin a lot of people's plans for Christmas travel, Airports will be chaotic, the upheaval in expectation versus practical reality adding an exciting (as in stressful) note that most people would prefer not to happen. Travel on highways won't be much better; people are already being cautioned to stay off the roads. The temperature is expected to rise to make it likelier that precipitation will come down as freezing rain, not snow. But then in days following it will drop again so a flash-freeze will erupt. Later again,  volumes of snow expected. A little bit to a lot of everything.