Dig to Victory

Hi All!

The snow hasn't stopped for the past week or so, resulting in a tremendous amount of shovelling the driveway - alas, a hideously mundane topic for the veteran Canadians amongst you, but still a hilarious novelty for the fresh faced immigrants, who never had anything as remotely interesting to while away thier evenings during winter in their homelands (although I do note that the British equivalent of this would be me getting excited about mowing the lawn for the umpteenth time in a week). Keeping a tight ship in Cochrane means I have to crack the whip with the scivvy at times;

Although the scivvy soon promoted herself to Captain, tossed the shovel over her shoulder and demoted me to finish the job off myself "yee lazy landlubber". Unsurprisingly Brina wasn't as interested as I was that I'd cleared 4 inches of snow off the drive last night, and this dump was just from when we'd been out at work (the Canadian instinct in her kicks in to retreat indoors, light the fire, put the kettle on and keep fingers crossed for warmer weather). I was inclined to agree after 20 more minutes outside as the minus 28 wind chill had numbed my nose (again).

Here's Brina in happier times, just before the mutiny (I was reluctant to tell her about the bit she missed near the garage - that was my downfall - note: when wife is working, don't comment on progress - constructive criticism isn't advised).

As winter begins to really grab us by the short and curlies, occassional thoughts of that pool we had in Miami cross our minds (very briefly, before making backcountry boarding plans for the weekend - hurray!). And, just to get in the spirit of things, I have been driving a chuffing huge truck around for the past two weeks - it's a monster, and I feel the back of my neck getting redder by the minute - all I need now is a gun rack and a chequered hunting cap with ear flaps! A couple from work have lent us the truck while Brina is just working half days at school - the couple were going to be giving me a lift into work each day, and Brina was going to drive - but rather than give me a lift, they gave me their big fat 4x4 monster. I thought it was a really nice gesture, but on reflection it seems to be saying "I don't want to drive to work with you soooo much that I'm prepared to offload my shiney truck to you for as long as is necessary!?" Only kidding, it's been ideal;

It's all a bit like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, shovelling our driveway. The snow hasn't stopped, and by this time tomorrow it'll be out with the big yellow shovel again to make sure we don't get buried in, so it'll be more of this for Brina;whilst I put the kettle on and swab the decks. Aye aye me hearties,

Put your back into it (whatever it is),

Keep on truckin'

S&S.