1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!
In winter, it’s rare that walking around the block on my paper route isn’t an adventure. Between the ice, the slush, the snow, the temperatures that freeze my nostrils shut on contact, and days like to today when we have a miniature snow storm, there’s always something to make me rather stay in my pyjamas.
It’s all part of being Canadian. Our weather is a source of national pride. It’s what we endure to live in a country as free as this one is; with all its faults, at least we’re able to say we weathered a storm or two and came out the other side with a smile. Most of the time, anyway.
And so it is with that same pride that I walk around the block, braving the elements to deliver the news.
As difficult as it can be, I do love this country.
1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!
I have love/hate relationship with those moments when I just stand back and go, “Whoa!” at something I’ve figured out after years of doing it wrong.
Today my “Whoa!” moment came to me concerning the operation of a car, which is something I’ve been doing for (I’m dating myself here) about 34 years. I was talking to the lady who manages the dry cleaner down the street, and during our conversation, we were discussing the inclement weather yesterday. She said she had been in a store for only a few minutes during the blizzard, and when she came out her windshield was already frozen so much that she had to scrape it off. That’s when I realized it.
I too, went into a store yesterday for a few minutes during the same snow storm, and when I came out, for the first time in all my years of winter driving, didn’t need to scrape the windshield. Why? Because for the first time in my life I drove to the store with the warm air blowing out at my feet and through the front-facing vents instead of the defrost, which warms up the windshield causing ice to form before I get back in. If the windshield is relatively cold all along, the snow doesn’t melt.
I’m wondering why in the name of all laziness have I believed since I was a novice driver, that if it’s cold out do I need to warm up the windshield? But that’s it! If I’m too lazy to brush the snow off when I first go out, instead of letting the warmth of the car do it, then I’ll have to either keep doing it, or waste gas letting the engine do it!
Whoa!
How I love that feeling: and how I hate having not thought of it before.
1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!
In the warmth of my living room, watching through the window as the snow flakes drift into fifties-style wannabe hairdos and watching my son play Wii Fit in his underwear, I realize how good I actually have it. Modern conveniences have given us such luxury. I mean, what if I was sitting, on a rock, in a cave right now (on my laptop of course, with full internet capabilities) worrying about whether or not I could scrounge up enough wood for the fire, wondering how far I’d have to walk because I’ve depleted the local fauna. I’d really be bitching to you over the web, wouldn’t I?
But no. I’m sitting in a warm living room, on a couch, with a kid giggling his head off every time his character jumps off the side of a floating platform to its flailing demise. Nothing bothers this kid of mine. He’ll play happily, as active as ever, while a machine pumps formula directly into his stomach as though this were the most natural thing in the world. I wonder if he’d still think so if we were sitting in a cave, watching the snow fall. Of course the machine would still be around. If I can have internet, he can have his feeding pump, right? And the manufactured formula that keeps him alive with all its non-yummy nutrients that don’t bother him in the slightest because he never tastes them.
All we’d be missing is the warmth. And the Wii.
Modern technology, I tell you. We could live without it.
1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!
I read an article in the paper today about something known as “Frost Quakes,” or “cryoseism.”
Apparently they are caused by the sudden freezing of ground water below the earth’s surface, and they cause the earth to shake and can make very loud noises, much like that of a tree landing on one’s house.
Anyway, it explains why all of the ice from the tree branches is on the ground today. It didn’t melt off as it usually does. It came off as though it was shaken off, still solid.
Have you ever heard of such a phenomena? It’s a first for me!
I woke up to a fresh blanket of snow this morning. It’s to be expected – I live in Ontario, Canada.
Strange strange happenings are going on in the world, weather wise, however. In the south – in fact all the way to South America – the temperatures have dropped to past freezing.
And today, while I was delivering my newspapers here in Ontario, it began to rain. Upwards.
It didn’t matter how far I looked down, with the big hood on my winter coat over my head, I was getting rain in my face.
Back when I was five years old, I remember being on vacation with my mother in England. On this particular day that so clearly comes to mind, we were driving to the seaside. My uncle, who was driving, told me that it was a good sign that the cows were standing up in the pastures as we drove by.
“Why?” I asked in a perfectly five year old fashion.
“Because when the cows lay down it means it’s going to rain,” he explained.
Since that time I’ve taken predictive cow thing to the next level – to a degree of percentages. So for instance, if three quarters of the cows in a field are standing up, there is a potential for a 25% chance of rain.
So today I was driving to where my son was at camp. It was out in the middle of nowhere and inevitably I passed a field where there were horses and only one cow. It was bright and sunny, but the cow was laying down.
Shit, it’s going to rain, thought I.
When I passed the same cow on my way home, my windshield wipers going as fast as they could, I nodded to the cow.
It was so warm today when I delivered my papers I began to wonder if my vision was blurring.
Looking closely at this picture however, I can tell that it was due to the minute filaments of the tree I was looking at. I thought it was kinda neat.
Just in case you’re wondering what’s going on in the saga of Nosehair , no news has been good news. It does seem that he was as surprised as I was to discover it was actually two of his neighbours that were cut down three weeks ago.
Ah, the pleasures of living in southern Ontario. Instead of the forecasted mountain of snow, we’re having an ice storm. Power is intermittent. If it wasn’t so pretty it would be intolerable.
It took a bit of bravery to deliver my papers today. Having to listen for cracking from above and dodging falling branches.
Timber!
Living in an old part of town is pretty, but it’s also pretty dangerous when the ancient behemoths come crashing down.
My backdoor neighbour’s tree
I didn’t expect to post two of my adventures in one week, but today certainly deserves honourable mention.
It’s snowing. And I’m thinking to myself, why the hell is it snowing when it’s almost the middle of March? And then I remember, oh yeah, I live in Canada.
I’m also right smack dab in the middle of March break. Kids are home and the youngest one is looking for something to do, as usual. I know what I want to do, but sitting around while I write, for some reason doesn’t seem all that fun to him. He wants my attention. Constantly. OR he wants my laptop, which is not very conducive to getting any writing done either.
So I pawned him off.
No, I didn’t sell him, though sometimes I’d like to. I gave him to a friend. Somehow I think he may be returned however.
lindaghill.com 