March 5, 2025
Welcome to March 2025!
In last week’s essay, I let you know I was looking
forward to finally being able to leave my house after a couple of weeks of
being house-bound due to copious amounts of and poorly placed piles of snow on
ice.
We were successful in our first trip out to the
grocery store, and David was certainly happy to get out and have lunch. We were
able to get a few of the essentials we were running low on, and some of them
were even on sale. We couldn’t get everything we needed, however, because we
simply can’t get that much up the front stairs and into the house on our own. But
that was all right, because our daughter was picking up her grandchildren to
come for the weekend a few days later, on Saturday. She would have two strong
young people to help her bring in the extra items we needed.
You may also recall that, according to Ashbury family
tradition, winter each year runs from October to March, inclusive. Therefore,
this current cold and snowy season will end in 26 days. Not that I’m counting,
or anything. I’m just anal.
Our temperature is slated to hit 50 degrees Fahrenheit
today. I’m very happy to hear it, but I’m not super excited about it. Because with
this temperature increase comes rain. So much rain, in fact, that Environment
Canada has issued a flash flood warning. Yes, rain melts snow. No question. But
then all that water has no place to go because the ground is frozen—even more
frozen than usual for this time of year.
And by more frozen, I mean that the freeze is deeper into
the ground than it has been for the last few years.
And then, of course, after being teased by the spring-like
warmth of today, and lots of rain with it, we go back right to below freezing
temperatures beginning tomorrow, for at least a week. Maybe even longer.
The good news about that is that while it’s not time
yet to schedule our annual spring-cleaning extravaganza, that day is on the
horizon, and we’ll likely begin to plan for it.
The bad news? Lots of rain (water) melting lots of
snow (more water) is about to not seep into the ground and to therefore freeze
solid. For those of us who do have institutional memory of these kinds of situations,
we know to do certain things. One must go out and rescue, for example, things
like garbage pails our outdoor grills that may be or about to be in standing
water. They need to be moved to someplace less subject to being encased in
three inches of ice. Because if they’re left where they are, one likely won’t be
able to move them until full-on spring.
Fun times. Another good thing is that having the air
warmer today means not tempting frostbite while you go out and do what you can
to prevent damage to household items.
This year, so far, we’ve given no thought to the
upcoming planting season. There are discussions to be had, for certain. And we’ll
get to them by and by.
But we did receive notice that this upcoming “construction”
season, our street is slated to receive a new water main, and then the road
itself will be replaced. There was a “drop in” meeting held this past Monday at
the nearest community center. Our daughter and I went, and it was an
interesting and informative evening.
We learned at that, while right now there is a
sidewalk on both sides of our street, after this project is complete, there
will no longer be a sidewalk on our side of it.
During the construction period, I will not be able to
park my vehicle in front of my house. But since I have an accessible parking
permit, arrangements can be made. Ours is a corner property. We’ve suggested that
there’s enough room for us to park on our side lawn, just slightly infringing
on the edge of the roadway—of the east-west oriented cross street.
Making application to do so now will begin the process
by which the by-law department can allow an exception, which will be a great help
to me. It would be difficult for me to stay mobile if I have to walk a block or
more to get from house to car. I’ll shortly be writing a letter to get that
process under way.
I have something to do that is new and different, and
that, to me, is a bonus.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
