Monday, November 4, 2013

The frost is on the pumpkin Baby!

Or in the case of around here, the lawn.  The dead leaves.  The driveway.

But not the car windshield!

This is a prime example of why it’s worth the effort to tuck the car in the garage.  I just noticed how all the cars in the neighbourhood had fairly thick frost on the windshields.  

Actually,  what I first noticed was a flurry of activity from next door,  with a half hearted attempt at windshield scraping,  followed by running back into the house for something,  and then jumping into a car that was clearly not “warmed up”.   Our neighbour lady then headed off into the blinding sun with still way too much frosty stuff on the windshield.   Never a good idea.

Do you think maybe someone forgot to set the clocks back?  It’s possible I suppose.  I got a definite sense that someone was going to be late for work.   Sure hope she makes it there.

 

Which brings me to a little story.

 

Once upon a time,  when I was a young snot,  working Saturdays for a company called Turkstra Lumber,  it was a frosty fall morning at right around morning “rush hour” although,  rush hour in Waterdown back in the seventies was certainly nothing like today,  when we heard a Gawd- awful bang. 

Try to imagine taking a hammer over to the local dumpster type of garbage bin and giving it a good whack.  It’s a loud “metal on metal” type of sound,  right?  Well, that was the sound that we heard coming from out in front of the store, and it startled all of us.

Within seconds we went out to investigate,  to find that there had been a rear ender,  which was due in part to frost on the windows of both the vehicles.

 

The vehicle that got rear ended had been stopped on the road,  (ya, I know!)  and the gentleman who suddenly found himself unable to see,  (because the sun suddenly came up?) was scraping off his windshield.   Along comes another car and *wham-o*,  right into his car.  So he was standing there with his scraper still in his hand,  and his car had literally been knocked out from under him.   Lucky bugger.

The stupid ones are sometimes the lucky ones.  Why is that?

The poor lady who hit him though,  wasn’t quite so lucky.  

This was well before the days of air bags,  and the momentum of the impact had sent her car off the roadway and partly into the ditch.  She was unconscious with a little bit of blood coming from her face,  and unfortunately she had LOCKED HER DOORS,  so we couldn’t get at her.   Well,  not right away anyway.   We did have tools in the lumber store,  and by the time we popped open her door,  the Ambulance had arrived.   They were literally just up the street.   She was still out when they took her away.

Again, and I’m dating myself here too,  this was in the days when you’d say, “Call an Ambulance”.   Now we just call 911 and have to try and explain what KIND of emergency we have.  Just send everyone!

 

To this day,  cars that lock the doors automatically make me a tad nervous.

Right along with seeing folks fly off into the sun without having properly cleaned their windshield. 

 

Anyhoodle, since baby pictures seem to be ‘de rigueur’ in Blog Land,  I should mention that we had a lovely visit and dinner with some long time friends of Daughter Number One yesterday afternoon.   It was sort of a version of the “Early Bird Special”,  since we were invited to show up around four.  Dinner at five,  and everyone ready to pass out by about eight.

You see,  these folks have a set of twins,  who are now, *thinks* four months old.   I think I got that right.

 

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They are coping.  

Anyone who has ever had kids at all,  can well imagine the sleep deprivation that goes along with having two little eating, pooping, fussing, little guys.   Oh my.

 

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Travelling Companion got her baby fix.  No pictures of her as usual,  sorry. 

This was the first time she had seen these little gaffers,  since there just hadn’t been any chance to make an earlier visit.  And really,  people coming over can be a mixed blessing when you’re just doing your best to think rationally.

So that was the extent of our enjoyment of the weekend,  since Travelling Companion worked the rest of the time.  Something to do with “inventory”.  I’m not going to go into it.   No idea how late she’ll be tonight,  since, “reports didn’t run”  or some other such thing.   Somehow the term,  “Cluster F**k” keeps running through my head. 

But this blog is not about that,  right?

 

I think with the dip in temperature that we had over the weekend,  and last night in particular, it meant that the maple tree in the back decided to call it a day,  and has been shedding leaves like mad.

This was what greeted me out the back door this morning.

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Jumpin’!

 

Not sure why I bothered cleaning this all yesterday.  What a dope.

 

I think I can count the number of leaves left on that tree,  so I might just wait.  Although, the “anal retentive” side of me wants desperately to get those leaves out of there.  Can’t deal with the “clutter”.

 

Hopefully the only frost you have is on your flakes. 

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

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9 comments:

  1. If they can't walk I am scared to hold them. I never had to as my late wife and I adopted and they were preschool by then.

    Living in the apartment I don't miss cleaning the yard whether its weeding, mowing, raking or shovelling. Now I just worry about the Truck, the Trailer and the Computers. Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  2. I had an old VW back in the day. The heater or defroster did not work and I was not able to garage it. I only used it to get me 15 minutes to the train station. In the winter the windshield was always frosted over and I never had time to scrape the windshield, plus with no heat it would only frost over again anyway. I drove to the train after melting a two inch hole with a bic lighter every day. That lighter and the finally rising sun would melt most of the windshield by the time I reached any serious traffic, but it was always a bit sketchy.

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  3. Talking about frost on anything makes me so happy I've in the south for the winter. I cannot imagine handling twins. One just about did me in.

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  4. Hey - I must be one of those 'baby de rigueur' guys you mentioned!

    I've seen lots of those people driving away from home with a 6" porthole in their front windshield and often wonder if they have any brains at all.

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  5. I can remember many days in Terrace, BC, driving to work at 7:55 AM slouched down in the Volvo, peering through a slit of clear glass. One of the benefits of living in northern climes. I later learned the trick of taking a jug of hot water out to the car and dumping it over the -20 degree glass to give me instantly thawed glass.

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  6. I'd probably have to trod back and forth those leaves a while... kicking them up and making a lot of noise... before I'd rake them up. But then... folks don't rake anymore, do they? I think everyone uses a leaf blower. Been a long, long time since I made a big pile of leaves and jumped in them.

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  7. Well, Bob, after the morning "quickie" in Medford, (I will leave it to YOU to 'splaying this)... We ambled north to Grants Pass and I have been raking leaves all day. At the cottage, the huge oaks are gorgeous, but the leaves come down again before I can get to the end of the yard, sheesh

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  8. Ummm, yet another reason to be glad we have one less tree this fall - not that we don't still have plenty of leaves around, but the loss of that sweet gum makes a huge difference. Happy raking...but go jump in the leaves first!

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  9. The last 5 years we lived in Ontario during the winter, we had remote start installed in our cars, Was so nice to start the car from the warmth of our house and the get into a toasty car with clear windows. Need that when you live in the country.

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Well, I've been getting too many spam comments showing up. Just a drag, so we'll go another route and hope that helps. So, we won't be hearing anything more from Mr. Nony Moose.
I guess I'll just have to do without that Gucci purse.