Snow pile!

The snow we had last week has been ploughed aside. On busy city streets, it has been nibbled into trucks and removed. But in ordinary parking lots it’s just piled up and left to melt. When we went shopping, only about 2/3 of the usual spaces were open. The rest were under huge heaps of snow. The piles in this lot are about six metres high. Liz, in green and standing at the bottom of the pile, is about 1.7 m tall. Andie and Taiga the dog are shorter.

Taiga starts down the hill.

Andie follows Taiga.

They’re about to jump down to ground level.

Ice cleats

Someone suggested ice cleats for walking during treacherous winter freezes. That seems like a good idea; I should dig out our old YakTrax for working outside.

Meanwhle, in Montreal, some houses are being crushed by the weight of snow on the roofs.

Good days

The last couple of days were productive. Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen, did some re-organizing, and washed the floor (including under the stove), while Andie did research for a Guiding project. I also got Marlowe checked up at the vet. She has interstitial cystitis, possibly caused by stress, and has to take anti-inflammatory medicine in her food and take some kind of mood booster. I’ll try to borrow back the feline face hormones, which make all the cats more relaxed.

Today we went swimming at 7:00 a.m. Later, I helped Andie clean up her room. She had to go back to Hamilton.

It’s slowly thawing here, which is better than a quick thawing, which tends to cause floods.

Cat update

I took Marlowe in for another urine test to see if her problem had cleared up. Marlowe has a bladder inflammation, interstitial cystitis, that is probably not an infection but may be the result of stress.

We have to give her anti-inflammatory drops in her food every night for a month plus something to relieve stress. I’m trying to get the Feliway back from my son, who borrowed it.

Swimming with Andie

Andie and I got up at 6:15 and went to a 7:00 a.m. swimming class with Oannes Swims. We both enjoyed it. I am improving quickly, but Andie is still faster than I. Also, I’ve switched from worring about my breathing to improving my timing and technique. We finished off the lesson with a relay race.