Winter

I have been really busy lately. Not too busy to realise that we have been so lucky lately because the weather has been warm and we were close to the end of November which is rare here. Just too busy to write.

 I have taken on a new project! I will hopefully (if I complete my training successfully)  be volunteering four hours a week at suicide hotline for the next seven months and I am really inspired.

Due to this new endeavor two of my last  three weekends have been spent training from nine to five learning the proper phone techniques to make me a helpful volunteer. This has meant that at no time has there been the option to even approach a computer unless I'm at work.

Sometimes when all my work is done in between phone calls there is time and I will try to write a little but lately all my efforts have been interrupted by a constant stream of phone calls. It is my job to answer those calls after all so I don't let my writing get in the way of that either.


Sadly I have been working on a gorgeous post about sheds and preparing for winter with beautiful pictures which is almost ready but I didn't get it posted yet and in the meantime WINTER ARRIVED.

Friday morning after twelve days of getting downtown by nine am every single day either for training with the volunteer group or going to work and feeling pretty tired I was in a good mood thinking it's Friday one more day and I'll be able to rest finally.

I walked very quickly down the little hill that leads to my driveway thinking: " Oh it's pretty mild out. It's raining again that's good. Why is the grass crunchy then, hmmmm, strange" but just kept my pace.

When I put my right foot onto my driveway I realized why the grass was crunchy but it was too late. I was already defying gravity and landed splat on my BUM HARD!!

I tried to get up with some dignity on my feet but the fact that the thin sheet of black ice was slick from the rain made that impossible. I just know I looked like a looney tunes cartoon perpetually slipping so I had to think of an alternate plan.

I had a bus to catch so portable coffee cup in hand the right side up now but much lighter since most of it had been absorbed into my clothes I scooted on my bum to the edge of the driveway and slid into the ditch with some difficulty.

My dress and leggings were not only soaked until noon but I was still picking dead grass and leaf bits off my clothes until about three pm. I survived my day at work without incident and called my partner and told him which train I would catch and that it wasn't necessary to come pick me up I'd catch the bus.

I got to the train stop just before mine and thought wow I did it I'm almost home and settled comfortably in my seat for the last leg of my journey and I FELL ASLEEP!!

I slept right through my stop and woke up at the next one just in time to get to the door. The door was making the warning beep it makes just before closing when I realized I wasn't at the right stop.

I thought: "Where am I? I never saw this stop before? Should I get off here? Maybe I was mistaken and we weren't close to home?"  I had to think fast even though it all felt like a dream.

I read the sign and realised that I was at the next stop so I jumped off the train quickly.  I walked out all tired and sleepy into an arctic wind and realized for the second time WINTER IS HERE.

I called my partner to pick me up and I had a warm and wonderful dinner made especially good because he made it and it was cold outside and went to bed.

When I woke up it was snowing... THAT'S IT THERE IS NO DENYING IN WINTER IS REALLY HERE!