Scattered Thoughts . . .

The other day, I noticed the weather forecast showed that we had snow heading our way that evening or the next day.  I instantly remembered that I hadn't gotten to any of the maintenance needed on our snowblower due to health problems and miserable weather.  Actually, I hadn't gotten to a few other things on my To-Do list that were ahead of the snowblower maintenance but now the snowblower was bumped up to be the priority.  It took me about an hour to find and collect the right tools and then to block up the snowblower.  The weather wasn't too bad so it was nice being outside.  The temperature was in the upper 40s and the sun was peaking through hazy clouds low on the horizon.  It is that time of year when the sun never gets higher than the treetops so any sunlight is a bit of a surprise.  Anyway, I had collected all the necessary tools and the snowblower was now blocked up on chunks of 4x4's.   I needed to change the oil.  That actually went well and quickly.   T

The snowstorm that was forecast to hit us actually did materialize and it dropped a fair amount of snow on us.  Sheila and I spent about three hours clearing out the driveway, the paths, the mailbox, the fuel tank, and the roof.  This is the longest amount of time snow removal has ever taken us! We removed about 14 inches of snow and, since then,we've had another few inches.  I actually expected far more snow to be dropped on us this storm but, considering how much work it was to clean up today, I'm thankful that we got considerably less snow than was forecasted. Thanks to some of Sheila's old co-workers, we have a nice snowblower and that has come in handy many, many times since it was gifted to us.  This helps out my spine significantly but, I should point out, it is still a painful experience.  The snowblower is actually a bit too heavy for Sheila to handle so I am the one to manhandle the snowblower while Sheila gets started on raking the roof and doing a little

Back in August, when Sheila was first diagnosed with this latest cancer, she received a lot of love and attention from all her friends, family and co-workers. Visitors and telephone calls were very common during this period and it was all very much appreciated not only by Sheila but by me as well. Besides, we needed some social interaction and, actually, still do very much. The social interaction is a nice break from the seriousness of cancer and we don't get much social interaction since the cancer has returned. Although Sheila had changed jobs a year ago, her old co-workers all got together to provide a card and some much needed cash to help with any of our expenses. That was definitely appreciated by both of us. Thank you, everyone, for that! Around the same time, Sheila's old boss from her old job called to ask what she could do for us. Wilhelmina has always been very thoughtful and a supervisor anyone would want to have on their side so her question came as no surprise