You are in My World Now

You are here: Home / Archives for Home and Lifestyle / The neighbors

Snow, ice and even a thunder storm

by

We’re experiencing yet another winter storm here in Toronto. It started last night with freezing rain and since then it’s been snow, snow and more snow! Oh yeah … thunder and lightening too. Pretty weird if you ask me!

Last week we had a really big snow storm. I think it was Friday because I remember cleaning off our car while I was outside in preparation for going to our Puppy training graduation that evening. Of course it was still snowing that night and only three other people showed up with their puppies so we had a trick class – a bonus extra – and our trainer said we’d have an extra class this Friday for our puppies graduation.

Well … that day it snowed a lot! When I went outside in the afternoon I shoveled the snow. There must have been close to a foot of snow on our walkway, the sidewalk and maybe two feet of snow in a big ridge blocking our driveway.

It wasn’t too bad shoveling the walkway and sidewalk. I even did our elderly neighbors sidewalk too, but by the time I started trying to clear out the snow that was blocking the end of our driveway I was getting tired. My back was starting to hurt too.

Of course the snow blocking the drive way was a little melty due to the salt or melter that had been spread on the street so it was really heavy! I think I almost quit shoveling three times.

It’s amazing how hard snow shoveling is on the body! I’m a nurse and on snowy days there’d always be a larger number of people, usually men, coming in to the ER with heart attacks. It’s very hard on the heart and most people over do it. Even I over did it. If I felt like quitting shoveling three times I should have stopped and taken a break, but I didn’t.

Makes me wonder whether I’ll even be able to shovel snow at all when I get older. A senior living residence might be looking good by that time! LOL

Anyway, today we were lucky. The sidewalk snow plows came around in the night and at least once in the morning so all the sidewalks in the area were free of snow. I wish they’d done that last week since there was a heck of a lot more snow last Friday!

Have you had to shovel a lot of snow recently?





Our old house

by

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Old Fashioned

skylight

This weeks photo theme is old fashioned and well … my house is of an old fashioned North American style since it was build in 1927.

When we first moved into the neighborhood we met a man who lived across the street at the corner house. He remembered the houses being build and in fact had lived in his house as a child! He moved away as a young adult but bought the house when it was available later in life. So he lived most of his life in that home!

We got a lot of stories about the old neighborhood and what the area used to be prior to housing going up. Basically it was farm land. I guess back then, this was the outskirts of the city, but these days it’s almost downtown!

The photo above was taken a couple of years ago when my husband and I, with the help of some friends, were putting a skylight in the roof of our enclosed porch. That’s why there’s a big hole in the roof … we were only half done the job at that point!

Our house is triple brick and the walls are plaster and lathe – with no insulation! Luckily the house was very well build and it seems warm enough even on very cold winter days.

BTW see our narrow driveway? Our car barely fits in it and it’s a compact car! Believe it or not that’s a shared driveway. We only own half of it! Luckily our older neighbor (Sofie my stalker) doesn’t have a car and doesn’t mind us hogging the driveway all the time. Otherwise we’d have to make a deal with the neighbors to use the driveway half the time or something. No wonder I sometimes think about getting a Smart Car … it would probably fit our half of the driveway easily!

You know what grinds my gears? Rude people

by

The other day I was walking down the street to my doctors office. I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance to a few of my doctors.

Unfortunately during the time that I was walking, there were also a number of parents or perhaps nannies/babysitters walking from the nearby school with their young children. Every group of people I passed totally blocked the sidewalk.

Don’t people move over to one side when walking on a street or pathway anymore?

Just to get by these people I had to walk on the grassy boulevard or stop in peoples driveways as a they passed by using the whole sidewalk. As a result my shoes got damp and covered in mud as it was a warm winter day and things were melting.

Come on people. Have some courtesy. I was always taught to move to the side, usually the right, when people are passing. If you’re walking in a group go single file when you pass others.

It’s just the polite thing to do!

Plus, while I may look like a fairly health woman I have a chronic disease that causes me constant pain and I was in a great deal of pain that day. Slowing my walk by having to wait for others to pass by, and walking on uneven ground when people were to rude to allow me to share the sidewalk only caused me more pain.

I need to keep my guard up when walking my puppy

by

Yesterday when I was walking our puppy a man crossed the street to come over and pet her.

I had a strange feeling about the man as he approached. He was very short and looked like some of the patients I’ve cared for many times in the ER. I have no proof but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d just come out of our drug rehab or possibly the psych ward. Remember I live only three blocks from the hospital so there are patients that are currently being treated for a disorder walking around at times as well as those that have been recently discharged.

The man turned out to be nice. He said he really loved Labs and that they always loved him. Judging from my pups reaction what he’d said was true as she greeted him as enthusiastically as she would anyone else.

Still … the whole encounter got me thinking about safety. Walking up to someone with a small or young dog could be a good way to get close to someone when you have bad intentions. I mean, most people that have approached me when I’ve been walking my dog are very friendly and I’m sure they are just dog lovers who want to meet my puppy, but it would be a good way for someone that wanted to mug you or perhaps even steal the dog to get close.

I think I’ll keep my guard up a bit more when I’m walking Midnight – well at least until she’s fully grown and hopefully a bit more protective (or at least might intimidate a would be robber). I know labs aren’t known for being guard dogs but I’d hope someone with bad intentions would think twice before approaching someone with a mature lab.

I walk the puppy at all hours and for the most part I feel very safe walking around. This was the first time that I felt really uncomfortable when we’ve met someone that wanted to pet her. I guess that was a little wake up call.

Neighbors renovating

by

Well our neighbors finally took their house off the market just before Christmas. They decided to try to sell again in the Spring. First however they are going to work on their home to make it more appealing.

This week they had gas connected to the house and earlier today there was a lot of drilling and banging going on as they had their new gas furnace installed. They’d had oil heating prior to this and I guess some of the noise I was hearing was their old oil tank being removed. We’ve got a oil heating as well and I suppose at some point we’ll have to change over to gas.

I think our neighbors might be renovating their bathroom too. I saw one of their old bathroom vanities sitting outside.

There house needs a lot of work. They should have never tried to sell their house before doing some basic repairs and fix ups!

Meta

Pages

Connect with Us