Monday, January 25, 2016

Everything's Relative

So, after the day of boredom with an undercurrent of fear which is how it is in a major snowstorm, even when you're among friends, despite cheerful blogging to keep your spirits up, today was a bit different.  

Because one of the overriding emotions around here yesterday was rage -- the plows never showed up.  Which meant that my friends and I had to dig out an enormous amount of snow by hand.  We release our cars so that when the plows come, they can be moved to allow the parking lot to be cleaned up in sections. Pictures of my friends digging were ironic -- there was nobody else.

Except they never came.  No amount of emailing and calling management resulted in any action, nor any explanation, whatever. 






Until this morning, when the whole shebang swung into action, cats, plows, graders, and started the work that should have happened yesterday.  At this point, a lot of owners are calling for new management and firing the old one. I have been through a few management teams in my ownership of condo and townhouse, and have to say there's not much to choose between them.  They're all hopeless, as far as I can see.  Evidently they let the contractor decide to do one entire development one day, another the next, and so on, rather than the usual method of spreading the crews around to take care of everyone on the first day after a major storm.  We drew the short straw, it seems.

So, mad as a snowed-on hen, I decided to calm down and cook this morning, roasted a nice chicken breast, pounded then breaded with egg and panko plus hot Indian spicy things name escapes me, and sea salt.  Sliced, this will work in several meals in the next few days.

And I made a big soup, involving onions, turmeric, spearmint pesto, chicken stock, tomatoes, cilantro, pumpkin, bell peppers, and, after cooked and blended, a can of cannellini beans.  And it's great.  Spicy enough, very thick, and just good.  I do like the addition of beans, adds interest.




It's a good thing I made soup, since shortly after that I found that one of my neighbors, one of the people busy helping dig out my car yesterday, took a terrible fall in the evening, broke and dislocated an elbow, hurt her face, and quickly needed another neighbor to get her to the hospital.  Because there had been no plowing, ambulances could not get through, and he had to put her in his own car and get her  to the ER.

So, she's home today, awaiting surgery tomorrow, and the soup came in handy.  I ran some of it over to her for lunch, and it worked out fine.  After that I found I wasn't mad about the snow removal any more, beyond indignation that she hadn't been able to get the ambulance to get her in for treatment.  So I guess it all depends on the context.  

K. has so much more than snow removal to suddenly be concerned with, that it puts it in better proportion.  She has to figure out how to manage, a left handed person with a broken left elbow, single parent, teacher, needing to function and work, and drive and how to do all of this with one working arm.  Her daughter's old enough to drive, so that part's okay.  But still.

So that's the latest in this never a dull moment part of the world.


1 comment:

  1. Here in Cowtown only the main roads are plowed. The street I live on has been plowed once in the past 19 years. Being snowed in, snowed under, snowed upon some more I've learned to lay in extra supplies before the danged white stuff starts falling - this means in mid-October hereabouts.

    I watched a drone video of a neighbourhood in your part of the world just a few minutes ago where a car was barely making it down a road, but with a snowplow right behind him - blade in the air! Why couldn't the driver lower his plow blade and help the situation for the next driver? Most likely because he was a private contractor and it wouldn't have been permitted according to local by-laws, as is the case where I live.

    I remember the first winter living in these foothills of the Rocky Mountains when the snow was knee high before Halloween, the highways closed both east and west, flights cancelled. I stared out of my frost etched kitchen window and thought about the five people who'd died attempting to drive across the prairies a few days earlier, a slightly panicky feeling setting in and wondered why no one else around me seemed fazed by it? Winter is something to prepare for, err on the side of caution and stock up. Very sorry about your friend's accident. Hang in there Boud, we're almost done January. Even here in the frozen north the days are lengthening so there's hope for us yet. - Jean in Cowtown

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