Hi, Mike!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

MP>  Hope you & yours had a Happy Holiday as well!


           Thankyou... we did!  The three of us were ready for a holiday,
what with school & therapy.  It began, as you already know, with a
concert which we heard about just a few weeks before the performance.  We
had made arrangements for the panto months ago, since that's now an annual
tradition with us & there are other folks involved.  Nora wanted to
continue with her therapy during the holidays too... what a kid, eh??  But
once Christmas was over things were much quieter.  The new year began
uneventfully, and then....

           Very early in the morning, on Thursday of the first week of
school, we had a couple of inches of snow.  When we walked Nora to school
it was still snowing... and although we were late the staff was thrilled to
see her.  I was pleasantly surprised by their reaction.  In January last
year I'd got a lot of flak because Nora was late when, from my standpoint,
weather conditions were a lot worse.  But on this particular occasion the
school bus was running an hour late & one of the staff members was
stuck somewhere en route.  Apparently they understand at last that
manoeuvring a wheelchair through the snow can be a bit of a challenge
sometimes too!  New snow is not a big deal, if there's not much of it.  The
problem for us is what happens when the snow gets deeper & lumpier
... or when the intersections are piled up with the stuff... or when it
starts to melt, and we have to detour around corners & driveways which
are completely covered in water.  Other people don't think about such
things because the main roads are clear by then.  Now they're thinking
about it, though, we got a call on Friday advising us not to come at six
inches with more on the way....  :-))

           On Monday Nora woke up feeling crummy, so we kept her at home. 
All this week, we've had unusually cold & snowy weather... combined
with some sort of gastrointestinal ailment to which we had all succumbed by
Tuesday night.  I was quite content to stay home in view of the weather. 
We laugh at the people from Alberta & Saskatchewan who don't go
anywhere when it's raining.  We laugh at the people from California who put
on their fur coats as soon as they cross the border.  But the folks from
Ontario laugh at us because the city is thrown into chaos by a bit of snow!
 If you come to Vancouver, forget the fur coat... most of the time all
you'll need is an extra sweater along with your umbrella, raincoat, and
galoshes.  People from Vancouver either love snow or hate it.  I love it as
long as I don't have to go anywhere by any particular time.  It's a rare
treat for us.  And because we were all sick, we just didn't bother trying
to go anywhere unless we felt like it.  I'm happy to report that we seem to
be on the mend now, at any rate, although we haven't fully recovered
yet....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+