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Saturday, January 3, 2026

Enthusiasm Fading

Is there any better painter than nature—the way she handily utilizes white? Yet my characteristic awe...it's waning.  

Much chatter about nature here. The snow continues. It's relentless. Where else can we put it? It's everyone's new part-time job. It's like the annoying wannabe bully from Junior High. Could you go somewhere else? However, longing for needed moisture, we respect it...yet we're all studying our roofs with anxious eyes. Some of our neighbours are worse off than us. 😟

Nevertheless,  my spouse and I cleared a section of snow on our roof today. Our home was built to withstand snow. It has an interesting history I should share someday but here's the gist: transported to our community from Canada's Northwest Territories (Great Slave Lake) in the late 80s (then refurbished and remodeled), it's built for the Canadian North. And it's bones? Sturdy. More sturdy than us, in fact....

To ensure good air quality and ventilation, we used a rake style snow shovel and cleared a section above our kitchen and bathrooms. Why? Our vents were under 4-5 feet of snow! The last time we did this, we were 20 years younger! I stood on the ladder and raked snow from the roof while my wife shoveled the snow as it came down. At one point, my pants creeped uncomfortably low so my wife pulled them up for me. 😆 What can I say? We're an unfailing team, and it seems, a part-time spectacle. 

Dear friends, I will never not be inspired by nature's painterly hand, but she's drunk and needs to "brush" off. 😉