out yonder window

Last year we were not having this kind of weather. I know that at the beginning of April last year we had beautiful spring weather. In fact... if we were having the type of weather we were last year I would be able to wear a skirt without the risk of frost bite or hympothermia. However, there is no point lamenting about the weather since I am not capable of changing it.

I spent my first night in my 4 week temporary abode (I'm housesitting). Under my care are two household pets... a cat and dog who are moderately behaved. The canine refused to go outside to do her business before I went to bed and instead woke me up at 2:30 in the morning begging to be let outside. I was already half awake anyhow, as my sleeping patterns are quite inconsistent, so getting up to send the dog into the freezing am temperatures was not so terrible. I was lucky not to be wrenched out of the depths of my deepest sleep. However, the dog would not come back inside. Maybe because the contracted dog walker (another neighbour) did not fulfill his contractual duty and come and walk the dog. I suppose I could have taken the dog for a walk myself... but I was doing some school work and I felt like sticking to my original responsibility as household pet supervisor rather than household pet personal trainer.

My regular schedule of late nights and late mornings has been altered due to my 4 week relocation. I have to be awake at the crack of dawn to greet my charge who arrives just after eight each morning. If this snow continues I will also start each morning with a snow shovel in hand to clear the driveway and a little path to the door. But that little ritual got lots of stares this morning. I know I wasn't holding the shovel wrong so I don't understand what the problem was. People in this town just have nothing better to look at than immigrants' daughter shoveling the driveway of another immigrant. Maybe my slightly non white skin gave me away as someone who belongs in more tropical surroundings. Note my cheerful and optimistic tone this morning... after all I'm giving the FSJ residents who like to stare the benefit of the doubt, and giving the impression that they are smarter than they look rather than the impression that they are just rude.