kitten search & the Thaw

[cimorene]

We heard back from one local cattery! They're planning two litters probably this year and they asked about what kind of cat we're looking for and what our current cat is like. We spent a plesant time Thursday evening writing this - me writing, Wax correcting my Finnish spelling and grammar and making suggestions. I thought I might have to ask her to take charge of the part about describing Snookums, because as I said, I could talk about Snookums all day. But the necessity of composing in Finnish took care of that pretty much. I did edit it down a bit after the first draft, but it wasn't a huge problem.

There was a week of weather above freezing after about a month of the kind of weather this area USED to have in February 15 years ago or more. In that week the snow mostly melted from the paths and entirely from the streets, but the snow drifts and the undisturbed bits of snow in the middles of fields and spots sheltered from the sun still never got a chance to melt. Our driveway, particularly, doesn't get direct sun and the path from our door and our tenant's door to the mailbox and trash bin are problematic. We did put gravel on them a few times, but when the snow was slowly melting the gravel kept falling through the top layer of the ice and then refreezing in the middle of the night; there'd be puddles in spots and then huge almost flat sheets of ice in others. And now we're at the beginning of another week below freezing apparently, and it's snowed lightly twice more and hailed on Thursday.

Our tenant is scared of falling on the ice, not unreasonably since it's the primary injurer of old people in winter I think? She's hurt herself falling in the past, lost consciousness and bled from the skull several times; once she even had amnesia for about 45 minutes, which isn't even something I knew could happen and has frankly TERRIFIED me too. (For her and every other old person primarily, but I don't look forward to it either. I've fallen 4 times this year but I've never hit my head when I slip on the ice - I always catch myself on my arms and end up with bruised elbows, hips, and knees.)

Her side of the house is modern ranch styled, and it's so stylishly minimal that they did not put hand rails along the sides of the cement steps that go down from the door. (We have every intention of having one installed now that our attention's been drawn to this, but it was already icy when she pointed it out and it can't be done now until the ground's thawed; there's nowhere to anchor a hand rail without putting in a post.) Even graveling the path seems inadequate, but there isn't really more one can do - we could do a slightly better job of graveling the path perhaps. I've seen her adding more gravel herself and hacking at the ice with a metal shovel a few times. I hope she's not angry about it, but we haven't had a house meeting in the last few weeks, so I'm not sure. Also buying gravel is problematic as it's heavy and, as mentioned, our car is unusable until the driveway melts. You can buy gravel quite close, like 4 minutes' walk... but it's down a pretty steep hill that worked decently for sledding before they graveled it. Walking up that hill carrying heavy bags is a nightmare now.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

all good luck on all these fronts! spring is coming!

[laurenthemself]

Yay for the positive outlook for the kitten!

Would the place you can buy gravel deliver, maybe?

[cimorene]

Nah, we could get gravel delivered from somewhere else no doubt though, like a gardening supply place, but you'd have to buy a massive quantity then and we'd have to have someplace to put it, unfortunately...