MINI Winter Rant

It really is Winter here. The snow just keeps on coming with no regard as to how we are to deal with it all. Sitting at the dining room table the other day, I looked out the window to sneak a peek at our new MINI Cooper. Unfortunately its positioning in the driveway made it completely invisible behind a pile of snow. Good grief! The weeks go by and we are treated to days without snow, instead being precipitated upon by rain or ice pellets. The least hint of sunshine is welcomed, nay worshipped with a road trip in the MINI, however short. Time spent out of doors usually involves shoveling, bringing in wood for the stove, shoveling, lugging 40 kg bags of pellets to a more convenient spot, shoveling or arranging with the fellow across the street to clear at least the end of our drive with his snowblower. You know - that mountain of ‘heavier-than-any-other-snow’ deposited in the end of the drive by the plow. I used to wonder, but now I am firmly convinced that the snow-plow driver has a sixth sense regarding the timing of his passes. Bright and early last Saturday morning (around 7 am) Larry had finished clearing out all the snow in front of and around the MINI in anticipation of our road trip to Kingston. I joined him with our coffees and freshly baked scones to stand beside the car and discuss how our trusty steed might handle the deep snow on the street. Not a problem actually. From further down the street came the sound of the plow and before we could leap into the MINI and escape ahead of it (a dangerous action even to consider) the plow cleaned the street with one mighty sweep. The driver couldn’t have helped but notice us standing there beside our freshly cleaned off car, but I can’t be sure. I didn’t dare look at him for fear I might have given him the evil eye. We just stowed our coffee and scones in the car and grabbed our shovels. We were indeed capable of moving mountains, taking to the road about 15 minutes later than we had planned. Of course, the driver had to pass us once again as he cleared the far side of the street. Digging away on our side, we were safe from that wave of snow, but the driver was probably wondering if he was safe from us. Ah well, everything happens for a reason and we were, after all, expecting a delivery of one-and-a-half tons of pellets while we were out for the day. Now Earl would have no problem getting in to the bottom of our drive. Indeed he did not and we arrived home to a monumental tower where the MINI is usually parked. All we had to do was shovel a path, move 75 – 40 kg bags of pellets in the wheel barrow to their new location at the other end of the drive, re-stack them and put a cover over the new pile. At least it wasn’t snowing…

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