It is presently 6:05 p.m., and I have just finished shovelling our fairly long double-lane driveway, as well as 15 or 20 feet of sidewalk.
It snowed last evening and long into the night, adding as much as five inches to the possible three that we already had.
As for the shovelling, keep in mind here that I am 72 years old; and I spent just over 11 days in a hospital in October ─ diagnosed with "COVID pneumonia" ─ after becoming so helplessly ill here at home that I could no longer stand let alone walk.
I lost the strength and ability to walk, and for the first few days in the hospital I was not even able to do aught but lie in bed ─ initially peeing via a catheter, and then using special 'bottles' made of the same type of cardboard that egg cartons are comprised of.
If I needed to defecate, I was assisted to get up from bed and eased onto a wheeled 'commode' and had to do my business on that contraption. It was not until my fifth day that I decided that I had undergone enough of that indignity, and late that afternoon I cautiously manoeuvred my way to the actual toilet there in my room.
This was without authorization, for I was not supposed to be getting out of bed without supervision.
But that was the beginning of the pathetically slow recovery of my ability to walk again.
My lungs were diagnosed as being scarred, and there is still a type of 'burning' when I breathe deeply.
Anyway, I did all of that shovelling ─ no one else was home ─ and avoided a heart attack; now I will think positively that one will not strike over the course of my evening or even my night in bed.
I have a few photos to attempt to illustrate the area I had to shovel.
I took these first two on Boxing Day (December 26, 2021) ─ supposedly around 8:15 a.m. and 8:18 a.m. respectively, but how could it possibly be dark at that time of morning? Anyway, I was standing at the mouth of the driveway and facing towards the house to capture our Christmas lights display:
The sky does seem to be brightening in that second photo ... and at this time of year, it still is dark at 7 a.m., so maybe that time is not really illogical after all.
I took this next collection of five photos just this afternoon, around 1:33 p.m., and while looking out from our living room window. Note that the sidewalk ends to the right just where that last small fence post is just by the stretch of bushes. We live in a cul-de-sac, so from there pedestrians find themselves at the mouth of a very short alleyway that is blocked off to vehicles, but which people can use to access a nearby main avenue. I had to shovel the sidewalk from our driveway to that post:
Had I not undertaken that chore, I would have gone to a pharmacy about four blocks from here. I do not drive, so I would have walked. However, I no longer feel like tackling the extra exercise, minor as it might be.
Actually, I came into the house fully intending to locate a Christmas movie via our Android TV Box and the apps that I have downloaded into it, and enjoying some dark rum as I watched the feature; however, in choosing to work on this post, I deprived myself of that opportunity, for I cannot watch a Christmas movie once my younger brother arrives home in the evening after he has done some drinking. He has no romance and imagination in his heart for that sort of fare.
We did watch a pleasant enough movie today from roughly 11 a.m. till nigh 12:30 p.m. The movie was 2001's Doc Martin. Last week we had watched Saving Grace, the movie that introduced the character in a minor supporting role. (A somewhat better description of the movie Doc Martin than is offered by IMDb can be found at either Letterboxd.com or Trakt.tv.)
My design is to eventually watch the Doc Martin TV. series, but there is still one further movie featuring the character that I feel must be watched first.
Martin Clunes as the character Doc Martin is delightfully endearing. His wayward wife was played by a very attractive actress named Lynsey Baxter.
Also of note was the very attractive actress ─ Neve McIntosh ─ who played a mother with an undiagnosed asthmatic son. It is unfortunate that this character seems not to be repeated, for Neve appealed to me strongly ─ I would have lost my heart to her character if I had ever been exposed to someone like her.
Supposedly the character in the movie was married, but she stated something to the effect that her husband was often absent for long spans of time ─ whatever that was about. She gave the impression to me of wanting someone who was far more available.
It is now already after 7:30 p.m., and I must yet have some supper, so I am going to bring this post to a close. I just wish to record the confirmation that my wife provided late last evening that there is evidently a mouse in the house. She uncovered a collection of droppings beneath some white rice sacks that were stored beside out refrigerator.
I had speculated to my brother and wife a day or two earlier that a potential rodent had gotten at four or five fairly small or medium-sized tomatoes that had been left on the floor in a tray ─ the tomatoes seemed to have had sections chewed down to their cores.
Apparently that same night while my wife was up, she claimed that she could hear some sort of stirrings that she thought came from the living room / dining area, but she found no evidence to support the brief noises when she investigated.
And now late last evening she has finally found the proof of the uninvited and unwanted presence. My brother left a mousetrap by the fridge where the dropping had been.
Anyway, that's that for the nonce.
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