Maggie’s New Calendar of Wisdom

Attila had quite a time getting the car out of the driveway this morning. He was soon back for the metal shovel.

It seems the little car he drives acted as a plough, so that after travelling a short distance the front tires of the car would become suspended on the snow packed under the front of the car. He would then have to shovel that snow out from underneath the front of the car, and travel another short distance until the tires were again suspended. It took him a half an hour to travel a quarter of a mile to the highway. Then he had to shovel out an exit through the snow bank across the end of the road. He was just a little bit late for work, but I had called ahead to let them know he would get there as soon as he could.

The snow we have received since last night is deep, and it is still coming down. A blizzard was supposed to reach the area by the afternoon. I wondered if Attila would make it home again, if he managed to get the car as far as his workplace.

Just in case he did not make it back, I asked him about the woodshed and kindling. The firings in the masonry heater must go on!

We received about 40 cm of snow last night, this is what the yard looked like this morning. This afternoon we are expecting snow squalls and a blizzard with gusts to 60 kmh. The wind chill will be -34C.

Later on in the morning the plough came through, leaving a deep and dense snow bank across the end of the driveway. After dressing warmly in parka, boots, hat and gloves I headed down the driveway with the snow shovel. My aim was to clear a space large enough so that Attila could get his car off the road when he returned home.

For me, inactivity has been an issue since the beginning of December, when winter closed down most of our usual activities. Because of this, due caution must be exercised in tackling the job of shovelling snow. Overexertion can cause health issues for those not accustomed to heavy work… that would be me!

So, it was three snow shovels full of dense and heavy snow, heaved onto the five foot high snow bank, then five minutes of rest. It was beautiful out there, with the wind whispering across the blue sky, gently beguiling snowy drifts down from the tree tops. The snow sparkled as it spiralled slowly down. The five minute rests were pure pleasure. An hour later there was room at the end of the drive for Attila to pull in off the road.

When the blizzard hits us later today there will be a lot more snow to contend with!

This is where Mist and I exist, all day, every day. You can see how central the source of heat is to our lives. Mist’s kitty basket bed is to the left of the masonry heater. I am sitting on my easy chair, taking the picture.

A blog entry I read recently mentioned Leo Tolstoy’s “Calendar of Wisdom”. After reading a few pages, that were available on Google Books, I fell in love with the book, enough to buy a copy. I first thought to purchase a digital copy of the book. In Canada, that would set me back $19.99 plus taxes. Then I noticed a used hard cover copy for sale, from a seller in Ontario, Canada, for $14.00. The shipping is steep, $6.95, which is much more than it actually costs to ship a book by postal service. However, the price of the book plus tax and shipping is still less expensive than the digital copy. The bonus is, I can read the book in a power outage. We seem to have a lot of those these days, power outages.

The pages of the “Calendar of Wisdom”, that I could access online, displayed quotes from philosophers, but only male philosophers. No wonder the world is such a mess, when whole segments of knowledge are invisible through suppression, indifference, and perhaps ignorance, which is why I suspect Tolstoy forgot about the wisdom of women in our world.

I decided to approach this deficit myself, to provide myself with a companion book to Tolstoy’s “Calendar of Wisdom”. I call it ““New Calendar of Wisdom”“. I am working on it, so far I have posted quotes for the first three days of January.

Suggestions are welcome! If you have a suggestion add it as a comment, then there is a record of your contribution right on the page!

I began the calendar yesterday, and am slowly working my way towards posting the quotes on the current day.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT
SNOW SQUALL WATCH IN EFFECT
SNOWFALL WARNING ENDED

Current Conditions Light Snow
-11°C
Date: 7:50 AM EST Monday 6 January 2014
Condition: Light Snow
Pressure: 99.6 kPa
Visibility: 8 km
Temperature: -11.1°C
Dewpoint: -13.0°C
Humidity: 86%
Wind: WNW 18 gust 32 km/h
Wind Chill: -19

Quote

“I run a senior support group in the neighborhood.”
“What would you say is one thing that seniors need most?”
“Just human connection, really.”
“Can you describe a benefit of human connection?”
“Well, we had one elderly lady living alone awhile back, and she got taken in by a scammer who convinced her to give away all her money. If she’d had someone else to talk to, and been more tied into the community, that probably could have been prevented.”

Unknown Gentleman, Humans of New York, HONY