This morning, after the night before.

[tariki]

Snow here in the UK and last night, as it began to fall, I feared for today. "Global Britain" can quite often grind to a halt at the merest hint of a snowflake.

Our grandchildren were staying over, mum away on Care duty, and this morning we needed to get them to school (and picking them up later to take back to their own home, to "water and feed" until mum gets in about 10.30 pm) They were excited by the snow and (I think) rather hoping that school would be cancelled!

However, I was anxious, wanting a normal day (whatever a normal day is......🙂) But I need not have worried. About two inches of snow, but the main roads already cleared early on. The taxi arrived on time (the buses here are unreliable) and we dropped the kiddies of at school. They immediately ran into the playground, where a snowman had already been constructed, and a few snowball fights were in progress.......I love children! 

Me, I am the packhorse, with rucksack and two rather heavy carrier bags full of assorted stuff to drop off at my daughter's home. Amid the assorted stuff, Dave the minion and Brownie the teddybear. 

Then a bus into town, now having a coffee in McDonalds, with shopping to get after. 

At 73, I thought I had retired long ago! But I would not have it any other way. After seeing that snow last night I did think that today might turn into a nightmare.

 

My eyes being hindered by blind passions,

I cannot perceive the light that grasps me;

Yet the great compassion, without tiring,

Illumines me always

(Shinran, from "Hymns of the Pure Land Masters")

Namu-amida-butsu!

 

PS What did one snowman say to the other?

" Can you smell carrots? "

 

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by tariki
Added a joke

[romansh]

At 73 ...

Well, you would likely remember the winter of '66. It was a wonderful winter. BC ...before cars, well before a lot of cars. This is for a twelve-year-old. Probably a bit of a hassle for a seventeen-year-old though. Great summer though - with the world cup and all.

[tariki]

1 hour ago, romansh said:

At 73 ...

Well, you would likely remember the winter of '66. It was a wonderful winter. BC ...before cars, well before a lot of cars. This is for a twelve-year-old. Probably a bit of a hassle for a seventeen-year-old though. Great summer though - with the world cup and all.

It was 1963 that I remember. My first year as a paperboy. Mum would often say things like "there's a foot of snow out there boy!" and upon going out there would be about 1 cm. On this sunday morning dear old mum said much the same, I smiled knowingly, and found 2ft! Literally. And it was still coming down! But it never occurred to me to turn around and get back in bed. We were made of sterner stuff in those days! It was a cold winter, the snow and ice hung around for about 8 weeks, turning to hard ice on the road edges, making cycling treacherous. But I survived - obviously - and the tips that year were good. 

[romansh]

39 minutes ago, tariki said:

It was 1963 that I remember.

You are right.  I would have been 8. No wonder the show seemed deeper.

[PaulS]

14 hours ago, tariki said:

We were made of sterner stuff in those days!

When I was a boy I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down the mill, and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya.

 Courtesy of The 4 Yorkshiremen

[tariki]

24 minutes ago, PaulS said:

When I was a boy I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down the mill, and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya.

 Courtesy of The 4 Yorkshiremen

Ha ha! You've made me think of the Monty Python sketch, where the group all begin trying to outdo each other over the poverty of their childhood.

Can't remember much, but it went from "we lived in a two up, two down" to one claiming to have lived in a matchbox!

And Yorkshiremen.....

The guy who takes his cat to the vet.

"I'd like 'e to look at my cat"

"Is it a tom?"

" No, it's outside in t' car"

😊

(...then there was the lady from [H]uddersfield)