somewhat relevant ramblings

It's snowing. And has been. It's been a snowy winter. It's like the clouds up there are bored and so, just for the fun of it, they decide Hey- let's snow! And so- poof- they snow. And snow And snow And snow. It was snowing when I thought about this post a few days ago. It was snowing when I started it hours ago. It was snowing when we left for the village. It snowed as we walked out to our friend's. It snowed while we walked back out to the road. It snowed the whole way back to town. It's still snowing. It just snows. For the fun of it. No, not like in some parts of WI and MN- doesn't manage to accumulate to huge deep amounts. But most winters here involve some snow and then days and days of mucky yucky wet and sloppy stuff that gets darker and murkier and yuckier with each passing hour. Not so this winter. It's been just cold enough and just snowy enough that there always seems to be fresh white stuff on top. That's not all bad, really.

There were some guests here recently. Several couples, one with kids. We saw the tail-end of them Sun eve. We'd been slipping and sliding all afternoon. More fresh snow on top of what had started to melt and then re-freeze. Lots of slipping and sliding. I'm pretty good at keeping my cool on the bus in bad road conditions until I can feel the back end of the bus fishtailing. Which is what was happening Sun afternoon. We were glad to get in safe and sound. Had a little time with the guests. They had a flight the next morning. They'd had train tickets for that night to get back to Kyiv but they gotten lost so had opted for a car at 1 am. Which was proly smarter anyway, considering they had a little kid with them. Not so smart considering the roads but you have to go with the options you've got, right? We slipped and slided all the way back to our town and were glad to get there. So- yesterday morning, I call back to their family in Town A to see if they made it ok. I don't know, the mom said. Last I heard, they were stuck in traffic. Their flight was at 10.30 and this was at 10.00. Mind you, I nearly had a nervous breakdown on the spot. Not for me, for them- sympathetic sort of thing. (Not really- but I did take a very deep breath.) What happened, I asked. Well, they decided to leave at 2am instead of 1am. Oh. I let that go- no point bemoaning that fact now, right? Later, when she called back to say they'd made it, I said- What made them decide to leave later? Well, she said, in Regina [Saskatchewan] you'd need less time not more to get to the airport.
And that, folks, was such an airtight bit of reasoning that I was left with no breathing room in the conversation and signed off. (Let's just set it straight that I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the population of Kyiv is bigger than all of Saskatchewan... not to mention the distance involved.) It was, however, the best laugh of the day. We fell down laughing. 

And this is last week's company! See- they were even (mostly) warm! :)