The delightful sound of pouring rain

I woke to the fantastic, delightful, and rapturous sound of rain on our skylight! I couldn't sleep in; I leaped out of bed to begin the day. We're surrounded with 5 feet drifts of snow, which are now melting. Yikes. I ventured forth yesterday and it was horrible. The bus stops and the pathways to the Skytrain station have NOT been shoveled once in 3 weeks. Isn't that appalling for a city like ours? While waiting for people to unload from a bus in front of the 7-Eleven store at the corner of Kingsway and Joyce, I saw a blind man fall into the snow drifts as he got off the bus.

I felt so sorry for him, so today I will write to the Mayor and the 7-Eleven store, and ask why we have had to suffer for so long. Has no one heard of shovels? I thought there was a by-law for all businesses to have their sidewalks shoveled by 10 am. I guess I'm mistaken. The Mayor stated that the side streets couldn't be plowed because they are too narrow. Yet in 1970 they were all plowed in the deep snowfall we had then. Very mysterious. The bus stops were also cleared regularly.

This has turned into a sad and mournful post, but my parents, who live in a condo nearby, haven't been able to get out for 2 weeks, because of the horrible condition of the sidewalks. I think it's very selfish of the businesses to be so careless and unfeeling. Where is our community spirit?

On a brighter note, here are 2 photos of lovely things I bought last Friday. (see below) The first shows my fantastic deals on fabric from Fabricland, bought at 65% off! Can you believe it? One of my favourite hobbies is sewing and collecting vintage patterns. Simplicity has reprinted doll patterns from the 1950's and 1960's! These were on sale for $1.99 each. The 2nd photo shows my scrap booking stuff on sale from Scrap Book Warehouse on Oak St. That is one fantastic store. The wooden stamp set with paper was marked down from $45.00 to $4.00! I love sales.

 By Loretta Houben