Dec 21 - another easy drive

Knock on wood !

We left the hotel a little after 8am, walking across the road to City Hall and picking up the car.  From there it only took us a few minutes to drive to another parking lot, this time at the St. Lawrence Market.

Sandy had some sort of bun; Lauren chose a chocolate croissant; Megan and I had the peameal bacon sandwich ... breakfast was done.  Next we did some grocery shopping -- sausages, peameal, shrimp -- I must be forgetting something because we had a lot to carry to the car ! 

From there we headed north.  I wasn't sure what we'd encounter since freezing rain had been moving through southern Ontario.  The roads were clear, however, and we made it to Kim and David's in good time, dropping off Megan.  We then went to Stef and Aaron's, visited with Stef for a while, saw Kylie who was now home, picked up Abby and headed north once again.

The roads were clear all the way to 522 but we did stop in Parry Sound along the way.  I dropped off a piece of mail at the post box at the Shoppers Drug Mart then went to the LCBO because there were a couple of cases of wine that had come in.  Whoops.  Either cases.  Good and bad, that means hauling all this stuff down to the house in the snow !  While parked at the LCBO I stopped at the TD Bank and deposited three cheques and then we went to Home Depot to pick up some items and Sobeys to pick up some fresh veggies and milk. 

522 was sloppy; that's the best way of describing it.  Plowed and salted, it was still salty because they seem to drop the salt in one line on the road so there's a strip that's clear.  We're supposed to get more snow today, Sunday, so it will stay sloppy.  We weren't in a hurry. 

Osprey was a bit sloppy too but that was due to a couple of inches of fresh snow.  We don't salt Osprey.  We do put down sand if it's slippery.  It's no problem at all if you have snow tires or four wheel drive but can be dicey without either.  At any rate, we continued without a pause, got down to the house and unloaded and then I put the car back up in the barn.  Keeping it in the barn means that I don't have to clear snow off it !

We had sausages for dinner, done on the barbie.  I've got to do some repairs on the old grill -- the twin strips of metal that hold the removeable dripping tray have finally rusted out.  That grill is what, 18 years old ?  I can manufacture some of those strips myself and bolt new ones in place.  I'll check it out today in daylight and decide on whether that's a "now" project or must wait until Spring.  If the latter, I'll put on the cover and use the other grill, the new one that's only a few years old -- eight ?  nine ?  something like that.

Today, roads permitting, I'll go to Britt for Mass.  Actually I don't see myself not going.  There won't be enough snow to hold me back.  The only time I took a pass was when we'd had freezing rain.

It's time to get our tree too !  I'd like to do that today because we'll likely go into Sudbury tomorrow and pick up more food, getting prepped for Christmas dinner and a crowd.  We could also go Tuesday but Christmas Eve could be a zoo.

I see that it's 10F here and 70F in NSB.  Why are we here again ?  Why is getting groceries an all-day affair ?

We were stopped in Barrie at a traffic light yesterday and a police car pulled up beside us and motioned that I should roll down my window.  Ugh.  What now ?  I thought that I was going to be told off for having my licence plate obscured or some such thing.  He said "you're going the wrong way" or something to that effect.  "You're supposed to be in Florida now, not here !" -- ha !  Barrie's a friendly town in spite of its size.

Onward !