In southwestern Ontario, a late-winter storm is likely to be violent and dangerous, but they don’t last long. Friday’s weather bomb lasted until sometime after midnight, but stopped abruptly when the system rolled past Toronto and headed down the St. Laurence River. When the sun came up, the temperature was already above freezing. The cloud cover thinned and vanished by noon, and by suppertime the sky was a clear blue.

Nick’s Snow Removal keeps my driveway clear all winter for the princely sum of $650.00 Canadian — a screaming deal. I shovel the footpath myself, just to keep up the skill. By the time the new owners of the bookcases showed up, the strong sun of the afternoon had made away with the last vestiges of snow on the footpath and the third of the driveway closest to the house.

So, no quaint Cornelius Krieghoff scene of “Canadians Moving Bookcases in Blizzard Conditions”.

(If you don’t know about Krieghoff, he did Currier & Ives-type paintings of country life in Quebec, where it was apparently always winter.)