Heavy snow started falling on Wednesday and let up about noon yesterday, and yet more is due tonight and tomorrow. For the first time in years I put on my high boots yesterday; with the snow well up over my ankles, I’d get a soaker for sure digging out the front path in my normal Stratford boots.

The snowbanks are now both a menace to navigation and an attractive nuisance. They are so high that little kids climb on them to slide, running the risk of skidding into traffic, while drivers at intersections can’t see over them to spot on-coming vehicles. In Ottawa, city crews equipped with monster snowblowers and ten-ton dump trucks take down such snowbanks several times each winter, but Stratford apparently counts on Mother Nature for that service. I’m surprised by this laissez-faire policy because Perth County is the very buckle on the Ontario snow belt. Only six more weeks to go … unless it’s longer.

I haven’t done any more house-clearance this week while I’ve been nursing my sore back.

The visit to the plastic surgeon was a calm affair; she thinks the growth is a wart, so its removal would be “cosmetic” and therefore not covered by the provincial health plan. The tissue will be examined as a matter of routine, however, and if it turns out to be malignant I get my money back. The deed will be done next Wednesday afternoon. I will have a couple of stitches and probably a fat lip.