Tax time is looming on my side of the border, too, and about half of the relevant documents have yet to arrive. Every year some of them never show up at all, and I have to dig around the Revenue Canada website to find the data. Without actual pages of numbers in boxes, I always feel nervous; is this the year I screw it all up and attract hostile attention?

The inevitable mid-winter thaw started yesterday, and the accumulated snow already feels different. I hope devoutly that the melt lasts long enough to reduce the bank at the corner of my street by at least 18 inches so I can see the southbound traffic most likely to T-bone me on my way to all the places I go most often. On my way to church yesterday, I had to goose the accelerator like a stock-car racer to make the left turn ahead of a pick-up truck driven by a person who obviously owned the road.