Yesterday's high was +15C; today we're at -10C and sliding to an overnight low of -17C. The fierce wind is blowing snow in all directions. The only good part of this is that Marc the contractor shuffled the kitchen pieces in the garage so I could park in it, saving me a most unpleasant snow-scraping experience this morning.

It's St. Patrick's Day, which means the amateur drinkers are out in force in every licensed establishment in the Ottawa Valley. A good day to stay home and keep one's head down.

The kitchen renovation has achieved peak mess, with plastic sheeting taped to the walls and ceiling and everything on the ground floor displaced to somewhere it does not belong. Yesterday was pot lights, which meant dry-wall work and even more dust than before. Today, I think the new toilet is going into the ground-floor loo, replacing the cracked one that the house came with. (Someone clearly shit a brick.)

SIL No. 1 continues to feed me at least two meals a day, thank God. It's kinda disorienting to have a toilet but no functional sink on the second floor, and a functional sink but no toilet on the ground floor. My toothbrush is currently boarding at Brother Andrew's house.

At least two more weeks of this. Give me strength.