Wednesday 13 January 2010

The best laid plans etc

It was, I think, the Scottish poet Robbie (or Rabbie if you prefer) Burns who wittered on about the plans of mice and men going pear-shaped. I am just another of those men. Having rested my wearying legs and back for a while, I returned to the snow clearing and had just started digging into the three inches of ice and compacted snow across the pavement when a neighbour came home from work. When he learned that I hoped to get the car out today to take SWMBO to the hospital, he went home and fetched a shovel to help. We eventually cleared two tracks just over a wheel wide (each) which I thought enough to get me up the drive and onto the road.

This morning I looked out of the window to find another two inches of snow had fallen, almost completely obliterating yesterday's work: and it's still snowing. So it's back to square one. Well, maybe square three.

Weather this bad is most unusual for us here, which reminds me of a quote from one of my favourite books, HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean. The scene is an inlet on the coast of Iceland during a particularly fierce gale from which a number of ships are sheltering during WW2. The wind blows back the flight deck of a merchantman converted to a carrier. With delightful understatement, an officer on a nearby ship says,'My word, that is unusual'.

Hey ho, time to tramp up to Asda, the dog foregoing her walk this morning (much to her disgust).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Men plan, God laughs."

Brighton Pensioner said...

Or, as we say here, "Man proposes, God disposes".

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

We sit here awaiting news of the outcome of SWMBO's hospital visit. Your concern is evident because she's otherwise the Old Bat.
That, and there is some hope that you actually returned from Asda?

Brighton Pensioner said...

Concerned? No, not really. Just thinking that the poor old dear could do with some TLC from a kind doctor to put her mind at rest.