Winter Ramblings. #2

Hi everyone! It is cold, windy, cloudy and snowing here at the moment. Kind of a typical winter day. We still don’t have much snow, however. The southern part of our province is certainly getting a lot of snow, up to 55 inches (140cm) in places. That was from one snowstorm. We had a snowstorm move through here yesterday and we got 4 inches (10cm). But it is generally too cold and dry up here to get huge amounts of snow.

Normal for the whole winter is about 6 and a half feet (2 meters) of snow. Though it was only about 3 or 4 winters ago that we had over 10 feet (about 315cm). But that is for the entire winter. And the southern part of the province is affected by the Great Lakes, which are not frozen, so storms pick up a lot of moisture from those huge lakes and drop it as snow. We are not affected by those lakes, thankfully.

Looking across a small bay of our lake with some light snow falling in the distance.

Hmm, the sun is actually trying to break through those dark gray clouds. The temperature is dropping too and will continue to do so until tonight when it should reach around -15F (-26C). Well, it’s easy to tell there isn’t much to talk about around here, except the weather. Anyway, have you ever had someone break into your home but not take anything? To keep with my little series on break ins, this happened to me. I was away one day and when I came home I got a phone call.

This was before cell phones. I was home only about 5 minutes when someone called me. It was a young woman, who obviously had seen me arrive home. That was unsettling in itself since it meant she was not far away. She said I had a beautiful cat. He sat in the window a lot, so nothing unusual there. But she said he was so friendly and purred so nicely. Okay, that was unusual. Then she mentioned that I had a lot of nice antiques and even mentioned some of them.

The highway coming through our town, railroad in behind that, light snow falling.

Nothing unusual with that as they could be easily seen from one of my windows if I forgot to close the drapes, like that particular day. Then she began to mention things that could not be seen through the window. Okay, now we are back to unusual. She even mentioned the beautiful oak dresser I had at the time and what clothes I had in each drawer, even mentioning the colors of my T-shirts and the order they were placed in the drawer.

I had to check that one since I wasn’t sure myself, and she was right. I don’t know about you, but it made me feel kind of strange knowing that someone had been in my apartment and had gone through everything I owned. But she did not take anything, she told me that too. I even checked thoroughly afterward and nothing was missing, not even some money that was sitting on the dresser. She wanted something else from me. I told her that was an odd way of asking for it.

Apparently she was associated with some “friends” as she called them, meaning one of the gangs in town. She would check places to see if it was worthwhile to rob. Saves time for the others, she said. So, if I gave her what she asked for, she would tell her “friends” that there was nothing worthwhile to steal at my place. What she wanted was a “fun night” with me, as she put it. I talked to her for a bit and told her no. Then I got permission from my landlord to change the locks and put something better on.

Boat docks looking rather lonely this time of year. Off to the left is one of the outlets to our river going under that bridge. Soon ice will begin to cover our lake.

She called back a couple of days later and said she noticed I had changed the locks and I keep my drapes closed so she can’t see in anymore. So she said that wasn’t very nice of me. I said it wasn’t very nice for her to enter my apartment without permission when I wasn’t home.

She agreed and told me she had told her “friends” there wasn’t anything to steal at my place, so I didn’t have to worry. I thanked her and she hung up. I never heard from her again. It was a rather unusual experience, but I was thankful that nothing serious happened. Oh well, I hope you all have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2024 Steve McLeod.