Just had a look at the Gritter Tracker website. My nearest gritter, Grittie McVitie (you will only get this name if you realise that McVities are a Scottish biscuit company! ) is almost 20 mins away and looks as though he is going back to base so I guess no snow expected in my bit overnight tonight. Snowball is also 20 mins away but it looks as though he is going up some country roads.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
We gave up having our milk delivered after our longstanding milk man retired. The poor chaps trying to make a living now don't come around here anymore. The last one used to drive up the road around 3 a.m. not stopping anywhere nearby that I could hear. And no longer seems to be around.
Late night delivery is not unusual. There is a company van that delivers or collects at one house around midnight once a week. The driver parks on the main through road, and walks with a torch and rummages in the porch of a particular house. I only started to notice one night I had forgotten to put the bin out, trotted out trying to put the ruddy thing out quietly, and got a cheery but soft "Good evening". They are pretty quiet apart from hearing them with a sack trolley sometimes.
A whole centimetre of snow.... I had better get my big coat out then, or as Billy Connollys mother would have called it " The Duvet"
Commiserations about your car Hosta, we had similar happen, old but nice car, low mileage and very good condition, except the little git wrote ours off.
Benn awake since 5am, heavy cold and cough. Trying not to wake OH, but he was awake anyway and got up to make a cup of builder's tea. Bless him ! Couldn't taste it, but it looked good and was warm and wet, which was the main thing ! Thought it was later than it was, but it's lighter due to the snow, l would say around an inch or so. Looks lovely when it's all pristine, but glad l don't have to go out in it.
I can top the story about nightmare energy suppliers. We'd been in our last house several months when we realised we'd not received an energy bill. Over the next three years, I wrote, phoned, emailed and sent meter readings, saying, "Please send us a bill, we are old-fashioned people who don't like being in debt." The letters, emails and meter readings were ignored, and each time I phoned, the person answering expressed amazement and promised it would be dealt with. It wasn't. In the meantime, phone calls came from other energy suppliers trying to persuade us to switch, to which I replied, "I doubt you can match the deal we're getting.". We did try to change suppliers, and were turned down on the grounds that we were "in dispute" with our current supplier. In the end, we involved the local paper, who sent a reporter and a photographer. That got their attention. They wrote off the three years arrears, and from then on, bills arrived regularly. Out of the money we'd saved, we sent flowers and whisky to the two journalists.
Reliable milkies seem to be as rare as reliable window cleaners. Our neighbour had used one window cleaner a couple of times so we thought we would give them a go too. They did a really good job, using the long pole to reach over the conservatory to do the rear windows. There's actually no other way to reach them without roof ladders. He phoned to tell us he would be round the next day, on the day our neighbour died so I put him off for obvious reasons. He said he would phone again in a couple of weeks, that was mid July and I'm still waiting.
The chap who delivered milk to my parents' place had been doing it for, oh, 20 years I guess. And the window cleaner had been coming round for at least 5 years. Both helped out when Mum died and Dad was on his own - keeping an eye on him. Helping his carer get him up off the floor one morning when he fell. I knew the milkie quite well - used to stop and chat when our paths crossed while I was walking the dogs early doors when we visited. Maybe in an area where there are lots of elderly folk, these sorts of businesses find it easier to survive, even thrive.
Gritter tracker - I think there is only one gritter in the whole of Cornwall. That may be part of the problem.....
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
These weather reporters on the BBC make me laugh (in an ironic way). Something along the lines of "We're heading ino the amber warning zone in Berkshire" with same voice of doom as if they were heading into the Chernobyl fallout zone. I know it's scary being stuck for hours and trying to decide what to do for the best, but it's not as though it was unexpected, and l wonder how many people thought "It'll be fine" and just carried on regardless. The advice of don't go out unless you absolutely have too seems to be disregarded so often.
Our original milkie was brilliant. He got here every day, come hell or high water. He was also the sort of person who did keep an eye out for anything unusual. Chatting to him on one occasion he said somebody further up the road had put the boxes out for hi-fi and a telly that had just been purchased. He advised them to take it back in and fold it so it wasn't obvious what had just been purchased. Small things, but useful.
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The poor chaps trying to make a living now don't come around here anymore. The last one used to drive up the road around 3 a.m. not stopping anywhere nearby that I could hear.
And no longer seems to be around.
Late night delivery is not unusual.
There is a company van that delivers or collects at one house around midnight once a week.
The driver parks on the main through road, and walks with a torch and rummages in the porch of a particular house.
I only started to notice one night I had forgotten to put the bin out, trotted out trying to put the ruddy thing out quietly, and got a cheery but soft "Good evening".
They are pretty quiet apart from hearing them with a sack trolley sometimes.
A whole centimetre of snow.... I had better get my big coat out then, or as Billy Connollys mother would have called it " The Duvet"
Commiserations about your car Hosta, we had similar happen, old but nice car, low mileage and very good condition, except the little git wrote ours off.
Gritter tracker - I think there is only one gritter in the whole of Cornwall. That may be part of the problem.....
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.