Friday, March 22nd - it's a dark and stormy morning!

It's still dark but we can hear the wind howling outside, as it blows around all the new snow that fell last night and continues to fall this morning. My first look out from upstairs didn't look too bad - no snow on the car, but when I got downstairs I realized it's because it all blew off. Until the sun comes up I have no idea how much snow is piled in the driveway, apart from what the plow just pushed in. Good thing my driveway's on a hill! We'll see how it goes at 7:00.

Today Brenda and Lloyd are going to spend part of the day making sausages. They've both prepped their meats for this mornings grinding and stuffing of the latest delicacies. When Lloyd was away, he took a trip to a sausage making supply company in the US and came back with all kinds of flavourings for various types of sausages so it's anybodies guess what we have for supper tonight. That's assuming Brenda can get here! Bernie has a big truck  but he'll likely be out blowing snow first thing this morning.

Yesterday was quite an experience for young James. A young police officer was killed in Guelph last week and yesterday was the funeral service. They were expecting over 6,000 people to attend so two venues were being used.

One for the main service and the second one for the overflow crowds where the service would be broadcast onto big screens. The Air Cadets were asked to assist as ushers so James was allowed to take the day off school to participate. It was his first activity with the Cadets so he was a little nervous. How do we know he was nervous? He gotten halfway to the arena when he realized he'd forgotten his tie - this from a boy who takes every given opportunity to wear a shirt and tie!

 Patti was watching the procession of thousands of officers from all across the country. She could see James from where she was standing but not close enough to take a picture. She tells me that they were standing beside the Guelph police as the casket made it's final pass and he looked very formal and very solemn. It was certainly a huge event for his first time out and I pondered what might be going through his young mind as he witnessed the final send off for this officer. I look forward to talking to him about his experience when he comes to visit next weekend.

I didn't know Jennifer, the officer killed, but one of her platoon members spoke at her funeral and it was a young man I worked with many years ago in Corrections.  And yesterday Patti learned that Jennifer  did her police training at Conestoga College at the same time that she was doing her nursing program. It's become such a small world and our lives are all so intertwined, whether we realize it or not.

RIP #72