Anticipation

So, serious snow was threatened for today. We didn't get any in the village. What should have been snow came down as rain. We certainly had the high winds from the North East and they were showing about zero degrees so, with wind chill, that was quite impressive. I drove missy to the lunch time exercise at the Whiteadder picnic place and we had almost a white-out there with wet snow coming in at about 30 degrees. It was settling on the grass but not on the roads. The picnic valley is always colder than surroundings and today was much worse. I had expected this and had a good selection of clothes on but it still forced me back to the car after about 20 minutes. That dog is as weird as can be. Sometimes here she wants to go outside and sort herself out but does a refusal on the very doorstep if it is raining to the slightest degree. She firmly resists any nudging and squats down periously close to the threshold. However, get her out into weather like today and she is off and running with not a care in the world. She normally keeps a check on me to see where I am. Today's weather meant that anything more than 30/40 yards away was invisible but she dashed off like a runaway train.
George Best finally left us today. I never saw him play live but always watched on the television where possible. He was a star in the days when football was far tougher than today; if defenders could not see the ball, they kicked the man who had it. In addition to getting the ball off them and controlling it as if it were stuck to his boot, he ran around his attackers. I once saw him play the ball by bouncing it off a defender and then re-take control and run away. His private life was his undoing. I think that he was easily bored with something he found so simple to do and had to find things that would turn him on. He had a native wit as one would expect from the back-streets of Belfast but not much education to do more than booze and play the social life. I do not join with those who criticised him for - as they put it - wasting his transplant. If it fitted medically then he should have had it. To allocate spares on the basis of the value of the receiving individual is not the way to make life-saving decisions. It does seem to be creeping in. Some NHS trust has said that it will not do hips or knee replacements if the patient is obese. That, to obese me, is like saying that it is OK to drive over wobbly cyclists.
We're well ahead of the game here. All the Christmas presents are collected in and only await wrapping and despatch. Card lists ready. Early skirmishes have been made on the food front with a big fishy order off to Loch Awe. I'm already in Christmas mode - wishing it was all over.
My puppy and I have a bonus day tomorrow. Norma is away at sparrow fart to some 'Ladies who sew' event at Harrogate which means an early start and late return. I am due to go to the Farmers' Market at Haddington for big chunks of venision but, other than that, the day is our own. Mind you, all bets are off if the looked-for snow descends tonight.