Wonders of Wine and Food

 Never mind about Feel Good Friday; mine became a Feel Fantastic Friday!

Story By Barbara Bell

The recent weather threw a wrench into my Christmas to-do list. We are house/pet sitting in South Surrey until January 03, taking care of two adorable dachshunds. I was not too concerned about the dump of snow we received and clearing the driveway, as we only needed to leave the house today to run last-minute errands. Our stress level was low; we were smug, thinking the snow would be gone. Smug in, thinking it would be gone, we turned down the owner's offer to ask the neighbour to shovel the driveway.

That smugness changed to a high-stress level for me yesterday. First, the mailman requested that we clear a path for him; second, Bob came down with a man cold (some of you might know what that is like, lol). Third, no snow shovel in the garage; (who really needs one here). Fourth, the turkey and roaster pan needed to be retrieved from home as we were hosting Christmas dinner. I no longer drive due to COPD and would not attempt it in the current conditions if I did. With my chauffeur/sherpa ill, I planned to Uber it, but the driveway needed clearing first! I started looking online for snow removal people; it was late afternoon by then.

Bob commented that he heard on Global News that there is an organization called Snow Angels which helps with snow removal. I googled it and filled out the online form; within 15 minutes, I got a response that someone would arrive at 8 am today to clear the driveway at no cost to us.

A young couple arrived at 7:45 am and cleared the driveway in less than an hour! I offered them hot chocolate, which they heartedly accepted. Brett is a civil engineer consultant with the Ministry of Highways his wife Emma is a pharmacist with Fraser Health. While they were inside warming up with their hot chocolates, I commented all I had to do now was get an Uber to get groceries and the turkey; they both chimed in with we can help you with that; the rest of our day is free. They patiently waited for me to get ready, then dropped me at Safeway for 2 hours to grocery shop and do a Dollarama run.

THEN they drove me to our place; Brett loaded everything on my list into our Costco cart and transported me safely back to Bob. Oh, almost forgot, they also helped water our plants. Although they would not take any compensation; (I wanted to give them gas money), I did convince them to accept a box of After Eight chocolates I had picked up at Safeway. So other than Bob having a man cold, this will be one of the nicest Christmases in a long time. To top it off, we get to have Max and Sadie and the ambience of a lovely home. And weather permitting, good friends are making the trek from Ladner to celebrate Christmas. Life is beautiful; we are truly blessed!

Kindness has been important for most of my life; today, we received an abundance of it and are very grateful!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

What about the Wine. The story to be continued!!

This part of the story could not be told until Christmas Day. I had ordered six bottles of wine for Bob from a Backyard Vineyard sales offer. I called the wineries manager, Norma. She happily filled the order and complimented Bob with six more bottles of wine. I could not of course, let Bob know the story behind the wine delivery until he was presented with the wine.

The wine was supposed to be delivered to a friend's home Suzzane who lived close to us. We were housing and therefore were not home. The wine was sent by FedEx to our home. Unable to deliver, the wine was sent back to the FedEx depot.

Having not received the wine, Barb traced the wine to the depot called Suzzane. Who volunteered to get the wine. FedEx refused to give her the wine.

Once again, our snow Angels came to the rescue; they drove Barbara to the depot to collect the wine.

Bob was more than surprised to discover a huge box of wines waiting for him on Christmas Morning.