I took my usual vacation so I could extend the gratitude, times for reflection and enjoy me some cool autumn temperatures.
We had a mixed bag of weather but that didn’t affect the memorable moments during various family gatherings.
Camp Fortune ski hill and fall colours
Accomplishments:
Succeeded with an argument-free, three-night, four-day visit from a sibling;
Tasted several new, healthy dishes – even helped make a batch of Keto freezer cookies;
Learned an exciting new recipe;
Avoided tourist-y crowds in Gatineau so we could see the fall colours of the Gatineau Hills (been there, done that);
Attended a fund raiser event that supported medical research plus the love of reading. Came away with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a bag-o-books;
Went for morning walks when it wasn’t rainy and dark;
Only had to use the Ottawa public transit bus service twice;
Read, relaxed and got in lots of afternoon naps! They are SO underrated.
A lightly carpeted path in the park
The waning moon accompanied me on my morning walk
Tickle, tickle moon!
I spent no personal time on a Windows computer. Yay!
Your PC will restart several times – and make you guess if it does!
I got to spend more time with the Tabby Cat.
Now it’s reality time on a Sunday evening. I feel like a kid on a school night, having not finished my homework and dreading the next day. I have a job. I have a job. I want a job closer to home!
This should be titled “Lessons RE-learned after the storm”
But first… What storm? you ask.
I’m talking about the SIX tornadoes that touched down in the Ottawa Valley and neighbouring regions on September 21, 2018. One of them smacked the Hydro station serving thousands of customers in Nepean.
tornadoes cause mass outages
‘We’ve pretty much lost everything’: Homes destroyed as Ottawa-Gatineau
It was quite the event. My area of the city lost electricity for 50 hours.
How about you? Were you greatly affected?
We are grateful that it was only electricity that we lost and not our roof, our shelter, our home. Other parts of the region were not so lucky.
If you live in Ottawa and survived the ice storm of ’98, you should have been prepared at least with an emergency preparedness kit : candles. matches, battery powered / wind-up radio, dry goods, water – something to hold you over for the first day or two.
Prior to the tornadoes hitting our region, we received those annoying alarms on our cell phones. I received them on both my personal cell and work phone.
Land line hold-out still has communication
I was able to communicate by telephone with family who had power at their end of the city, and with two of my adult children who called to check in on me from other provinces.
My cell phone service was working fine – as long as the battery held out.
I was able to follow status updates by listening to the battery powered radio and checking for updates on Twitter and local news websites on my cell.
Lessons learned
One valuable lesson I learned was not to procrastinate with laundry and homework.
The previous weekend was so hot and humid that I couldn’t muster the energy to do laundry. After assessing my closet contents, I figured I had sufficient work wardrobe items to last the next week. It did but my plan of doing laundry on the next weekend was foiled by the loss of power on September 21st.
Luckily, on the Sunday, a kind family member let me do a load at his home, to shower, recharge devices, plus enjoy a hot meal!
As for the homework for the online course I am taking this semester, I should have applied myself to the readings and not gone to see The Bookshop mid-week. I had good intentions to do homework on the weekend of September 22nd.
Well, I couldn’t. I had no power, no home internet to access the required reading. Again, thanks for family and friends, I was able to use their WiFi to access the reading for that week’s lesson. I also sent an email to the course facilitator, asking for an extension. She was understanding and extended the deadline for the entire class by a couple of days.
A quiet, powerless Caturday September 22nd
The cats were oblivious to the lack of electricity. I knew they’d be okay in the dark because of their night vision.
One annoyance during those two darkened nights was that the old boy would wander and meow from dark corners in the apartment. I had fun getting out of bed to shuffle around, to find that black b@stard and shush him.
On the Saturday night, early Sunday morning, the little b@stard knocked my little flashlight off of my dresser, causing me to crawl on the floor on my hands and knees, feeling around for the thing in the dark.
On the Sunday, I got back into my morning routine of going for a walk around the neighbourhood. The sunrise was colourful but eerie, illuminating the darkened streets.
Sunday Morning Sunrise Sept 23
Will we be ready for the next time?
Environmentalists and climatologists predict that due to climate change, we can expect more of these powerful storms travelling down our valley.
This week I attended the final class for the second course in the Spring 2018 semester at our local college.
In addition to obtaining my final grade from the instructor, I enjoyed conversations with classmates and a potluck supper abundant with food from different cultures. I was stuffed! It was interesting to learn more about the backgrounds of my classmates plus hear what they planned for the next steps in their education journey.
Aside from the stinky summer humidity, the stress from too many obligations and frustrating rush hour bus commutes, I enjoyed this back-to-school experience.
I enjoy acquiring knowledge and meeting new people. I was proud that I kept on the path for my five-year plan.
The occasional smell of nicotine and pot smoke reminded me of high school. One floundering, talkative classmate claimed that his Cannabis use was for medicinal purposes. Okay… who am I to judge? The times they are a changing…
My clear-minded final grades for the two courses are 91.5% and 89%. Not bad, eh? I look forward to taking just one course in the next semester. I think it’s all I can handle right now.
Deep Blonde Thoughts 