• About
  • Contact

Deep Blonde Thoughts

~ Emitting thoughts, tongue-in-cheek observations on life and lifestyles

Deep Blonde Thoughts

Tag Archives: writing

Spring vacation 2020

03 Sunday May 2020

Posted by shewrite63 in community, Health, philosophy, reading, therapy, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

pandemic, spring, vacation plans, writing

It’s not like I was planning on traveling far during this long-anticipated vacation.

I wasn’t planning on flying anywhere, not even taking a train. I am usually satisfied with doing things around town like lunching with friends, visiting art galleries, museums and local parks.

Oh… shit.

We can’t do any of that anymore except through video conferencing platforms, virtual gallery tours and… walking through parks without stopping to smell the flowers or sit on a bench. Geesh!

I am disappointed that the COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled a visit from one of my sisters. Mellowing out on Friday, I made my list of vacation week activities, many  which can be accomplished while isolated at home. I even separated activities into “Fun and Creative” and “Responsible and Healthy”.

written list of thing to do during pandemic vacation

Spring vacation 2020 list of planned activities

I make efforts to write in my wellness journal and my diary, recording how I am feeling, what I have been doing to cope, who I have been communicating with, and any deeper thoughts. Apparently, this activity is encouraged by historians and psychologists.

I already got in a bit of writing on the blog where the Tabby Cat rules, encouraging others with poetic tendencies to contribute too.

So…What are you doing for your spring vacation?

Thanks for stopping by. Stay home. Stay safe. Get outdoors while doing that physical distancing thing. Take care of yourself and each other.

T

 

Lessons learned after the storm

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by shewrite63 in community, education, Food and Cooking, Health, pets, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cats, climate change, college, education, emergency, emergency preparedness, Ottawa Valley, prepared, tornado, writing

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

Ottawa Hydro station damaged Sep 21

John Paul Tasker · CBC News · Posted: Sep 22, 2018 11:21 AM ET

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-storm-hydro-war-scene-1.4834710

 

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.

It sure held my household over.

The Canadian Red Cross even sells the kits or gives you a list of items you should include. See http://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada/be-ready-emergency-preparedness-and-recovery/get-an-emergency-kit

Finally, that alert ready alarm was right

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.

Cats on living room chairs

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

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.

I will be ready as ready can be.

Will you?

T

 

More crowded gatherings tests

30 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by shewrite63 in Art, community, Mythology, writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

anxieties, crowds, exploring, festivals, Ottawa, pysanka, pysaty, Ukrainian Easter eggs, writing

Last weekend I attended the Capital Ukrainian Festival.

I was looking forward to music, cultural crafts and … perogies.

I was also challenging my aversion to crowds, spending hours in the hot sun and lining up for food.

Ukrainian dancers on stage

Capital Ukrainian Festival – dancers

The musicians and dancers certainly entertained the visitors in the hot afternoon sun. There were all kinds of vendor tents and scheduled tours of the church.

Capital Ukrainian Festival- tents and church

Capital Ukrainian Festival

I abandoned my quest for perogies and other tasty treats due to the long lineups in the hot sun. The shaded merchant tent was more appealing for my delicate complexion and conducive to locating inexpensive, practical items. I found some colourful, blank greeting cards for sending to family and friends. Yes, I’m one of the people who still do that.

I was attracted to the watches displayed by one of the merchants. I was also curious about the symbols on the watch face.

watches brochure

Ukrainian festival – watches brochure

Coat of arms:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Ukraine 

It was the Tryzub Cross. I was curious to learn more. The Tryzub Cross is simply a cross-bar on the middle tine of a tryzub.

But what is a ‘tryzub’? And why should it have a cross-bar? ‘Tryzub’ (тризуб) is Ukrainian for “trident” and is one of Christianity’s earliest symbols. A trident with a Cross is associated with St. Vladimir the Great (980–1015).

Read more here: http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/tryzub.html

The merchant explained the history and practices of the watch manufacturer plus let me try on a couple of the ladies’ models. I didn’t commit to purchasing one right away yet accepted the brochure for something to look at while I digested the price! If you have the means and time to learn more about these beautiful watches, you can visit the vendor’s web site at http://kleynodwatches.com/

Eventually during my wanderings, I came across plenty of Ukrainian Easter eggs.

Did you know…? The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.

Read on here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pysanka

Pysanska souvenir egg

Pysanka souvenir egg

That appealed to me. Pysaty. To write.

This weekend I also wrote (well… typed) in my other blogs. Drop by if you have the curiosity and time. It won’t cost you much.

  • Paying your kids to move out: https://shewrite63.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/paying-your-kids-to-move-out/
  • My pen name wrote about memories of growing up Catholic: https://florencetlyon.wordpress.com/2017/07/30/memories-of-growing-up-catholic/

Thanks for dropping by.

T

← Older posts

Recent Posts

  • Home Phone
  • Dilemmas and distractions
  • Family reunion word fun in our virtual new world
  • Winter nesting during the pandemic
  • Using art therapy to enhance staycation activities

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 129 other followers

Follow Flo on Twitter

My Tweets

Blogroll

  • Learn WordPress.com
  • WordPress Planet
  • WordPress.com News

Links

  • Deep Blonde Thoughts – the other blog
  • Deep Blonde Thoughts Domain
  • Where the Tabby Cat rules

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • Home Phone
  • Dilemmas and distractions
  • Family reunion word fun in our virtual new world
  • Winter nesting during the pandemic
  • Using art therapy to enhance staycation activities

Categories

  • activism
  • Art
  • community
  • education
  • Food and Cooking
  • Health
  • libraries
  • Mythology
  • pets
  • philosophy
  • photography
  • reading
  • therapy
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Warm fuzzy
  • writing

Category Cloud

Art community Health pets philosophy photography reading therapy Travel Uncategorized Warm fuzzy writing

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy