All seasons

When I woke up this morning all the ice had melted and it was like spring. James had planned to go with friends skating at the Wolfe Island rink. You need to take a ferry. He was up early in the morning to go on the ferry but I warned him that the rink would likely not be open as it is an outdoor rink and the weather was too warm. But I was not heeded and it was not long before he returned as the rink was indeed closed. But he and his friends decided to go to Invista instead. This year Kingston's new year's celebration will also be at the Invista starting at 5pm. Normally they do this downtown with fireworks but they have made a change this year to no fireworks and being out in the township. Maybe this will improve the parking situation. Recently it snowed and so it is winter again.

The ice

From a few months ago- honey sesame chicken tenders

 Spicy Korean beef tacos

 From today- the front bush weighed down by ice

 Ice on trees

 I walked to Rustle with my useful boot cleats. I saw a giant branch of tree fall at the Memorial Center. The crack attracted my attention so I saw it crash down. Luckily, no power lines or people in the vicinity. We had 3 meetings. After the meetings things had started to melt so there was a lot of things falling from the sky. The sidewalk was still slippery. I ordered new dryer balls that the amazon delivery person hid behind the recycling bin. Very creative.

changing conditions

I woke up at 7 and everything outside looked like ice- the road, the trees, the grass, the laundry line but it looked like rain was coming down. An hour later everything still looks like ice but a bit less so. Clearly still rain coming down. As the temperature rises a bit more, things should change more drastically.

Icing

I made a giant pot of yummy chilli (James had chicken fingers and fries) When I took the green bin remnants out there was definitely ice over the green bin but not so much that I couldn't open it. The trees were making the iced crackle of being iced over. Our power continues to hold.

The Wait

We are under a freezing rain warning. I did some shopping before the precipitation started. While the city brined the roads and salt trucks rushed around. Now that the precipitate has arrived it has so far been rain. I am not sure if that negates the efforts of the crews in making the surfaces ice - ready.

I am also making another chilli as I had a lot of kidney beans left over from the one I made for my parents. I am cooking them now and then will add the rest of the ingredients.

Tomorrow I have a few meetings at Rustle assuming that the roads are passable to walk.

late night projects

I had a Ta who didn't leave comments on their projects so I needed to go through them- that took until 2am last night. But I slept in to 10am, which is rare for me.

Yesterday I went with James to get a winter coat in a boxing day sale. We made the purchase in under 5 minutes. There weren't many "cold" rated jackets left. Only one colour and style that James liked. But there were no "M" left. However, he tried on "L" and it fit ok, so we took that one. It is blue and quite nice. $250 original price, we got it for $100.

I need to go into work tomorrow to post more marks.

Boxing day

Last night was better for the coughing. I didn't take cough syrup or Vicks but I did use 2 pillows and I slept soundly through the night, so things seem to be improving.

Today I hope to take James to Marks Work Wearhouse to look for a winter coat. I am only choosing that one as it is in walking distance as I am not keen on driving on this day. If there is nothing he likes, we will try Sport Chek another day.

Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas yesterday with my parents yesterday so today was low key. The night was difficult for me as the cold seems to have loosened and so I coughed a lot. We slept in. I posted a bunch of grades, ready for the students (but they can't see them yet). Then I took a nap in the afternoon. Weirdly not coughing. How come I come when I lie down at night but not during the day? Who knows.

We had CR at Rustle at 6pm. NA was holding a special Christmas day where they went 9-6. We were doing a special movie night. I can't remember the name of the movie but it was very good. We had lasagna and treats after. There were some people with no family so it was especially nice for them to have this evening.

air filter

When the furnace cleaning person was cleaning the furnace he said that we needed a new air filter. He said that he could do it but it would be cheaper if I purchased the filters on amazon. So today I did and we'll see how that goes.

I coughed a lot last night so didn't get much sleep. I went to Shoppers in the morning and got some new cough medicine so I'll try that tonight. I'm not coughing as much during the day. Working on cleaning the upstairs today.

I have to get some presents wrapped for Rustle tomorrow as well.

Coach

James has been helping with younger boys hockey. I call them the "minis". Today the minis had a game at 7pm. James went to the rink around 3pm to clean up the locker area as his hockey team had a meal there and he had rented it for his minis as James' team doesn't have any more hockey until January. He's a pretty dedicated coach!

Due to his absence this allowed me to clean the basement :)

One potential reason for the increased volume at Loblaws was that it government cheque day as well as many other companies may have their cheques out today (not Queen's)

The other odd thing from the Loblaws trip is that there appeared to be feces on the floor. There was a "cleanup in the meat department" call. But I was unsure as to how it got there. A child? It was a bit strange.

The temperature is due to rise tomorrow, which is nice but hoping it dries up enough so that there is not too much ice when it freezes again.

Christmas sickness

I am currently battling a cold for Christmas.
This morning I took care of some dishes and laundry and then went to Loblaws around lunchtime. I thought this would be a better time than the end of the day when people are off work. But I was wrong. Loblaws was very busy. They had a "holiday market" going which they assumed that people knew about (and maybe the other people there did) but I did not. I still do not know what was going on. Inside there were people with stalls giving away what I assume would be holiday food. Outside they had some nice Christmas trees and some generators running (not sure for what) and some stalls that you had to line up for (again not sure for what). I saw them setting up when I was walking in and I thought maybe Santa was going to be there outdoors and the generator was to keep him warm. But the generator seemed to be for the stalls that I did not understand. I was carrying groceries so there was only so much that I could discern.
I think I will have a tea now.

ice slush

When I got home from Rustle, the plow had pushed a pile of slush at the end of the driveway. While it was still sunny-ish I shoveled the heavy slush before it froze. Everything is frozen now. The wind was very strong when walking!

rain snow

Yesterday it rained until it snowed. Today I went out to shovel and it was very heavy snow. At least I know what footware to wear today as the temperature likely will be dropping.

exam rolling

This morning I was at Rustle as Cogeco was there to fix the phone. There were some broken wires.

After that  I went back home and did some cleaning. Then I went to work for a long day of exam things. All went well. Tomorrow we will be doing the scanning so the marking can begin.

Rustle is having a local artisan sale tomorrow 10-3.

first turkey dinner

Today I had interviews and then we had our work Christmas dinner. I had turkey. It was a lunch portion so was pretty small portion but very tasty. They let everyone go home after lunch but I had too much to do to leave. Tomorrow is our exam and then will start the wrap up of term.
Yesterday out the window I could see as the flurries would blow in. The 401 is quite dangerous in these flurries and there was a fatality. The fatality was a man who had just had his house burn down a few weeks before and so the recovery for that family begins again. Very sad.

start of festivities

We had a holiday lunch today. We'll have one tomorrow as well and on Thursday. Makes up for no lunch tomorrow I suppose.
I am working on getting TA contracts out now but I am 2 weeks behind where I was last year which is no good for anyone.
Kim's mom is in the hospital right now as she had a small episode. She has had small mini strokes before (TIAs) so that is what Kim thinks happened. Her mom is not happy about being in the hospital so she seems to be back to her feisty self.

variables

Today was a pretty productive day considering I was wearing a few different hats. There were exam issues, course issues, hiring things to sort out for the next term. I didn't take a lunch today. I had a surprising meeting with HR as I sent in with no idea that there was a problem but someone who knew nothing about what I do had made a problem. After getting most things done I went to Rustle for a Monday workshop (from our Moved Monday series) on healthy relationships. Chelsea led this session and people were moved because they had never experienced healthy relationships.

While I see a lot of fire trucks as the fire station is close to Queen's today I saw 2 instances of police vehicles with lights and sirens but not in traditional police cars. One in the morning a large  black suv heading out brock St. One after the rustle with 2 dark coloured cars heading out Stephen to Montreal

Bell drama

Since the home phone line had not been working for a few months and we don't really need a home phone with the alternate cell phone, I had called Bell to get a new package. So I removed home phone but still have internet and TV. However the internet and TV somehow go through the phone line. And after the phone line was cut, so was the TV. So I called Bell to try to sort out the TV issue. I had to talk to a LOT of the technical support team in order to get it fixed. It was a 90 minute phone call. They kept having to "escalate" me but eventually they got it fixed.

I ordered a package from amazon and they said it would arrive on Monday. On Friday, I got an email that it had shipped and would arrive on Sunday. I was surprised as I did not realize that they delivered on Sunday. It arrived today.

Tomorrow at Rustle we are having a brunch between the services. During the upcoming week, there are many Christmas events to attend so it will be a busy week.

Remembrance

Today was the 30th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacare and we had a service of remembrance. I got to represent Maryse Laganière: