Today I start with a training session at 8:30am and end with a test from 7:30-8:30pm. A full day!
I did not realize when I posted about the Cinderhill fire that I knew one of the families displaced. They are now staying at a hotel, looking for a new place.
The early darkness and chill is restricting my bike abilities.
I have not been to this community and feel very bad for the families- maybe it wasn't a good idea in retrospect to call it Cinderhill St. Building so many houses close together makes for a higher risk for fire spreading though new builds you would think have more fire protective materials.
Today in the middle of our big printing push, some of our printers started to fail. I think that we are back on track though.
One amazon package arrived and one is still lost somewhere in Mount Hope.
We are in the season where it is very difficult to predict which coat I will need to wear each day. I have been able to keep up some biking, which is impressive.
I put in an order on Amazon and they decided to break it up into 2 packages which they said was so I could receive them quicker but most likely was actually because they were coming from different warehouses. One was coming from Alberta and one from BC. They both arrived in the amazon facility in Mount Hope within hours of each other. However, the package that was supposed to arrive first never made it out and is now listed as "delayed in transit" for another week.
When I went on my biking trek on Saturday through the Oak St. garden I saw heaps of Vesper sparrows. I'm guessing they were migrating and stopping for some delicious grubs in the gardens. I can't recall seeing them before.
I have tried some of my British treats- the ones called French cakes or something like that (the main reason for my trip) were absolutely divine and worth the trip (along with the curry chicken pie). The club biscuits were slightly stale but maybe that is some of their charm. They were ok. The jaffa cakes were also ok. The orange smarties did not taste like the orange smarties of old. They were ok. The orange Aero was very good.
I got some important things to the printer today- it was due on Monday so just a wee bit late. Normally Wed is my remote day- I have a remote training session at 8:30am, got my submission to the printer and then went in for an in person day until 6:30pm.
Had a naan bread for dinner and went to my group but then James came home at 8pm and I made him dinner and then we worked on statistics for many hours.
A new British bakery opened a few days ago. As the location is close to the 401 and biking season is almost over I decided to check it out today, knowing it would be busy as it was a new opening.
The first section of the trip is a bike ride through the Oak St. gardens to the division St. bridge. I can't bike over the bridge so I walked that bit. Then biked to the Landmark studio that had a bike rack for parking. Then I walked to the British bakery.
The lineup was through the whole store so it allowed you to look at the aisles as you waited. The store is pretty small so the lineup was a square through the whole store. The lineup took an hour. During the lineup is where you can pick up grocery items. I chose some treats. I had especially wanted to get the Mr. Kipling's as I remember the British family serving them. I haven't tried them yet- I hope they taste as good. At the end you get to the bakery portion. I didn't know what most of the things were but I picked out a chicken curry pie for $7.50. I ate it as soon as I got home and this pie was worth the trip. It was incredible!
James is fighting an ear infection and probably a lung infection as well. He had the presence of mind to tell the doctor that he can't swallow pills and she prescribed him chewable antibiotics but they didn't have any at the pharmacy so he got stuff to sprinkle on feed. We have devised a process for this as he'll have a few bites of yogurt with the medicine. Seems to work.
He really needs to rest to get better but he spent the whole weekend at the rink.
As I was walking home I heard an electric crackle and saw a fire between some wires on a telephone pole. I thought that a drone had hit the power lines. Then the fire went out and something black plummeted from the power lines. I still thought it was a drone at the time, burned. But it hit the ground with a thud. It was a squirrel. Dangers on the ground from cars and dangers in the air from the power. And yet, there are still so many of them.
I went to meet with Deirdre at 8am at her hotel. I picked a route that had bike lanes so it was a longer route. We hung out at Tim Hortons for a bit. I then biked over to Rustle to do AV. Then biked home. Probably 17-18km. James went golfing as the weather was so nice. I made him steak, rice broccoli when he got back, then made a pot of soup so he can heat it up tomorrow as I have an extra long day.
It was very chilly this morning so I needed to wear my winter coat to Loblaws. Loblaws was pretty quiet but the self checkout computers were having some issues to that cashier was busy.
I did some laundry and dishes and then took a nice nap in the afternoon.
For dinner I picked up Barburrito. I was able to wear a fall coat as it had warmed up a bit during the day. Tonight, James wants my help as he is practicing for a group presentation tomorrow.
Normally I get up earlier than usual on Wed to put out the garbage so that it doesn't get ripped into overnight. It was always light at this time. This week it was dark. I'll probably fall back to putting it out the night before.
Yesterday, due to the cooler weather and the need to bike I wore my next halara outfit of the black pants and top. It was indeed very comfortable and warm. I will need to go back to wearing tights with dresses again.
Yesterday we had 3 classes making progress on their projects. I just managed email. Today is 4 classes and they are tech sessions so our technical TAs will be attending.
Last night for the chef's plate meal it was spaghetti with meat and peppers with hoisin sauce. Which ended up being so late I had to eat it while at my e-group.
We are having an accessible door put in our office that somewhat confuses me as our door is pretty much always open. I guess it is in case staff need it?
Tomorrow I have a number of meetings and training sessions and lots of work to get done, not sure how the two will mix.
Karen, Sandi and Sandi's son Justin and I spent the weekend attending a conference at Desert Stream. It was really good. Barry was the speaker and I have known him and Tammy for many years so it was so good to see them again. When we arrived at Desert Stream this evening there was a police officer there in an unmarked truck. Apparently there had been shots fired nearby. I am not sure if the officer was warning them or looking for a suspect. We arrived pretty early so there weren't a lot of people around, so not too many to check for suspects. The officer peeled out of the parking lot before we had entered the building. Karen had been in Belleville earlier in the day so was going to meet us at Desert Stream. She had picked up some dinner (hummus and crackers) and went to a park nearby to eat it. Unfortunately for her the shots fired call came from close to where she was enjoying her food. Maybe even in the park itself. She was detained! And of course her phone was dead so she couldn't call us to let us know. Eventually, the police officer let her use his phone but I didn't hear it ring (and the call name was from "unknown caller") so we couldn't come to rescue her. They likely were detaining her for her safety and not because she was a suspect. They eventually decided it was duck hunters and let her go and she arrived just as the service was starting. A pretty exciting day for her!
It has been a busy few weeks. Today was very long.
Today was Halara Day so I put in an order in the morning. I knew that it the special for the day was going to be a free pair of pants so I had looked at pants to pick the one I was interested in. But when I logged into my basket, there was only one kind of pants with 2 colour options. The pants weren't one of the ones with the "petite" option so I'm a bit worried that they may be too long. I would have chosen petite if that was an option. There were 2 colour options, one orangey and one black so I went for the safer black one. I also got a dress, a shirt and a skirt (which hopefully will go together) so 4 pieces of clothing for $100. Not bad for Halara Day!
I worked until 1:30am today as I was trying to get student registrations in before the synch happened with the course websites as that happens overnight. I need the synch to happen for the next steps for uploading the groups.
James also is not sleeping because his team beat Quinte. He is smiling ear to ear!
6am will arrive very soon.
