early morning black friday and saturday

On Friday I woke up at 5am not because I wanted to go shopping but just because my body decided to wake up then. A busy day at work with no lunch. James had a PA day but spent the day in bed fighting a cold. So he slept quite a bit during the day, which made it difficult for him to sleep at night. So he was up at 2am and that woke me up. So an even earlier morning as I didn't get back to sleep!

street cleaners

Last night the street cleaners were out and about on the streets which kept me awake but the streets are nice and clean. Going to bed early tonight!

plane crash

Last night about 5:20 a small plane crashed on the outskirts of Kingston. At that time I was walking from Metro to Food Basics as Metro was very busy and did not have what I was looking for. While the roads around food basics were busy, the store itself was not. The wind that they had been warning about (they note that in the news posts) certainly had not picked up in the 5-6pm range. After 7:30pm when I was walking home from CR I could feel the wind but it was not the crazy windstorm wind from a number of weeks ago where there were power outages and things fallen to the ground. I did put the recycling boxes in the garage just in case though.

locksmith

There have always been issues with the front door (because it is too large for the frame) but the side door started having a problem where you had to wrench the handle to get the door to open. After this had been going on for weeks. Maybe a few months even. I called a locksmith and he took it apart and found that the latch was broken so he replaced it and all is good again. A $15 latch. $100 visit. 1 fully functional door- no annoyance= priceless!

Greenery

I woke up this morning and the backyard transformed into something green which was nice to see. I hadn't seen green since I came back from St. Catharines. I had the day off because I worked last weekend so I decided to tackle all the leaves that came down in the storm before I left for St. C. There was a lot, not from any of my trees. I hauled them all to the back of the garden and created a giant pile. The neighbour lady thought I should put them in bags so she gave me one bag. But my leaves were not going to be contained in one bag. She also told me that I can't put yard waste in the green bin "They won't pick it up" but they do always pick it up if you put other waste on top. The city website says :

NOTE: Collectors must see food waste in the green bin in order to pick it up. You may include some yard waste as long as food waste is visible.

Fire in the park

When I was walking home yesterday there was a large fire in one of the BBQ places in the park. Generally when the BBQs are going they aren't as large as the fire last night. Though it was large, it wasn't out of control so it was safe in that way. However, there wasn't anyone in sight but there was a tent right by the fire so there may have been someone in the tent. The danger is that the tent was so close to the fire that it could have caught on fire. So I was trying to sort out if I should call the emergency number or the non emergency number (because it wasn't an emergency yet). But while I was thinking that through I heard the sound of the sirens.

Projects

Spent most of the weekend working on project marks.

Enjoyed Rustle today- the difference between the 9am and 11am was very pronounced- many students in the 9am and many community in 11am. Very different and yet still the same. We had a good time. Tomorrow Bob is running a series on "Winning the money wars", on Tuesday I have a scheduling meeting, on Wednesday I have CR, on Thursday I am running a test. The highlights of the week!

G1

Someone passed the written test and now officially could drive. Needs driver training and insurance first!

Has been a busy week after returning from a break in St. Catharines. Have to get the project marks out this weekend.

Storm aftermath

After the storm there was a gap in the foliage at the bottom of the garden. I thought it was just that the leaves had fallen but today I went to the end of the garden as I was wondering about the laundry line being twisted. When I got closer, there seemed to be a branch resting on the laundry line. But as I tried to move it off I realized that it wasn't just a branch, it seemed to be a dead tree that was just a large branch as it was still attached to the ground. I wasn't able to cut the branch with my clippers but I did manage to get the branch/tree under the laundry line in the hopes that gravity will pull it down to the ground. We'll see how it is doing tomorrow. There were some other large branches there as well and so that cleared up most on the question about the gap in the foliage- it wasn't missing leaves, it was missing branches.

There were also many downed traffic lights as I walked about today (the garbage ones lying broken on the ground- hydro had replaced them already)

4am

Yesterday many people were awake early at 3-4am because of the high winds. Today I woke up at 4am again but for no real reason.

Yesterday, I got our writing marks out but my email is still very behind.

Today my plan is cleaning the house and getting groceries. Not exciting but necessary.

Everybody knows it's windy

The wind picked up about 4am here and was very loud so I have been awake for a while. At 6am I remembered that I had not secured the recycling bins so I went out thinking I would need to search the neighbourhood but they had managed to lodge on the lawn so that was ok. They are inside right now.
There is now a "leaf bank" outside the house. There have been a large volume of leaves that have blown off the trees and collected into large banks by the side of the house. Winds are still at their peak for a few hours. There are apparently a number of trees and power lines down that is affecting the bus routes so far. We will see the affect as the city wakes up.

flooding

My email is still out of control but I am trying to chip away at it while still trying to do my work!

Walking home it was dark and rainy. For the most part the walk was ok just a bit wet but when I turned on to Victoria St. it looked like there was a car across the sidewalk. I thought it was just backing out of a driveway but it was so slow I thought I would cross the road. I did cross and then as I got closer I saw the puddle was all across the road and across the sidewalk so I thought I would walk on the lawn but the person ahead of me I saw that the was up to their knees. So I turned around and picked another street.

That street probably swallowed up kiddies trick or treating as there were no people on our street.

Hip hop

I did get to see Deirdre over homecoming and we caught up a bit and joked about how we ended up in similar problem solving jobs.

Homecoming went relatively ok. Not for the red bull van though.

Sunday was a hip hop for me. I went to the early service on Sunday, then to work, then back to Rustle for Faye's memorial.
We had some long days this week due to track testing.
Now Clara is in town so I'll see her this morning.

Homecoming

Still up to my eyeballs in work. This weekend is Homecoming at Queen's. Deirdre is up with some friends so I got to see her for a few minutes while she checked in a Grant Hall. She and her friends are participating in the parade tomorrow but I may get to spend some time with her after. But we'll see as she probably has lots of people to see.

unstricken

On Sunday night, the news of the school being open came through. So that changes some plans.
Then on Tuesday night James had a late hockey game and didn't get home until about 2am.
Yesterday I worked 12 hours. On the way home there was a racoon sitting on a lawn eating garbage. He saw me but was not concerned enough to leave the garbage. He was quite large. So I pretended I didn't see him. And we were both happy to pass each other by.
I got home early enough today to be able to mow the lawn!