Dependancy

This past weekend was a literal whirlwind.

Two tornadoes hit the Ottawa area on Friday. The immediate devastation in a couple of neighbourhoods in Ottawa-Gatineau and the small village of Dunrobin, was unreal. Particularly heartbreaking was the story of the father in Gatineau who just barely held onto his little girl from being sucked out of his arms.

In my neighbourhood I remember how unusually warm it was as I was walking home. It was windy, but not insanely windy. After I got home, there was a 30-minute period of intense rain while Margot, Glosette Girl and I were having dinner. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary until just after 6 pm we lost power.

Unbeknownst to me, one of the tornadoes had just hit a power station knocking out electricity to 200,000 people.

Clueless, we went for a walk in the warm evening air underneath an eerily calm sky. Stella Luna was still open so we enjoyed some cake there. They actually did an amazing job rolling with the punches. No power? No problem! Candles were on every table.

The harsh beauty of a post tornado sky

Same with a nearby yarn store where we enjoyed shopping by flashlight.

After our walk we went home and lit some of our own candles and had a little drawing party. It was actually kindof fun. So for us at least, the first night of the power failure was fun.

The second day...not so much. 

It was only in the morning, listening to our battery powered radio that we realized just how much damage had been done and how long it would take for the power to come back on. Afraid that the food in our fridge was going to go off, we moved most our perishables over to Glosette Girl's parents (they still had electricity).

It wasn't like the whole city was without power - the downtown core, the east end and most of Gatineau was unaffected. That allowed us to go on with our lives with only a few inconveniences. But we did make  changes. There was no Internet (except for limited cellphone service). No TV. We went to bed really early on Saturday. And I went to the store and bought a ton of candles...just in case.

Fortunately, by Sunday morning we were back in the "juice". Some people may still be without electricity though. You try going without electricity for four days - it gets old, trust me. We live in an interconnected electricity-dependent world. It's actually shocking how little it takes for the whole house of cards to start to fall apart.

Festival Fail

Sometimes things don't work out.

Last weekend was Tastes of Wellington West, a one-day festival in my neighbourhood where all the local stores offer discounts or freebies. Sounds good, right? If you read the news articles about the event you'd think so - hey hundreds of people came out - it must have been great!

But as a local resident I hafta say it was ...not good.

Part of the problem with this fest is that people are desperate for free stuff. They will line up 30 minutes for just about anything. And that's what what happened whenever a store gave something away. Want a tiny cup of free ice cream? 30 minutes. Stella Luna, one the local gelato stores, had an insane line right to the door. OK, OK, maybe I'm exaggerating - Margot was able to score a free cotton candy pretty easily. But still, sometimes the effort people make to get something free is kindof silly.

The spoils of war

Another part of the problem with this fest is that the sheer volume of people piling into the limited number of small local stores actually makes it one of the hardest days to shop. There are just people constantly in and out of stores and in your face that it makes it hard to want to try or buy much of anything.

It probably didn't help that it was hitting 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday - even the air felt like it was sweating.

Do I sound like a grumpy old man? Hurumph.

I am sure festivals like these are lifeblood for local business. So I would never say don't hold them. But like Canada Day in Ottawa, which often sees worst and slower service for more limited selections, maybe the best option if you're a local resident is to get out of dodge until the brew-ha-ha is over!

My Life in Schedules

Maybe it's just me, but I find these days I need to schedule everything if I'm going to get anything done. I was always pretty organized but I've taken things to a whole new level as I approach middle age.

Here are some of the things I schedule in my life:

• French practice: 15 minutes per day/6 days a week ("Bonjour monsieur! J'aime ta moustache!")
• Piano practice:15 minutes per day every other day. I used to do this every day but I have decided to dial it back slightly - a boy's gotta relax once in awhile!
• Gym/jogging - minimum of two but hopefully three times per week. Just call me Mr. Muscles.
• Take Margot to church: once per month.  A slice of spirituality with a side order of optimism.
• Haircut - once every five weeks (which is probably pretty slovenly compared to some of the hipsters around here who always seem to have perfectly coiffed hair)
• Writing a blog post - once a week. Gotta give my fans their Tough Cookie: Hintonburg Style fix ;)
• Hike with family - once per month except for the summer months of June-August (too hot). If you're curious about some of the hikes I've done check out this cool website.

That's just my activities. I didn't mention Margot's activities, work-related obligations, the day-to-day grind of chores, cooking and shopping. Plus I have to budget some time for "date nights" with Glosette Girl (ooh la la!)

It's kindof anal when I lay all everything I schedule in my life on one page like that. But honestly, I don't see anything changing anytime soon. If anything, it'll probably get worse! I just feel that at this stage in my life planning my life just helps me make time for all the things I want to do.

Day 129: All Done!

On day zero I huffed and puffed and used my muscle to get rid my old appliances out of the house.

On day twenty eight I gulped and pulled my hair out as my contractor explained to me just how many "old house problems" my kitchen had. Instead of tearing stuff down my contractor had to build scaffolding up just to prevent the ceiling from collapsing over my head!

On day fifty seven I basked in all the light pouring into my kitchen space and admired the new bones (a.k.a joists) that had been put in. I gritted my teeth with Glosette Girl and tried to avoid fighting too much due to all the stress from eating off of paper plates and relying on a mini "beer" fridge to keep our groceries cool.

On days fifty eight through one hundred and twenty eight I lived my simple little life here in Hintonburg, went on vacation hoping it would all be over, came back to realize that was wishful thinking and continued plodding along.

And, today, day one hundred and twenty nine of my reno, I can finally say that my kitchen reno is over!

We went from this:

(Oh and by the way - we realized today that we forgot to take a "before" photo of the kitchen so you'll have to use your imagination a bit based on these old snaps!)

To this:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Shameless plug and shout out to our contractor Chris at M3D Renovations. Thanks for all the hard work! Enjoy the tequila - you earned it!!