Mostly pictures today because my words will not convey the whole story. There is always a sense of community when these things happen and soon after the storm during our drive around town, neighbours with chain saws were helping each other out. Trees blocking roads were quickly dispatched by citizens. There is still a lot of clean up to do, and many places do not have power yet, but the town is returning to normal.
July 20th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Massive Wind Storm Blew through Cranbrook (and much of the interior of British Columbia) taking our multiple trees and leaving 1000s without power. No injuries in Cranbrook, one death in the province.
Trees on an SUVCrushed Garage and Roof Damage on the House (three doors up the street from our house)Nervous Sleeping Tonight (across the street from our house)Ripped up SidewalkCrushed Beverage Cart and Golf Cart at Cranbrook Golf CourseMy Brother Surveying Damage at Back Shop (he’s the manager) at Cranbrook Golf CourseAsphalt Ripped Like PaperTree on Club House at Cranbrook Golf Course (that’s me and my brother gawking to give you an idea of the size of the trees going down)Massive Roots Ripped from the GroundRoofing Ripped off Apartment BuildingTree on Power Lines
PS – a 100′ 75 year old grand old pine was removed from our yard about 3 months ago. It is likely it would have toppled if it were still standing doing much damage to either our home or our neighbours:
After my Dad died, my mom decided to create joy in our backyard and so she had a large in ground pool installed. All during the 80s, my brother and I, our friends, and our family enjoyed long summer days in the pool. Days were spent in bathing suits, food was served poolside and we swam our summers away. Summer didn’t end when school started – it ended when we finally put the winter cover on in late September.
When we grew older, our interests changed, and fewer and fewer days were spent in the pool. I left home to attend university, and the aging pool needed more and more maintenance. Seven years ago, the pool didn’t open for the season for various reasons. It was jarring to all of us. Mom especially – this was her haven, her children’s summertime spot, and symbolic of active decision to create a positive life despite loss. Several years ago, the pool needed major investment to open and it didn’t. And each year since, there has been a reason the pool couldn’t or didn’t open.
Some decisions cannot be made quickly or without deep consideration. This place was our place – our newly healing family place. A major investment, a great love, the echos of our childhood. Do you repair something that isn’t being used any more? Do you fill it in so easily? And for five years, my mom has not been able to come to a decision that she felt good about. And so she left it because she could.
Last year the final decision was made – the pool would slowly be removed. The log fence taken down, the pump house emptied out, and the pool itself likely filled in. The work started slowly – first the slide and ladder were removed and given to friends we grew up with for their lake property so new memories could be created on it. The pipes were blown out, the gas line disconnected. Today, my mom and I tore down the heater to take to metal recycling. The filter disconnected and taken to the dump. And with a couple turns of my ratchet, the pump house is empty. There is still lots more work in the pool area, but we’re marking the milestones.
July 17th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Using the tools Mom taught me to use and she getting to walk a few more steps in culmination of our pool.
The Pool Slide Circa 1983. Fun with friends. Which one am I?The Pool Slide at Tie Lake. Photo Credit Loree Duczek 2011
Feed your children something that makes you feel a little guilty. Occasionally something they clamour for, something they love, and let them eat as much as they want. Make it a special occasion out of nothing. It’s part of childhood, it’s part of growing up and it will form the basis of a memories that they will hold dear for life. The rest of the time, feed them chickpeas, quinoa, organic fruits and vegetables, homemade meals, or whatever you believe gives them the best start at life. But don’t forget to satisfy the kids in them.
When we were kids, every summer we spent one week at Christina Lake at a friend’s house. During that week, we were allowed to eat anything we wanted – as long as we ate a good dinner and drank a glass of milk. I ate creamsicles, sugar cereal, cans of pop, potato chips, bugles, corn chips, cookies and anything else I could get my hands on. During the rest of the year, we didn’t have ready access to such abundances – it was carefully monitored and often not even purchased. Frankly, I spent so much time swimming in the lake and running around the beach that I probably burned all those calories anyways. And the joy it brought my brother and I!
I’ve told you of our wiener roasts before. Today we had another one. We gathered our new roasting sticks, fried onions and white hot dog buns and cooked them over an open flame. Yes, I know that hot dogs have terrible things in them, I know that white bread has little redeeming value and that marshmallows are sugar bombs. I don’t eat like this normally, and so I let myself savour the taste memories.
July 16th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Ordinary food made extraordinary with layered memories over time.
(Photo Credit Emile – no post processing)
Another Wiener Roast Memory. Aurora Borealis in the Fire Pit.
Greetings From Cranbrook, BC and the Levang Motor Inn!
Hours Door to Door: 15
kms travelled: 1525.3
Money Spent: $124.56
We had a plan – we were going to sleep in, enjoy the gym at our fancy hotel, eat breakfast, then hit the road for day 3. That all changed when Emile woke up early feeling refreshed – and with a thin wallet – and said “I think we can make it all the way today”. It wasn’t a bad idea, we had about 1.5 days of driving left and it felt silly to stay the night 4 hours away from our destination. So, plans changed – out of bed, in the shower, stop at McDonald’s, fuel up and head out of Winnipeg with a song in our heart.
Just a note here – for anyone who hasn’t had a McGriddle in a long time (like me) – they are as wonderfully terrible as you can remember a sandwich made with syrup pitted pancakes to be. And the Higgins and Burke Earl Grey tea was excellent.
There are those that will tell you driving the prairies is boring, but for me, I love it. The vast expanses, the fields of yellow and purple, the multiple tiny towns gathered on the highway’s edge and the land filled with grain elevators, silos and even small oil pumps. I also love that as a province, Saskatchewan refuses to change their time for Daylight savings – if it is 11:00 am in January, it’s good enough to be 11:00 am in July. They just opted out. I didn’t know you could opt out of Daylight Savings time. – I should try it in the Spring ahead and get my extra hour of sleep. Just like the city of Creston, BC who as a town refused to change their clocks – they are right on the timezone line, otherwise that could be problematic.
I also love that Western Canada seems to have an end to their cities. There isn’t outskirts for even most of the major cities – suddenly its upon you and just a quickly you are through. In Ontario, we stretch and spread beyond the city limits, and now it seems that Barrie to Niagara Falls is one unending path of human construction.
We stopped at a little bakery in Indian Head outside of Regina. I ordered 3 “jam jam” cookies and savoured them as we continued our drive. Actually, I didn’t savour them at all, I ate them as quickly as I could. Emile’s Long John – and I am talking about his chocolate covered pastry – disappeared pretty quickly also.
We missed any restaurant that appealed to us in Lethbridge, so ended up at Jimmy’s Drive Thru in Bow River about 40 kms past. Type of place that really doesn’t care about the service levels – just takes care of business. We ate our burgers on the go as we continued our trip through Alberta.
Do you know the speed limit in Saskatchewan and much of Manitoba is 110 km/hour? You’ve got a four lane divided highway with 5 km visibility. I wonder if they ever have accidents there? In BC a twisting mountain narrow 2 lane highway speed limit is 100 km/hour. I think one of these provinces need to consider adjusting. As Emile was passed several times by the locals, we enjoyed the reemergence of the mountain ranges, and I felt the familiarity of home.
This is where we’ll stick for some time now before carrying on to Vancouver and returning to Huntsville via the United States. It’s not very often that you take a picture of the welcome sign for three provinces in one day – it’s nice to have a break from driving.
July 13th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Photo Credit Susan – that’s right! Not Emile!
Greetings from Winnipeg, Manitoba and the Sheraton Four Points!
Hours door to door: 13 hours (Wawa to Winnipeg)
kms travelled: 1212.9
Money Spent: 292.89
After training in the hills of Huntsville, running 4K through the flat streets of Wawa felt pretty easy. Well, for the first 2 kms, anyways. But I ran further than I ever had before without stopping. Yeah me!
We had a later departure after partaking in a leisurely breakfast at the Empire. The perfect small town diner replete with aging waitresses, casual service, and fried bologna. (Emile says it just tastes like hot dogs – I didn’t need the experience)
The views yesterday were lovely, but there were more of the same of the sun shining over Lake Superior. We stopped in Terrace Bay and listened to what I associate with the ocean – the tide. It took us nearly 10 hours to drive half of Lake Superior’s rim – a large lake for sure, but dwarfed when you think of the grandeur of own country – Canada.
Our cell phones both were out of range and it was a liberating feeling to feel so far from our lives in Huntsville.
We purchased the most expensive per litre gas in Marathon 142.9/liter. (we didn’t fill up – just a half a tank – we showed them!)
Emile and I were both embarrassed to lack details of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. We couldn’t remember if he started on the East or West coast. Emile claimed to remember pictures of him running through the prairies, and I couldn’t tell him he was wrong.
We discussed him and Rick Hansen during our drive on the 100 km Terry Fox Courage Highway coming into Thunder Bay. We tried to think of others of any nationality that have made such a worldwide impact in bringing medical issues to front of mind – and couldn’t.
We stopped for an urgent pee break and to educate ourselves at the Terry Fox memorial near Thunder Bay where he had to end his run shortly before he died. In reading the plaque, it crystalized in my brain that he was running a marathon every day. And I barely able to scratch out 4 km with two good legs.
Driving through Kenora and into Manitoba, we were treated with my favorite scenic view – dark blue sky just after dusk with black silhouette landscape. Those skies were lit up with showy lightning, and we spent 10 minutes driving through an intense rainstorm reducing our speed to 30 km. It was exhilarating.
We tested our odometer just outside Winnipeg and discovered that for all practical purposes it is accurate. Seems like a strange government program to put signage up for. Well, a load off our minds.
Our arrogant Ontario-centric selves thought finding a room in Winnipeg would be easy – but the first four hotels were sold out. And we wondered if we should have brought the tent. No matter, we found a wonderful newly renovated place – more than we wanted to spend though – and crawled into a fluffy dream bed.
July 12, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Emile and I both being so moved at the Terry Fox Memorial that we needed to pause our conversation to get a hold of ourselves. (photo credit Emile)
Terry Fox statue near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Greetings from Wawa, Ontario and the Algoma Motel!
Hours door to door: 10
kms Travelled: 797.4
Money Spent: $131.92
After a relaxed departure at about noon today, we barely made it 10 minutes out of town when the car (by itself I’m sure) turned into The Windmill Bakery. It’s a wonderful bakery that is run by a Dutch woman out of her house. Yes! Another Dutch Bakery. In Huntsville! That I had never heard of! Wow.
We purchased 3 items for $5 and we got a free loaf of “mystery bread” – made with leftover dough. Emile immediately ate his butter tart and declared it “one of the best he’s ever had”. I managed to save my “blueberry star” until after dinner. So Good. Windmill Bakery – We’ll be back. Especially for mystery bread. (which was torn apart as we ate it in hunks during the day)
The roads are quiet with it being mid week, so it was an easy and relaxing drive.
July 11th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: (photo credit Emile)
Clouds over water in Lake Superior Provincial Park
I dropped two of Emile’s lenses on our concrete walkway. It was my fault – although the habit he has of leaving his bag appearing closed when it is not did not help. It all started when I he called me to ask tha I bring his camera to Well Fed (our friend’s restaurant in Gravenhurst – you should check it out) for their 1 year anniversary celebration. He forgot to bring his camera, and since we were meeting there, I grabbed the bag for him.
When we met up, Emile took his camera (Nikon D7000) and one of his lens (I don’t know which one – it was one of the big ones). And left his gigantic camo backpack in my car. Open. Yet appearing closed.
We both left about the same time there, but Emile had to stop to pick something up on the way. At home, I gathered up my travelling stuff (wallet, sunglasses, etc) and picked up the backpack from the passenger seat. I swung the bag in front of me and proceeded to lift out of the driver’s seat. Just to see his two other lens (listen, I am not the photographer, I don’t know which ones – one very small and one medium), his point-and-shoot camera and the flash diffuser tumble to the ground on the a paver in front of our house. From about waist-high.
I sat right down on the paver and started to cry.
Now, the lens caps and the connection caps were on. So, maybe okay. The point-and-click camera was in its case, so unlikely any damage there. The flash diffuser is plastic and relatively cheap. But those lens – the big one a gift from my family and his family for his 40th birthday in November. Oh My God. What if I broke it?
I didn’t pick them up right away. I didn’t want to take the lens caps off and find cracks. Or find dinted connecting rings that would hinder the camera connecting the lens. I just watched them.
Finally I picked up the bigger lens. There were three or four scuff marks on the lens cap and several more on the bottom corner. Pretty small, only aesthetic damage. The small lens’ lens cap had fallen off in the fall. The lens itself was slightly scuffed on the filter rim. I kept rolling them over in my hand looking for obvious defects that I had caused. Both looked intact.
I could only wait until Emile got home with his camera to make sure they could connect without issue and still worked. I picked up everything and moved it inside the house. Spread it out on the dining room table and waited.
When Emile got home, he saw my face first and without knowing what happened gave me hug. “What’s wrong?” “What’s happened?” I told him about my accident and he didn’t even stop looking at me, and telling me it was okay.
When he finally looked at his equipment, everything was okay. Yes, he didn’t like the scratches, but we are talking about a man who doesn’t like his Sony receiver because its buttons don’t match the buttons on his other Sony equipment (thank goodness VCRs and DVDs are moving out of fashion now). The scratches on the lenses are not noticeable unless you are looking for them, or you run your fingers along them. The lenses still take good pictures. Well, in the right hands they still take good pictures.
Close your bags, you never know when some well-meaning person is going to “help” you with your bag.
May 30th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: My husband loves me more than his lenses.
The Daily EO 