Water Woes

There is more news about water in our area. Most of the year, it’s rather dry around here, with most of the rain in May. This year is very different – everyone is saying that all over the world – and spring was somewhat delayed. Then we had that snow in late May, and then we had that little bit of rain this week!

I’m putting in a couple of pics for you; just some of the sights around town earlier:

One house got hit by lightening.

Meanwhile, there is still some water problems in my building. As you recall, it took much longer to do some minor repairs the other day. But last night, there was no hot water. Okay, so this has happened a few times before, and I know that the boiler lost its pilot light. Simple thing to fix, but when the maintenance person is already in bed, how does he know to go check it? So I’ve threatened the former caretakers that I will call at any hour of the night and let them know! She said it was okay to do that – however, we have new people now, so I wasn’t too sure I should bother them. And why not? You know, I think I should have hot water at midnight! I also know that we won’t have any hot water in the morning, so no shower.

There wasn’t any hot water until about 10 am. I didn’t go to work, so wasn’t too worried about that.. a little annoyed, but I would have been some angry if I had to get to work by 8! I’ll let someone else complain. (Rent went up by 25% this month too)

I ran out this afternoon, took a very long bike ride on a slightly cloudy day, and enjoyed that trip. It was to a part of town I haven’t visited for a very long time, and it’s quite pretty right now along the river. It took about 2 hours, but was fun. Stopped for some ice-cream too! I got a really nice book on knitting T-shirts, and she also gave me quite a few knitting leaflets. In talking to her, she said she had some men’s patterns too, and gave them to me too. So it was quite an enjoyable visit and worth the trip.

Oh, and one last thing: Harry was in town too. I don’t think I will get to see him this time.

What a Day!

For many years, I have belonged to a small social spinning group that meets once a month. They used to meet on the first Monday of the month, which suited me just fine when I didn't work on Mondays. However, I had to change my day off at work, so now work Monday. For a special occasion, such as Christmas or first spin-in of the season, or the last meeting of the season, or just because I needed a mental health day, I would take that day off and go spin!

Recently, they had to change the day to Tuesday, and that didn't really matter to me much, since one day is much the same as the next in my work schedule. The June meeting is the last for this season, they take a break over summer and restart in September. This was one day I wanted to attend. I have a lot of over-time sitting at work, so decided I had better use them up, or they get taken away from me. So I asked for Tuesday off -- it's not as if I do anything at work anyway! They won't even miss me!

The day started well with the water being turned off in my building so they can do some maintainence. Wonderful! Thinking I might be able to sleep in a little, I had to make sure I was up early enough to catch a little of the last of the hot water to have a shower before there was nothing! I also was going to make something to take to the pot-luck lunch; how do I do that? But I made some muffins the night before, so that will have to do.

When my ride came by to pick me up, they had the pleasure of watching a fight in front of the house next door. This house is boarded up -- it was condemned by the health department after the police were in there looking for clues to a murder of a prostitute (I live in a great neighbourhood in the centre of the city).

Spinning is always a fun time. I took along some of the bootie I picked up a couple months ago that I haven't gotten into much yet. I'm almost done with the grey, so took along some of the white striped with black to see what I can do with it. I also took along some mixed red, and even my CD spindle, and some knitting. Well, I never know how bored I will get with anything, and I need back-up -- you know that! But the morning went by very quickly, with laughing, talking, telling stories, spinning, gossip and general merriment. It's always a good day.

The weather forecast was for rain today. It didn't rain. It was a rather nice sunny warm day. We never know around here. But there were some dark clouds coming up from the south-west (not the usual direction) when I got home in the afternoon. I really need to do some laundry. But after this very long day, I really needed a nap first; laundry will wait -- it's waited this long, what's another hour or two?

When I got up, I picked up the laundry and set off. Now, I have to go about 4 blocks to the laundro-mat. But with my trusty little cart, that's not a major hardship. I take along my CD spindle, and make good use of my time. The clouds are getting darker.

Just as I put everything into the washers, it started to thunder and then rain. Not a little rain. A hard fast rain! With a lot more thunder, and lots of lightening. And more loud crashes of thunder! There was even a bit of hail too. We like a bit of everything around here -- just to make sure they don't miss something. Quite nice -- if you are inside your home, looking out at nature's show. Not in a laundromat!! But what else can I do? So I watch the rain, a little ET on TV (so glad I don't have one with that crap to watch) and I do some spinning! One woman, finally couldn't help herself any longer, had to ask me what I was doing! hahaha -- those are such fun questions, since I can see that for several minutes she is really curious, but I take no notice of her. But then I stop and explain what I am doing, and how it works, and she wants to know what I do with it. Nice girl. Later on, a guy wanted to know if I was going to make bracelets with it. I don't understand that question at all. But maybe that's all he knows about what you would use yarn for. I dunno.

Well, eventually, the laundry is done, and I have to go home. It's still raining, still thundering, still lightening. Not as much as it was, but still raining. Oh, heck, it's only water! So I take my little cart, make sure I have everything, and set out to walk home. It's not that cold, really. So I stick close to some of the buildings, and get a little wet. Ok, so I get a lot wet... it's only water! I will dry off. When I get home, the plumbers are still there (it's now 3.5 hours after they were supposed to be finished!), and I am hoping there is going to be some water in the building! And there is... only cold, since it hasn't had time to heat up yet. At least, there is water! I hang up my things, decide I really should make some supper, and then check some emails.

As you know, for over a month (or has it been longer?), I've been having computer problems. I did re-install WindowsXP and was able to boot up and get to my data. Except for one drive. We'll work on that one yet. But after 6 days, it started doing the same thing, not booting up properly. So being frustrated again... I will install XP by myself this time; I've had enough experience doing it! So I did that. There was nothing on that drive, so I didn't care if I did wipe it out.

Well, that worked -- to an extent. But not well enough, so after a day or two, I just wiped it clean, and started over, and installed it once more! I'm getting good at this! And then I did it once more the next day, just for fun. My next computer is going to be a Mac!

I had to re-install my browser and MSN and lots of other programs I use all the time. And of course, all my bookmarks that I had collected over the years were gone... disappeared, no more. I had a long list -- a very long list -- of blogs that I had marked. There were a few I remembered that I visited most often, and marked them once more. I have to start my collection all over again! Fortunately, some of you keep a list of your favourites on your blogs (thanks guys!), which I read as well, so I was able to find most of them again. I did discover there is a way to save my list, so will be doing that from now on. I have a feeling I may have to re-install XP another time yet!

One thing I've lost and can't seem to get working is my sound. This thing seems to think there is no sound cards installed, and yet in other places, it says they are! I don't understand -- all I know is that I don't have any sound! So I can't listen to many of the podcasts I enjoyed, nor any YouTube vids (they do look so funny with no sound -- try that sometime), and can't play some of the old Whistler movies I have received this past week! I need my sound!!

You want some pictures? I don't really have much to show you. There was that duck, but I didn't get pics of it, and it's gone now. Oh, you don't know about it?? Well, that will have to wait until next time. In the meantime, I want to show you that we had a bit of rain lately.