MONDAY...
— Busy day down the Southern Shore. We drive down looking at icebergs... seeing a moose... and having lunch at Ferryland. Lots of fog and sun comes and goes through the day.
— Supper downtown tonight and a drive up to Signal Hill after that. It’s the thickest fog I ever see on top of Signal Hill. Dad and I got out of the car and couldn’t even see dim shades of light when looking down at the city. And from only five feet in front of the car, it’s like a blizzard of cloud blowing past the hood of the car. The only way we can drive up and down the hill is by slowly following the white line on the side of the road.
— Saw an old supervisor of mine today. Karl (from my Grand Concourse days) just happens to be walking down Water Street as we’re walking up. Pretty neat running in to him.
TUESDAY...
— Dad and I do lunch in the Goulds (at Bidgoods). Go from there to Cape Spear for a look around and some pictures. Then over to Fort Amherst for more time looking at bergs and taking pictures. A good day for all that.
— Supper tonight is with mom and dad at the Keg. Stuffed full by the end of this. We visit the Lafosses and then waddle home. A great full moon tries calling me to Cape Spear again, for a night time look at it all over the ocean. But it’s late and I’m stuffed and tired.
WEDNESDAY...
— Quiet day really. Did lunch with Jim and stuck around the house in the afternoon as it gets cold and rainy. Lobster for supper and some evening TV.
THURSDAY...
— Windy day. Dad and I meet mom and the university around lunch time. Get lunch and buy some clothes at the bookstore (a couple of shirts, track pants and shorts).
— Out alone for a bit after that. Middle Cove, Outer Cove, Marine Drive.
— Del gets me for supper. Down to his place, meet the wife... BBQ pork chops... some beer... and off to his buddy’s poker game. I finish 6th of 8... but it’s still fun.
FRIDAY...
— Fairly quiet day. I go to lunch with Bev and then hang out at the house for the rest of the day. It’s pretty rainy in the afternoon. So with mom and dad having meetings, I’m home alone with some TV and leftover turkey to eat. A little walk around the neighbourhood at night, after the rain has stopped.
SATURDAY...
— Out with Jim and the boys in the morning. Some playing around with golf followed by the new Indiana Jones movie. The movie has it’s moments... a bit of an adventure romp... but doesn’t touch the first or third movies in the series.
— Downtown in the evening with mom. Supper at the stadium followed by Bob Dylan in concert. A fine show. I could have hoped for more of his haunting type of music. There was some of that but more old style rock n’ roll. Still, a fine show all the same.
Rural Gulls
Seagulls sound different by the sea.
I never noticed it before my late night walk around my childhood streets. In fact, I remember when I moved to Ottawa, I thought “I won’t be around seagulls anymore.” It was naive to think they wouldn’t have migrated inland themselves... colonizing rivers and ponds much like people did, back in the day, with paddle and canoe.
And seeing seagulls in Ottawa, I never noticed the difference in their cries and squawks. But tonight it hit me as I walked along in the still air.
In Ottawa, gulls crow loudly with demand and impatience. They are telling you to give them food... or to go away. They’ve become city dwellers much as we have. They’re cold and distant. Harsh and selfish.
This isn’t to say seagulls don’t have their moments of greed and selfishness by the sea. Many a time I’ve seen them in parking lots, fighting over a morsel that one plucked from a garbage can. But there are moments that are unique to the gull living by the sea... and I noticed it tonight.
Walking along in the dark, my mind was years away. Thinking of times when the streets I walked where forested trails. When my father and I, one winter, tobogganed down Carrick Drive. Then, we were making the best we could out of a depressing situation. A great track of frozen mud, covered with a fresh layer of snow. A scar through the forest that would be paved in the spring and housed some twenty-five years later... by Albertans coming east... because of oil. And tonight I walked along this suburban street, remember days gone by. Remembering trees and rivers, trails and forts. And remembering that winter my father and I went sliding down the dirt grade... where an SUV just passed by, and a man left his house to hop in a pickup and drive away. And I was left thinking how much better it was back then.
When off in the distance I heard the call. The seagull soaring on the breeze and calling out into the darkness.
It’s the same voice as the demanding Ottawa birds. Those that curse me out, wanting a French fry, speak the same language as this one out there in the darkness. But there’s a difference. The selfishness is gone. The tone isn’t harsh at all. The gull is content. Perhaps it’s calling to others, beckoning them to join him on the night air.
The call echoes and drifts off dreamily. And in much the same way that I never thought of seagulls being in Ottawa, I never thought of them being a piece of the coastal audio imagery.
I’ve been so bombarded with the rambunctious gull that I had failed to notice the contented one. It’s amazing how, sometimes, that which you see for the first time, appears to you when it’s pitch dark.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #320
MONDAY...
— In to work for noon. Work goes alright... and after I’m done, it’s off to a ball game. Playing our first game of slow pitch. I’m rusty in the field and out in front of the first at bat... but the second at bat is better for a solid hit. We lose the game though.
TUESDAY...
— Not a load of sleep... I was up around 7:00 this morning. A couple of naps before work... work is alright... and go for a drink with Karl after work. I also do the dentist before work... so I’m out of the house from 12:15 in the afternoon to 1:15 in the night. Times like this, it’s good I don’t have a dog.
WEDNESDAY...
— Slow day at work until about 9:30... the last hour goes by well. Not much else on the go today.
THURSDAY...
— Work sort of a day shift. 9:15 to 4:30... it would have been 8:30 to 4:30 but I worked extra time Tuesday.
— A luncheon breaks up the shortened work day and I go straight to the airport from the office thanks to a long cab ride in traffic. Once there, and ready for the vacation back home, I find that my flight is cancelled. Fog in St. John’s.
— So Melissa is good enough to come from work to get me (so no more cab fare to throw out the window)... and I’m back to the house in Ottawa... until Sunday! Air Canada can’t often slide you in to the next possible flight... no, I’m waiting around for three days. Well vacation starts now either way... no work tomorrow whether I can go do it or not. I don’t like using leave for no reason but I mentally checked out of the office when I hopped in the cab today, going back tomorrow won’t do any good.
— I did have one interesting moment at the airport. For a few seconds, I walk along side the greatest coach in hockey history. Going in the same direction but me going faster, so I pass him by... I see Scotty Bowman. I’m taller by the way.
FRIDAY...
— Up kind of early so it’s napping on the sofa with a bit of TV in the morning.
— Get a couple of groceries to get me through to Sunday... and watch a movie in the evening with a bit of Subway for supper.
SATURDAY...
— Out to Gatineau Park with Melissa. We do some hiking around there and then go back to her place. Move a sofa, go for burgers at The Works (my first time eating elk), and we rent a movie.
— Thunder storm after I get home brings hail for a few minutes.
SUNDAY...
— Out with Melissa again today. This time Mer Bleue where we see a muskrat, three turtles, several birds, and a bird’s nest.
— Home for a few hours to get ready for flight attempt number two to St. John’s.
Yesterday I Wore Sandals
Yesterday I wore sandals.
I dug through the closet to pull out my coolest shirt
trying to be comfortable at work.
Last night I saw lightning.
Black cotton clouds rolled over the land
bringing thunder and hail on gusting winds.
Today I saw flowers.
With bees and mosquitoes buzzing the air
trying to have snacks, one on pollen, the other on me.
Tonight I’ll see family.
There among dozens of locals waiting for theirs
All strangers to me but all happy to find one another.
Tomorrow I’ll see icebergs.
Sitting in the ocean with swells of sea
lapping at their base as gulls float overhead.
I’ll be there on familiar lands feeling known breezes,
Bundled up wondering where the green has gone,
And with sandals the furthest thing from my mind.
— In to work for noon. Work goes alright... and after I’m done, it’s off to a ball game. Playing our first game of slow pitch. I’m rusty in the field and out in front of the first at bat... but the second at bat is better for a solid hit. We lose the game though.
TUESDAY...
— Not a load of sleep... I was up around 7:00 this morning. A couple of naps before work... work is alright... and go for a drink with Karl after work. I also do the dentist before work... so I’m out of the house from 12:15 in the afternoon to 1:15 in the night. Times like this, it’s good I don’t have a dog.
WEDNESDAY...
— Slow day at work until about 9:30... the last hour goes by well. Not much else on the go today.
THURSDAY...
— Work sort of a day shift. 9:15 to 4:30... it would have been 8:30 to 4:30 but I worked extra time Tuesday.
— A luncheon breaks up the shortened work day and I go straight to the airport from the office thanks to a long cab ride in traffic. Once there, and ready for the vacation back home, I find that my flight is cancelled. Fog in St. John’s.
— So Melissa is good enough to come from work to get me (so no more cab fare to throw out the window)... and I’m back to the house in Ottawa... until Sunday! Air Canada can’t often slide you in to the next possible flight... no, I’m waiting around for three days. Well vacation starts now either way... no work tomorrow whether I can go do it or not. I don’t like using leave for no reason but I mentally checked out of the office when I hopped in the cab today, going back tomorrow won’t do any good.
— I did have one interesting moment at the airport. For a few seconds, I walk along side the greatest coach in hockey history. Going in the same direction but me going faster, so I pass him by... I see Scotty Bowman. I’m taller by the way.
FRIDAY...
— Up kind of early so it’s napping on the sofa with a bit of TV in the morning.
— Get a couple of groceries to get me through to Sunday... and watch a movie in the evening with a bit of Subway for supper.
SATURDAY...
— Out to Gatineau Park with Melissa. We do some hiking around there and then go back to her place. Move a sofa, go for burgers at The Works (my first time eating elk), and we rent a movie.
— Thunder storm after I get home brings hail for a few minutes.
SUNDAY...
— Out with Melissa again today. This time Mer Bleue where we see a muskrat, three turtles, several birds, and a bird’s nest.
— Home for a few hours to get ready for flight attempt number two to St. John’s.
Yesterday I Wore Sandals
Yesterday I wore sandals.
I dug through the closet to pull out my coolest shirt
trying to be comfortable at work.
Last night I saw lightning.
Black cotton clouds rolled over the land
bringing thunder and hail on gusting winds.
Today I saw flowers.
With bees and mosquitoes buzzing the air
trying to have snacks, one on pollen, the other on me.
Tonight I’ll see family.
There among dozens of locals waiting for theirs
All strangers to me but all happy to find one another.
Tomorrow I’ll see icebergs.
Sitting in the ocean with swells of sea
lapping at their base as gulls float overhead.
I’ll be there on familiar lands feeling known breezes,
Bundled up wondering where the green has gone,
And with sandals the furthest thing from my mind.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #319
MONDAY...
— No sleep... 3.5 hours only tonight.
— ADT silliness is part of the problem. The alarm wakes me early in the morning.
— I plod through work... it’s tough but I make it.
— Vitamins are to be the answer. I’ve been fighting with my immune system enough that it’s time to do the multi vitamins.
TUESDAY...
— Still ADT issues. I need to get a new battery. Bah.
— Work is fine today, I slept better last night.
— Fire! Well something anyway. I’m watching some TV just after midnight and the electrical box outside my building is buzzing and flicking the lights... then they go out and smoke is coming up out of it. I call 911 and wait outside with the fire department for an hour. Finally I ask to go back in while they wait for Hydro to come deal with it. It looks like the fire is out by this time but I’m in the dark.
WEDNESDAY...
— Not so eventful a day. I’m up early... power is back at 8:00 and I’m up with the electricity. Get back to bed for an hour to top of the rest. Still not enough but it helps.
— Work is fairly quiet and easy going. Greek food with Melissa for supper.
THURSDAY...
— Fairly ordinary day for me. Hang at the house in the morning... had a nap before work... work is kind of slow but Claudio is there too so it’s not lonely... groceries on the way home.
FRIDAY...
— Still improving with the stamina and energy. I work alone tonight and it’s pretty nice... quiet and relaxing. A bit of a loser working alone on a Friday... but that’s how it is.
SATURDAY...
— Was going to do a walk today but started losing energy as the night went on, so I decided to take it safe and stay in to write instead.
— Other than that... some TV... some stuff on the computer... a nap round out the day. I watch the I Am Legend alternate ending DVD today. It’s a fairly good ending... although for realism, I think they did better going with the theater release.
The longest story in quite a while. Prepare for a bit of a read....
The Real Heros
So, home from work and plans for some down time watching the Daily Show before a reasonably early night to bed. Now this is all relative when I say early night. If I’m home from work around 11:00, that means 12:30 or 1:00 is fairly early. 2:30 or 3:30 is more the norm.
So Daily Show is coming on and I go to clue up at the laptop. The light next to me flickers a few times. It’s a big white mineral lamp. Ruby and Lee brought it from Mexico and, as you’d expect as a gift from Mexico, the white mineral is carved to look like a block of ice with polar bears on and around it.
So I sit there wondering what kind of bulb does the Mexican Polar Bear lamp take and decide I’ll turn it off and try to save it.
It’s at this time that I notice the flickering isn’t the Polar Bears... it’s the house. The light in the corner of the living room is now also flickering.
I sit and begin watching Daily Show, hoping it’ll last without a power failure.
Within five minutes, the power dimming increases in regularity. And now I can hear it accompanied by an electrical hum. I’ve heard the hum before. Last year I remember hearing it for a few flickers of my electricity. At the time I had thought that my neighbour who lives below me was doing something weird in her kitchen. I again think that... and, as before, I await the scream that would proclaim, in no uncertain terms, that I’m about to have a new neighbour living downstairs... and a possible ghost in the building.
Still, the flickerings are now becoming heavy surges... with a big hum accompanying second long dampenings of power. Even the TV itself is now dimming.
I go up to the front bedroom and look out the window, wondering if this is a neighbourhood issue. I check to see if lights in the surrounding buildings are also having troubles. Up here, I notice that the source of the problem is indeed outside. The hum can be heard coming from the hydro electrical box out on the front lawn.
I decide to go out and examine the situation more closely.
From the lawn, I notice that the surges are affecting my entire building. Even the outdoor lights for the alcove are dimming with each hum. And from here I notice that I can feel the humming... the vibration of it... right up through my shoes.
I check the hydro box, without touching it, to see if there’s a number to call posted on it. With nothing, I return to the house and pull out the phone book wondering if there’s a listed number... some 24 hour number... that will put me in touch with someone working the grid.
I picture the power situation, in big cities, like some sort of futuristic control room where analysts immediately become alerted to any anomalies in the grid. Surely, a truck would be dispatched to flick a few switches before I can even find the 24 hour number I’m sure must be there.
In reality, it’s probably a room the size of my living room with some night watchman eating a tuna fish sandwich as he watches Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.
As I look for the number, the power gives up. Although it’s final seconds is an interesting time. My sensor light in my bedroom is flickering like mad... switching from off, to dim, to moderate, to high illumination... and back to off again. The night lights around the house are jumping from on to off in the blink of an eye... the one in the kitchen, as well as the one by the front stairs, flicking from colour to colour with each on and off... red, blue, green, yellow, purple... it’s all happening so quickly that it feels as though an alien craft is about to land on my deck. Within a minute, it’s all blackness.
I return to the outdoors to see what’s happening. I now see smoke wafting up from the box and, with that, I decide the 24 hour number to call is now an easy one to know... I hit 911.
It’s not like on TV. On TV they seem to always tell the caller to stay on the phone. You could be on the verge of being run through by a charging bull, with your only hope for survival being you hanging up that phone and diving out of the way... and the 911 operator somehow convinces you to not do it! Don’t hang up the phone! Stay on the line sir!
So you’d understand my surprise when, after the operator puts me through to the fire department, she thanks me and says goodbye. I stammer a quick “uh, okay... thanks.” and hang up.
There’s a fire station in less than a mile from my place. I figure the trucks will be arriving in about 35 seconds. I go outside (can’t see anything in there anyway) and decide to wait to guide the trucks in when they arrive.
A few minutes, and still nothing but me and the smoking hydro box. It’s now smoking quite heavily and, while I was in on the phone to 911, the internal pressure caused a great popping sound as the lid of the box was lifted off it’s hinges. So I’m keeping my distance. Staying a good 30 feet away from the thing.
As I wait I notice other neighbours have been alerted to the activity. But most do nothing. It’s only my building that’s blacked out. I see the person who’s kitchen looks right out at the box. He’s in the next building and his kitchen window is open. He looks out at the smoke, proceeds to close his window, and then disappears.
Another person, who just came home, parks his car and looks at the smoke as he walks to his door, but then he just dodges in and is not seen again.
A stray dog would have a dozen people fawning all over it, bringing the thing water and looking for it’s owner. A neighbourhood fire brings a glance before ducking away indoors. People... crazy.
After about ten minutes, I finally hear the fire trucks. But it sounds like they’re coming from the wrong direction compared to where that fire station is. It takes another five minutes for me to see them off in the distance, on the road beyond the pond. Where they came from I don’t know. But they do arrive.
One fire fighter hops out and walks over to me. I tell him it started about a half hour ago and, before I can go into any further detail, he goes back to report to the rest of the boys in the truck. They ignore me from there.
Now it’s a waiting game. The firemen sit and watch, making sure the smoke doesn’t intensify or flames don’t pop out... but they aren’t touching the box until the hydro truck comes. Who knew... in case of fire, wait for the electric company! Although I suppose it is understandable. For all these guys know, an axe to the box could blow the place up. Maybe the hydro guys would just flick a switch when they get there and kill all the power.
So we wait... and wait some more. The cable guy shows up before the hydro people. So when I was thinking there was a well oiled machine back at the hydro headquarters, where analysts see a problem before anyone else even suspects it... with flashing lights on a great big display board, showing all the power stations all across this great city... well I was probably right in everything but the company. It’s not the hydro company that has such a futuristic setup... it’s the cable company. So all us civilians can at least try to watch some cable TV as we sit there in the dark... brilliant.
In the end, it takes about an extra hour for the hydro guys to arrive. So from the time I noticed my lights flickering to the time the truck arrived, ready to oversee the problem, almost two hours has gone by. The fire is out and the box is left just with a wisp of smoke, smelling of charred wires.
I finally ask the firemen if it’s okay for me to go back in the house. They say “sure, go ahead”. Since they had just been sitting around for the last half hour, sitting in their truck so not to get too cold, you’d think someone would have looked out the window and told me “you don’t need to stay out here sir!” I suppose I was expecting a fire chief in the form of David Caruso on CSI: Miami... there to question me. Perhaps in the simple telling of my story, he’d be able to pull off his sunglasses dramatically, and proclaim the case solved. My dreams were shattered by the group of firemen sitting in their truck, leaving me out in the cold.
From inside, I look down at the box and the hydro guys working on it. This is about an hour after I was allowed back in my house. It’s about 2:00 AM and the firemen have actually left now. I guess they figure the real heros have arrived to take over the scene. So the hydro workers and the cable guy remain on the site to save the day.
I remain nervous about the fire situation. The hydro workers dig a hole next to the box and, when they reach the level in the ground where the wiring goes into the house, smoke rises up from the dirt. The extend the hole closer to the house... and more smoke. This keeps going for several feet and a good half hour. Constantly the hole edges closer to my building... and constantly new smoke rises up out of the dirt.
Finally, by 3:00, the hole digging fails to bring smoke. I guess the fire is indeed out and the workers seem more at ease... as if they now know what their job will entail and it’s time to get to it. It warms the heart to see hydro workers and the cable guy working hand in hand. Flashlights being held by one, for the good of the other.
I decide that it’s now safe for bed, and I drift off into a deep sleep, dreaming about smoking ground and Horatio Cain firemen... they’re all David Caruso... all with sunglasses and overseeing the blaze.
At 8:00, I wake with a start. It’s one of those wakes like Christmas morning. You become conscious with eyes still closed... realizing that it’s Christmas day, you jump up wide eyed, ready for what the day will bring.
In my case, I do wake with eyes still closed. In my haze I think “I wonder is the power still out?” I open eyes and look towards my clock... it’s black... nothing.
I get up and walk to the front room to look down at the work. I wonder what I’ll find. If daylight hours will shed light on the horror. If there’ll be a giant hole the size of a buick. If the building across the street is no more.
What I see is the workers... those same two hydro workers and the cable guy. But now they have reinforcements. More hydro workers and a new truck. They seem to be putting the finishing touches on a new hydro box. Five minutes later, the power lurches back on.
And that’s how the cable and hydro workers have earned my respect. Even though it took almost two hours for them to get the ball rolling, they took a burnt out electrical box and brought back power within six hours.
And I survived the inferno of the hydro box. I endured the emergency situation without cracking under the pressure. I was able to speak in full sentences to a 911 operator who was more than happy to hang up the phone... and I gave my statement to a fireman who was only interested in the first ten words out of my mouth.
Years of CSI: Miami prepared me for the moment. David Caruso... he’s the real hero.
— No sleep... 3.5 hours only tonight.
— ADT silliness is part of the problem. The alarm wakes me early in the morning.
— I plod through work... it’s tough but I make it.
— Vitamins are to be the answer. I’ve been fighting with my immune system enough that it’s time to do the multi vitamins.
TUESDAY...
— Still ADT issues. I need to get a new battery. Bah.
— Work is fine today, I slept better last night.
— Fire! Well something anyway. I’m watching some TV just after midnight and the electrical box outside my building is buzzing and flicking the lights... then they go out and smoke is coming up out of it. I call 911 and wait outside with the fire department for an hour. Finally I ask to go back in while they wait for Hydro to come deal with it. It looks like the fire is out by this time but I’m in the dark.
WEDNESDAY...
— Not so eventful a day. I’m up early... power is back at 8:00 and I’m up with the electricity. Get back to bed for an hour to top of the rest. Still not enough but it helps.
— Work is fairly quiet and easy going. Greek food with Melissa for supper.
THURSDAY...
— Fairly ordinary day for me. Hang at the house in the morning... had a nap before work... work is kind of slow but Claudio is there too so it’s not lonely... groceries on the way home.
FRIDAY...
— Still improving with the stamina and energy. I work alone tonight and it’s pretty nice... quiet and relaxing. A bit of a loser working alone on a Friday... but that’s how it is.
SATURDAY...
— Was going to do a walk today but started losing energy as the night went on, so I decided to take it safe and stay in to write instead.
— Other than that... some TV... some stuff on the computer... a nap round out the day. I watch the I Am Legend alternate ending DVD today. It’s a fairly good ending... although for realism, I think they did better going with the theater release.
The longest story in quite a while. Prepare for a bit of a read....
The Real Heros
So, home from work and plans for some down time watching the Daily Show before a reasonably early night to bed. Now this is all relative when I say early night. If I’m home from work around 11:00, that means 12:30 or 1:00 is fairly early. 2:30 or 3:30 is more the norm.
So Daily Show is coming on and I go to clue up at the laptop. The light next to me flickers a few times. It’s a big white mineral lamp. Ruby and Lee brought it from Mexico and, as you’d expect as a gift from Mexico, the white mineral is carved to look like a block of ice with polar bears on and around it.
So I sit there wondering what kind of bulb does the Mexican Polar Bear lamp take and decide I’ll turn it off and try to save it.
It’s at this time that I notice the flickering isn’t the Polar Bears... it’s the house. The light in the corner of the living room is now also flickering.
I sit and begin watching Daily Show, hoping it’ll last without a power failure.
Within five minutes, the power dimming increases in regularity. And now I can hear it accompanied by an electrical hum. I’ve heard the hum before. Last year I remember hearing it for a few flickers of my electricity. At the time I had thought that my neighbour who lives below me was doing something weird in her kitchen. I again think that... and, as before, I await the scream that would proclaim, in no uncertain terms, that I’m about to have a new neighbour living downstairs... and a possible ghost in the building.
Still, the flickerings are now becoming heavy surges... with a big hum accompanying second long dampenings of power. Even the TV itself is now dimming.
I go up to the front bedroom and look out the window, wondering if this is a neighbourhood issue. I check to see if lights in the surrounding buildings are also having troubles. Up here, I notice that the source of the problem is indeed outside. The hum can be heard coming from the hydro electrical box out on the front lawn.
I decide to go out and examine the situation more closely.
From the lawn, I notice that the surges are affecting my entire building. Even the outdoor lights for the alcove are dimming with each hum. And from here I notice that I can feel the humming... the vibration of it... right up through my shoes.
I check the hydro box, without touching it, to see if there’s a number to call posted on it. With nothing, I return to the house and pull out the phone book wondering if there’s a listed number... some 24 hour number... that will put me in touch with someone working the grid.
I picture the power situation, in big cities, like some sort of futuristic control room where analysts immediately become alerted to any anomalies in the grid. Surely, a truck would be dispatched to flick a few switches before I can even find the 24 hour number I’m sure must be there.
In reality, it’s probably a room the size of my living room with some night watchman eating a tuna fish sandwich as he watches Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.
As I look for the number, the power gives up. Although it’s final seconds is an interesting time. My sensor light in my bedroom is flickering like mad... switching from off, to dim, to moderate, to high illumination... and back to off again. The night lights around the house are jumping from on to off in the blink of an eye... the one in the kitchen, as well as the one by the front stairs, flicking from colour to colour with each on and off... red, blue, green, yellow, purple... it’s all happening so quickly that it feels as though an alien craft is about to land on my deck. Within a minute, it’s all blackness.
I return to the outdoors to see what’s happening. I now see smoke wafting up from the box and, with that, I decide the 24 hour number to call is now an easy one to know... I hit 911.
It’s not like on TV. On TV they seem to always tell the caller to stay on the phone. You could be on the verge of being run through by a charging bull, with your only hope for survival being you hanging up that phone and diving out of the way... and the 911 operator somehow convinces you to not do it! Don’t hang up the phone! Stay on the line sir!
So you’d understand my surprise when, after the operator puts me through to the fire department, she thanks me and says goodbye. I stammer a quick “uh, okay... thanks.” and hang up.
There’s a fire station in less than a mile from my place. I figure the trucks will be arriving in about 35 seconds. I go outside (can’t see anything in there anyway) and decide to wait to guide the trucks in when they arrive.
A few minutes, and still nothing but me and the smoking hydro box. It’s now smoking quite heavily and, while I was in on the phone to 911, the internal pressure caused a great popping sound as the lid of the box was lifted off it’s hinges. So I’m keeping my distance. Staying a good 30 feet away from the thing.
As I wait I notice other neighbours have been alerted to the activity. But most do nothing. It’s only my building that’s blacked out. I see the person who’s kitchen looks right out at the box. He’s in the next building and his kitchen window is open. He looks out at the smoke, proceeds to close his window, and then disappears.
Another person, who just came home, parks his car and looks at the smoke as he walks to his door, but then he just dodges in and is not seen again.
A stray dog would have a dozen people fawning all over it, bringing the thing water and looking for it’s owner. A neighbourhood fire brings a glance before ducking away indoors. People... crazy.
After about ten minutes, I finally hear the fire trucks. But it sounds like they’re coming from the wrong direction compared to where that fire station is. It takes another five minutes for me to see them off in the distance, on the road beyond the pond. Where they came from I don’t know. But they do arrive.
One fire fighter hops out and walks over to me. I tell him it started about a half hour ago and, before I can go into any further detail, he goes back to report to the rest of the boys in the truck. They ignore me from there.
Now it’s a waiting game. The firemen sit and watch, making sure the smoke doesn’t intensify or flames don’t pop out... but they aren’t touching the box until the hydro truck comes. Who knew... in case of fire, wait for the electric company! Although I suppose it is understandable. For all these guys know, an axe to the box could blow the place up. Maybe the hydro guys would just flick a switch when they get there and kill all the power.
So we wait... and wait some more. The cable guy shows up before the hydro people. So when I was thinking there was a well oiled machine back at the hydro headquarters, where analysts see a problem before anyone else even suspects it... with flashing lights on a great big display board, showing all the power stations all across this great city... well I was probably right in everything but the company. It’s not the hydro company that has such a futuristic setup... it’s the cable company. So all us civilians can at least try to watch some cable TV as we sit there in the dark... brilliant.
In the end, it takes about an extra hour for the hydro guys to arrive. So from the time I noticed my lights flickering to the time the truck arrived, ready to oversee the problem, almost two hours has gone by. The fire is out and the box is left just with a wisp of smoke, smelling of charred wires.
I finally ask the firemen if it’s okay for me to go back in the house. They say “sure, go ahead”. Since they had just been sitting around for the last half hour, sitting in their truck so not to get too cold, you’d think someone would have looked out the window and told me “you don’t need to stay out here sir!” I suppose I was expecting a fire chief in the form of David Caruso on CSI: Miami... there to question me. Perhaps in the simple telling of my story, he’d be able to pull off his sunglasses dramatically, and proclaim the case solved. My dreams were shattered by the group of firemen sitting in their truck, leaving me out in the cold.
From inside, I look down at the box and the hydro guys working on it. This is about an hour after I was allowed back in my house. It’s about 2:00 AM and the firemen have actually left now. I guess they figure the real heros have arrived to take over the scene. So the hydro workers and the cable guy remain on the site to save the day.
I remain nervous about the fire situation. The hydro workers dig a hole next to the box and, when they reach the level in the ground where the wiring goes into the house, smoke rises up from the dirt. The extend the hole closer to the house... and more smoke. This keeps going for several feet and a good half hour. Constantly the hole edges closer to my building... and constantly new smoke rises up out of the dirt.
Finally, by 3:00, the hole digging fails to bring smoke. I guess the fire is indeed out and the workers seem more at ease... as if they now know what their job will entail and it’s time to get to it. It warms the heart to see hydro workers and the cable guy working hand in hand. Flashlights being held by one, for the good of the other.
I decide that it’s now safe for bed, and I drift off into a deep sleep, dreaming about smoking ground and Horatio Cain firemen... they’re all David Caruso... all with sunglasses and overseeing the blaze.
At 8:00, I wake with a start. It’s one of those wakes like Christmas morning. You become conscious with eyes still closed... realizing that it’s Christmas day, you jump up wide eyed, ready for what the day will bring.
In my case, I do wake with eyes still closed. In my haze I think “I wonder is the power still out?” I open eyes and look towards my clock... it’s black... nothing.
I get up and walk to the front room to look down at the work. I wonder what I’ll find. If daylight hours will shed light on the horror. If there’ll be a giant hole the size of a buick. If the building across the street is no more.
What I see is the workers... those same two hydro workers and the cable guy. But now they have reinforcements. More hydro workers and a new truck. They seem to be putting the finishing touches on a new hydro box. Five minutes later, the power lurches back on.
And that’s how the cable and hydro workers have earned my respect. Even though it took almost two hours for them to get the ball rolling, they took a burnt out electrical box and brought back power within six hours.
And I survived the inferno of the hydro box. I endured the emergency situation without cracking under the pressure. I was able to speak in full sentences to a 911 operator who was more than happy to hang up the phone... and I gave my statement to a fireman who was only interested in the first ten words out of my mouth.
Years of CSI: Miami prepared me for the moment. David Caruso... he’s the real hero.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #318
MONDAY...
— Lousy day. I wake early... make a mess just trying to make a bloody tuna fish sandwich... have a day listening to conversations I’d rather not hear... have softball practice rained out... and have the Montreal Canadiens lose to fall behind in the series.
TUESDAY...
— Movie in the morning. I watch Stranger Than Fiction on DVD.
— Work is fine with Claudio doing an OT shift along side me. Supper out with Megan is good too. We don’t talk as much now that we’re in different sections.
WEDNESDAY...
— Sleep until 10:30. Bad of me I know.
— We’re a short sighted lot. Yesterday I got another invite to an internet call to arms against gas prices. Go on strike against the gas companies... go so many days without buying any gas... put the pressure on them to drop prices. As a society, we just don’t get it. The pressure should be on car manufacturers to build vehicles that are more fuel efficient. On the city planners who build cities in great sprawls connected by highways. And on ourselves for wanting to live in suburbs... hoping to have oversized houses and lawns... and for wanting to drive in big SUVs. But instead we whine about the cost of gas going up and we want to make gas producers take the hit for our own laziness. I do think gas companies are greedy but the answer isn’t to beg for pressure to make them drop prices, it’s changing the way we live. If you’re not willing to change the lifestyle, suck it up and pay what the oil companies are charging.
— The Habs are killing me. A game away from elimination and I don’t know if I can take it anymore... to see a team outplay another and still come up short... ugh.
THURSDAY...
— Start work with a chat with Laura. She’s around the office for a visit and it’s nice to have some face to face catch up rather than the e-mails.
— Work is alright. Have Thai food for supper. End of the night I’m wondering if I’m getting sick. I’ve slept more than 8 hours a few days in a row now... and have a scratchy throat tonight. Uh oh.
FRIDAY...
— Sick day. Never feels good to take a sick day on a Friday or Monday. You can feel the “yeah right he’s sick” comments from here. But I feel pretty crumby today and I think work would have been a tough place to be.
SATURDAY...
— Still feeling tired and headachey. A few movies, a baseball game, and the hockey game are about all I do today. And hockey doesn’t mean much anymore as Montreal is out in another disappointing game.
The Call of Home
Leaving the land of warmth and leaves,
Returning to the land of bare branches,
A quasi state between the bleak of winter and life of spring.
Boney branches of sleeping trees drip.
Even if rain does not fall, wetness hangs in the air.
Lingering in grey mist, so solid that fog horn wails echo off it.
Despite the promise of wet and cold,
It’s a return to roots, to comfort.
Only here can cold wetness warm you like a blanket.
Away from busy bodies re-seeding lawns.
Away from backyard project planners.
Returning to the sea, even when buried in the mist, you hear it, smell it... you feel it there.
And perhaps luck will shine on this trip.
Forecasts are as foggy as the environment.
Sun and warmth may grace some days, sending the locals scurrying into the outdoors.
Faces may smile while jackets are shucked.
Come from aways shaking heads puzzled,
While locals bounce along downtown streets, treating ten degrees as if it’s twenty-five.
Don’t waste time planning gazebos.
Don’t bother with the raking of the backyard.
Get to the shore, venturing to those locations winter has blocked off for too long.
Bergs of ice are calling.
Calling locals away from their yards.
And calling former locals away from springtime warmth, thousands of miles away.
— Lousy day. I wake early... make a mess just trying to make a bloody tuna fish sandwich... have a day listening to conversations I’d rather not hear... have softball practice rained out... and have the Montreal Canadiens lose to fall behind in the series.
TUESDAY...
— Movie in the morning. I watch Stranger Than Fiction on DVD.
— Work is fine with Claudio doing an OT shift along side me. Supper out with Megan is good too. We don’t talk as much now that we’re in different sections.
WEDNESDAY...
— Sleep until 10:30. Bad of me I know.
— We’re a short sighted lot. Yesterday I got another invite to an internet call to arms against gas prices. Go on strike against the gas companies... go so many days without buying any gas... put the pressure on them to drop prices. As a society, we just don’t get it. The pressure should be on car manufacturers to build vehicles that are more fuel efficient. On the city planners who build cities in great sprawls connected by highways. And on ourselves for wanting to live in suburbs... hoping to have oversized houses and lawns... and for wanting to drive in big SUVs. But instead we whine about the cost of gas going up and we want to make gas producers take the hit for our own laziness. I do think gas companies are greedy but the answer isn’t to beg for pressure to make them drop prices, it’s changing the way we live. If you’re not willing to change the lifestyle, suck it up and pay what the oil companies are charging.
— The Habs are killing me. A game away from elimination and I don’t know if I can take it anymore... to see a team outplay another and still come up short... ugh.
THURSDAY...
— Start work with a chat with Laura. She’s around the office for a visit and it’s nice to have some face to face catch up rather than the e-mails.
— Work is alright. Have Thai food for supper. End of the night I’m wondering if I’m getting sick. I’ve slept more than 8 hours a few days in a row now... and have a scratchy throat tonight. Uh oh.
FRIDAY...
— Sick day. Never feels good to take a sick day on a Friday or Monday. You can feel the “yeah right he’s sick” comments from here. But I feel pretty crumby today and I think work would have been a tough place to be.
SATURDAY...
— Still feeling tired and headachey. A few movies, a baseball game, and the hockey game are about all I do today. And hockey doesn’t mean much anymore as Montreal is out in another disappointing game.
The Call of Home
Leaving the land of warmth and leaves,
Returning to the land of bare branches,
A quasi state between the bleak of winter and life of spring.
Boney branches of sleeping trees drip.
Even if rain does not fall, wetness hangs in the air.
Lingering in grey mist, so solid that fog horn wails echo off it.
Despite the promise of wet and cold,
It’s a return to roots, to comfort.
Only here can cold wetness warm you like a blanket.
Away from busy bodies re-seeding lawns.
Away from backyard project planners.
Returning to the sea, even when buried in the mist, you hear it, smell it... you feel it there.
And perhaps luck will shine on this trip.
Forecasts are as foggy as the environment.
Sun and warmth may grace some days, sending the locals scurrying into the outdoors.
Faces may smile while jackets are shucked.
Come from aways shaking heads puzzled,
While locals bounce along downtown streets, treating ten degrees as if it’s twenty-five.
Don’t waste time planning gazebos.
Don’t bother with the raking of the backyard.
Get to the shore, venturing to those locations winter has blocked off for too long.
Bergs of ice are calling.
Calling locals away from their yards.
And calling former locals away from springtime warmth, thousands of miles away.
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