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Out my living room window yesterday just after 10h. It has been many years since we had a significant snow fall as our first snow fall of the season. By the end, yesterday, we had received 30cm,

It has been well below zero for today and tomorrow and so many of these trees are maintaining the snow that is being held by them. This coming weekend, however, the weather is reaching far above 0c as compared to the normal this time of year, and will do so for at least three days, so that will turn much of the snow to slush, or melt it altogether.

I read about this place called Naujaat, it has an airport to get to it and is located just about at the Arctic Circle in Nunavut. It is pretty amazing that the sun set there today at 13h15. There is a hotel in this village and so I would have a place to stay. I found through local and commercial airlines it would take four different aircraft and about 4200$ over three days to get there (and back). Alternatively, for 55,000$USD I could charter an airplane that flies direct in about 5.5 hours.

The chartered aircraft from the Jetone site I got the quick quote from says it seats 6-8, so let's say six. If I had 9200$USD that I could dig up and also had five equally wealthy and interested friends, we could book it. Or, I win the lottery and pay for the whole trip.

Mind, what does hiring a private jet to get somewhere (even if it is a turbo prop in the case) do to the environment? There is no train that can get me there.

the enigma, the entropy and the integrity

By writing regularly I find that it helps me to

By sleeping on a regular schedule that has me awakening every morning without any kind of alarm

By having sufficient willpower to exercise on a regular basis

By lacking sufficient willpower to make eating healthily a priority

Buy Buy Buy; that's what this past weekend was all about what with that dark Friday and the online Monday today. Last year I did a few purchases, one of which was an updating to the shower head of my shower and that is doing well one year later. This year I have spent exactly zero.

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On Wednesday, April 5, just before 3pm, while I was on a call with a customer, my power went out.

That morning I had awoken early to deliver a stool sample to the Pierrefonds CLSC and fortunately for my trip there and back, arriving home before 9am, the freezing rain hadn't yet started.

It began in earnest at around 10am and continued into the evening pretty much without a pause. At peak, across the province, there were 1.1M households and businesses without electricity.

For the remaining daylight on Wednesday when I had no power I started reading a book, Catseye by Andre Norton. At around the time the sun was setting I went into the city and ate a meal at Subway and came home to a dark and 17c apartment.

Thursday, the power did not come back, I finished that book and read to completion The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg. Again, went into the city and this time ate a big meal at Mr. Steer; that was the only food I ate that day.

Friday, the power did not come back, I finished the book, started and finished reading Judgement on Janus by Andre Norton, and again went into the city to eat a mid afternoon Subway meal; sitting in the food court where it was warm for a few hours, to come home to my 15c powerless apartment.

Throughout this time the downtown part of the city never lost power because all of the power cables are underground there, so no ice-laden tree branches (or trees) could fall on them.

I messaged my boss Friday evening, that as I was scheduled to work on Saturday, I would find a way to do it, even if electricity hadn't come back yet.

Saturday morning I awoke and my apartment was at 12c, I took a very cold quick shower then went to my mother-in-law's house (who had recovered power the day previous) and with a bit of trial and error got my work laptop to connect to their Wifi.

I had a tab open on my work laptop of the Hydro Quebec site showing the outage map (as seen in the image at the top of this post) where I had zoomed in to where my apartment was. By about 11:15AM I noticed that my apartment complex was no longer oranged off as being without electricty, so I took the next bus home.

My apartment was at 14c when I got there, and it took until the next day, with the help of the afternoon sun shining in to my apartment, to warm it back up to the normal 21c or 22c. So dressed in layers I continued to work through until 5pm when my shift was over.

I emptied both my fridge and freezer of almost everything as it had all likely gone bad and I didn't want to risk anything. My most sad loss was the 7 beyond beef packages of simili-ground beef that were frozen and that I had bought over time at a 3$ discount from regular price. Today I went to the grocery store and found they were still 3$ off, so I bought three which are now in the freezer again.

Over Friday and Saturday I also read Collision Course by Robert Silverberg. I quite enjoyed this one. I started writing a synopsis of it, but it got too long; I wouldn't want to rewrite the whole book, so you can read about it here.

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View from my bedroom:

View from my living room:

We received ~25cm of snow over the last 24 hours so everything everywhere looks snow covered like this.

Last night I went to my church and helped shovel snow from the rectory's driveway. In the summer it looks like this:

Perhaps the next time I go to shovel snow there I'll remember to take a photo of it in a winter scene.

June, not Altair

Apparently there was a mild earthquake in my vicinity last night. My apartment complex is adjacent to train tracks and while my building isn't adjacent, when a heavy freight train passes it shakes my building ever so slightly, much like, I am sure, a mild earthquake would.

This evening I am going to see the Canadiens play, along with my three children who are presently aged 20, 17 and 13 years old.

On Sunday, sadly, the Als lost to the Argos who will meet the Bombers at the Grey Cup this coming Sunday in Regina.

I saw the Wakanda movie yesterday; it seemed mostly to be a tribute to Chad Boseman movie. December 16 is when the second, water based, Avatar movie comes out. I'll probably AVX that one.

when all else is a gum ball mahine

I'm thinking of dropping my Kurzgesagt participation; too many of the events I organize end up having extremely low participation and the ones that have more consistent participation are ones I am not interested in.

On Friday last week I turned 18000 days old, and though originally 9 people had expressed an interest, that was down to 6 near the start of the event, and then only Tiago showed up. The two of us had a nice meal, walk and conversation.

On Saturday was the Montreal Underground walk; there were 4 others who had expressed interest and only Miguel showed up. We had a nice walk, most of the underground was new to him, and a nice conversation.

On Sunday was an Intro to D&D session where about 16 of us showed up, four of which were the DMs. I played in Tiago's group, and it was mostly fun, but I don't think this is something I would do more of. Well, perhaps I would but not with the group I was with.

Today is a weekly Mount Royal walk and there were only two others signed up, so last night I messaged both of them to ask them to confirm their attendance, if neither of them show up; I would not be pleased for having done the 50 minute transit trip to get there and back. I got a response that one of them will go, so that is good.

The Mtl-sous-sol for this coming Saturday has 5 people interested; so I'll have to see how many of them actually show up.

In other news, the owners of the building within which I live have not yet turned on the heating for this winter. By the late afternoon the sun has hit my apartment to warm it up to just about the lowest end of comfortable. I seem to be noticing this low temperature more this fall compared to last fall; though, I have remarked since moving into this apartment that the heat has always come on late, and goes off early in the spring which has always made a few weeks on either end of winter where my apartment is colder than I'd like. I use a small space heater in my bathroom in the most distant place from water it can get to warm up that room before having a shower. Also, in addition to my regular blankets, I've put an unfurled sleeping  bag on top to make my bed extra cozy.

And finally, I am about to head over to where I am to vote in today's provincial election.

UPDATE: The heat came on this afternoon at around 15h.

brandishing the limerick size pho

The carpet stain found in my left anterior pocket crept out stealthily unbeknownst to the wearer of said article. That all of the people who know their personal pronouns in more than zero languages are the same kinds of people who are generally old enough to speak will likely include plenty of three year old persons.

A sentient five-pointed lamp shade felt particularly ambiguous with respect to how she felt in a lit or unlit state. This indifference to the lamp shade's purpose speaks much to the degree of sentience.

In my apartment building there are a number of dwellers who have in their apartment with them dogs of numerous shapes and sizes. At least two and potentially five of such pet animals are rather vociferous. Fortunately at the various times I tend to go to sleep they are generally silent and so would not be in a position to interrupt my falling asleep.

laundry

Someone has been hogging the laundry machine all day today. It has been a little frustrating to descend the four flights of stairs to get to the machines only to find they are being used.

I guess that's all I have to say today.

when marketers market

I subscribed to AppleTV+ last month, or the month before, specifically so I could watch the 'Foundation' show, based on the same science fiction series written by Isaac Asimov ages ago. Given this new access I've also watched 'The Morning Show' and have quite enjoyed it.

My company is paying an additional 5$ per hour for any O/T hours done for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this weekend; so I did two extra hours yesterday, and will do the same again today and tomorrow. 

With respect to Black Friday sales, the first thing I have to say is that I find it distasteful that here in Canada we have this artificial sales date that is attached to an American holiday. The second thing I have to say is that I bought two items specifically with BF in mind, the first was La Prairie Skin Caviar Luxe Eye Cream and the second was a Delta Batavia In2ition 2-in-1 Shower Head. The former was discounted by 10% while the latter was discounted by 65%.

Of those two items, the eye cream I bought online to be delivered, but for the shower head I went to CT to get it. I took the 203 bus to then get on the 215 bus and between the two had to wait perhaps only 6 minutes, so it was a rather smooth transit trip. I wandered around the store a little bit as it had been a long time since I was in a CT. I easily found the shower head and then checked my app for transiting home and the next buses would be in ~40 minutes. This was not good, but expected as it was now just before 21h and so the transit frequency drops. There is a McDo that is separate from the mall where CT is so I walked there and bought an inexpensive meal to pass some of the time. Then I walked not to the closest bus stop, but to the next one further as I knew there was a shelter there. The 209 bus came about 10 minutes later than expected and where I was to catch a 203 bus, due to that delay, I would have had to wait another 25+ minutes; so I ended up walking home from Sources / Belmont.

I installed the shower head almost right away when I got home last night; it was a bit of an ordeal to remove the plumbers tape job that had been put on from the previous shower head, but once that was all cleared off I put on some new plumbers tape, screwed the shower head in and completed the installation in short order. Right away I took a shower to check for leaks and it was a smooth, easy and successfully leak-free installation.

pocket full of animated dinosaurs

I was lucky and unlucky last night; I was doing O/T on my job and at about 18:23 I received a call from what looked to be a customer who was already upset about whatever situation they were in when the power went off in my apartment building, cutting the connection to the customer. It went off only for perhaps 10 seconds and then came on again. My modem/router takes about two minutes to cycle up in order for me to re-connect to my work, but perhaps 80% of the way through that cycle, the power went off again, and on again for 10 seconds of downtime. This pattern repeated itself perhaps six or seven times until the power eventually stayed off.

So I was lucky that the power cut made it so that I didn't have to deal with that angry customer, and I was unlucky in that I still had another half hour of O/T that I was wanting to do. There is a bonus happening at present that any O/T done over this weekend earns an extra 3$ per hour.

I had pre-scheduled a lap swim session last night at 20:30; the power had not yet come on in my neighbourhood, but using the Hydro Quebec app, I was able to see that where the pool is, power hadn't been lost, so I went and did my ~30 minutes of swimming laps.

About half an hour after I returned home from swimming, the power came back on again, so that was good.

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An older lady who lives in my apartment building, her name is Dora. She lived in apartment 12 (the one I am in) previously, and now lives in the same building down in apartment 2. Her balcony is on the lowest level facing the front of the building so occasionally I'll have a conversation with her as she is sitting outside. It turns out that she goes to the same church as I do, so I have seen her there too. This gives us something more to talk about.

I was passing by earlier this week and she suggested I flower up my balcony as hers is deftly flowered up. I haven't much of a budget for such, but I did find at my local grocery this:

I ended up getting two of them:

The yellow rope that you see adjacent to them is where I hang my laundry to dry from late Spring to early Fall.

The two containers came with the flowers and were 20$ each; so that's all I'll be doing this year. I've counted five different flower types in the railing pots; each of the two pots have the same five flower selection. I am assuming that these are not even close to be Zone 3 plants and so they will all pass once the fall comes. So, what to do next year?

Within easy walking distance I do not have access to a store where I could by 'flats' of flowers that I could just re-pot into these railing pots; though, I could probably arrange for a lift from a family or friend to meet me at a store where I have purchased them so they can drive me home.

Alternatively, I see if I can find the seeds for either those same five types, or, five new types, or, ten new types having each of the two pots have a different selection. Then I can germinate these seeds given the correct lead time to then plant them myself once the weather is warm enough next Spring.

In addition to re-flowering the two railing pots, next Spring I would consider adding to my balcony one or two pots that have plants that grow taller and have them in pots that simply sit on the balcony floor.

I have two additional thoughts about the use of this balcony. One is to have a bird bath of some sort, just to see if I can get birds to come and check my balcony out.

The second; I have a book on 'Self Watering Containers' for vegetable growing. Perhaps I will see if I can grow some vegetables on my balcony. I am not certain what I would grow, but this could be something else I do.

hear here hare wharf

That a train traveling at 265 kph sold Melba toast to only the passengers sitting on odd-numbered seats for a discounted price tells little about the agency with which a rank smudge gets ranked as a byproduct of equine felines belching much like a canine rodent would.

Being listless is not exactly equal to not having lists whereas being hairless is pretty much equal to not having hair.

So when adding up terms like 'lonely', 'alone', 'depression' and 'social isolation'; how many of these can be directly related to the advanced usage of social media?

I do not know of sufficient evidence to point the finger, but then, I have spent only a fraction of a pico-second looking for it.

If I stay healthy long enough, I may get to witness a singularity that changes dramatically, civilization as we know it to exist today. Some figure that this singularity may be to the detriment of humanity; I prefer to keep an open mind.

I haven't felt lonely or depressed in a really long time. I have been alone more since I have moved into an apartment. I can see that I may become more socially isolated unless I make some very purposeful decisions on an ongoing basis.

Though I missed the Book Group meeting for 'How to be Good' (Nick Hornby) I did end up reading it. It has really focused my thoughts on the idea of taking up sailing to eventually buy a Quidnon. If I structure my life in such a way as to be able to afford sailing and eventually buying a Quidnon; all of the time and expense of doing the sailing and buying all of the stuff associated with sailing could have been spent doing more for others. This has me really quite torn as I am rather enamoured by the idea of sailing and living on the Quidnon; in the Carribean during the winter, and back to here in the summer. One idea I had, once I would have the Quidnon, since it has as much space as it does, would be, that while I am here during the summer, I could get in touch with various community groups and churches to find out if there are any families that they could recommend that would enjoy a day trip on a sail boat. In winter, I would have an open invite to anyone still living here to come south for a week or more where I would take care of everything from transiting from the flight to the Quidnon and providing food and drink.

Thinking further of the sailing; unless I can have others join me on the Quidnon for extended durations, I would then more likely become socially isolated. I've read that there have been studies that show that social interaction is one of the key ingredients to a healthy long life. So this would be another reason to not get into the sailing.

Nothing will advance until the house I currently own with the wife I am currently separated from gets sold. So that is really the first step; to get that house sold.

That a bus traveling at 103 kph sold evasive manoevres to only the passengers sitting in the back half of the bus for an augmented price speaks little to the quickness that a sordid elocutionist depends on Depends.

split kit slip

In other news, blankets made of licorice went fallow due to the mice resurgence.

I've moved into an apartment.

The living room has green walls and a green ceiling.

The girl's bedroom has a single wall that is a dark purple while the remaining three walls are aqua-marine blue. The ceiling is white.

None of the rest of the apartment has been painted.

There is one more bedroom that I sleep in, that G-Bot will sleep in when I have the kids with me. I will then sleep in the living room on the sofa.

There is also a kitchen/dining room. A balcony off the bedroom.

It is within easy walking distance of a train station and a number of city buses that are common and take passengers pretty much right into the city.

It is within walking distance of V-8's school, so that is good. C-Ling and G-bot both can catch the train easily.

Just a bit short on food now; once that is rounded out I'll be ready to have the kids stay with me.

when snow makes its appearance at the Oscars

The light switch, much like the power outlet, are all naked. They expect to be clothed today.

The ceiling panel, much like the floor stiles, will remain untouched.

The left armpit, much like the dandelion, will have some sense of odour.

The weakness, much like the strength, is only useful some of the time. I should know.

Winch the cinch, in a bunch that is crunched. It is slippery, that slope.

mixing paint like a bowling ball leaches feces

Put a LONSET on a TARVA, and put a MORGEDAL on the LONSET, 'full' size, not queen or king. 'Full' is also known as 'double'. Who knew?

Next, a couple of RAST nightstands, a handful of ALANGs and my trips to Ikea ought to be done.

Moved into an apartment, have I, so far so good. Will be doing some painting in the coming days.

In other news, G-bot, C-Ling and V-8 are all on March break this week. The two older ones have an additional week off in the subsequent week. On the Friday of that second week G-bot is heading to Columbia on a school mission to work in a destitute community.

That's about it, for now.