I left my house yesterday morning and was filled with a mild feeling of dread when I pressed the elevator button and it did not light up. I could hear the industrial fans in the elevator shaft, obviously trying to dry out the results of the previous night's flooding. Having walked down 23 flights at my office in Calgary I knew it wouldn't be a problem here. The flights are actually nice and small, with single flights between floors. My only concern was my timing. I still made it to work with about 5 minutes to spare, thanks to my new earlier schedule.
I did some grocery shopping after work. I've been on the hunt for my favourite salad dressing that was always stocked at the Forest Hills Loblaws. I searched down their website and went to three local distributors but they had no record of selling their product. I've sent their customer service an email to ask for up-to-date recommendations. Mmmmmm good. Having struck out at yet another grocery I decided to pick up a few items. Which turned into a full bag's worth. When I got home I ran in to see if the elevator was working yet to gauge how many groceries I was willing to carry, should I have to take the stairs. Up just the first flight, I looked around a corner and down a hall and I could see the outside. There was a slight cool breeze I could feel against my cheek. As I turned to look up at my pending doom I could feel myself already suffocating. A concrete torture chamber awaited me, and I had to inflict that pain upon myself willingly.
Long story short I made it up all 20 flights, or I guess it's actually just 19 flights to get from P1 up to my place. I really started to lose hope at floor 6. At floor 9 I gave up and sat down, the first of many rests I would take (might have even been my second rest...yeah). From then on out it was 2-3 flights at a time, followed by a short rest. As I got higher up my main motivation was to not get lapped by anyone. I knew those chances would decrease the more I pushed on through. Someone did lap me at floor 15 I sat dripping with sweat catching my breath. I'm well aware I'm massively out of shape. I don't need a 19 flight stair climb to prove it to me.
When I got on the elevator today (hallelujah) the guy beside me had pressed two. When I went for nineteen he said "That flood must have been rough for you." It was...it was. I could still feel the burn in my legs today at work. Kind of pathetic. But it almost makes me want to attempt one climb a week. Until it's no longer painful. And under normal circumstances I can always give up and take the elevator the rest of the way. Horrible motivation. At least I did better than my brother who had to walk down 50 flights of stairs and walk almost an hour in the pouring rain in an Italian suit.
Zee End.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Night The Lights Went Out
A 3hr power outage is certainly a good wake-up call for electricity dependency. I guess I can now say with certainty that one thing I miss about Winnett was gas powered everything. When the power went out I could still flush the toilet. I'm now learning that is a novelty. 30 minutes in I texted Nikki, I'm boorrrrreeeed. Sad but true.
I went to the dentist today after work. No cavities, SCORE. I have been a bit better at flossing but I attribute my success to my new toothbrush, and maybe my new paste. Although the paste is pretty disgusting and made me throw up the first two or three times I used it. The granular gel seems to be effective. After that I hit up Oceans South of Eglinton to see if they carry this salad dressing I've been hunting for. The corporate website said they bought it but I couldn't find it. I settled for some cheap in-store sushi and headed back home. I wasn't home for 45 minutes before a giant flash from behind my curtains caught my attention. And 10 minutes in from that the lights were out, and the emergency alarm started to blare. Not that I shouldn't have already known this but in the past few weeks I took notice of the button on my bedroom wall that reads "push button to silence alarm", and boy am I glad I found that button. The front desk kept providing directions over the emergency speaker system and then they would run the alarm again requiring me to get up and silence it each time. Rather annoying but I suppose the small price to pay for personal safety. We started to get aural notices that the parking garage was flooding. I didn't know what to do. My car is parked up a slight incline and I kind of thought I would be safe. Assuming all water would flow down towards P2 and P3. I stuck it out for one more announcement where the desk guy said only South tower needed to evacuate their cars. And then finally the third announcement said the flood was being fixed. I'm still kind of anxious to go down and find out how far the water went up, even though I know it was safe.
I did get the chance to meet my neighbour. We were both sitting outside basking in the last bits of daylight. Although the sky was completely overcast and not providing much comfort. The lights on Hwy 10 were out and the traffic started to back up as drivers struggled to treat each intersection as a 4-way stop. We chatted across the privacy barrier. She's a cake decorator at a prominent grocery store chain. Her parents live out towards Miss-Etobicoke border. And she has an insane attention to detail that few could rival. I'll tell you how I knew my car was safe, because she told me. She told me the same moment that she first met me. When I asked how P1 was she said my car was ok, and at the same time we said "Silver Sebring", and then she said, "Yes, Silver Sebring, 9 spots up." I wanted to throw a box of toothpicks to the ground to see if she how quickly she could count them. It was uncanny.
I feel like I'm behind on updating. Lots of stuff happens in life that I want to keep track of but I'm le tired most of the time. Jackie came into town for a few nights so that was amaaaazing to see her. She was looking smoking hot, yes you were Jak. You're a fit little karate master now. Nik and I took a few nights up north. We're having some septic problems, so not sure how that's going to be for the rest of the summer. Spring floods in Minden have reeked havoc on the water table. Work is still good. As long as they still want me I'll be staying there. Also on the long weekend Friday Nik and I went to see a filming of a new CTV show, Spun Out. With the amazing Dave Foley. He walked out to the audience and said some hellos and then with no warning spun around and dropped back while yelling "TRUST EXPERIMENT." It was pretty awesome. We're going again this Friday. Except this time Nikki doesn't have the afternoon off so I'll have to wait all by myself. Ideally I would have a complete cessation of this damn nagging cough so I could properly laugh without risk of following that with a loud disturbing cough. We'll see how the cards fall on that one.
Oh and when the lights were all out, I got a call to let me know my credit card had been compromised. Some assnut decided it would be a good idea to be a good for nothing shit-head and steal my card number and try to run a transaction online at cash convertors. It's a well known scammer's trick to run small transaction values to see what gets approved and then take those cards and run larger values. It's ironic I was just looking at my card balance the other day and thinking how amazing it was how low I'd kept my purchases this month. At least it will be easy enough for me to spot anything that isn't mine. The same scam happened at the charity I worked at. Some poo-brain got a bunch of card numbers and ran hundreds of $5 donations on their website. The police came by their office to get more information. I remember being there later that day, and telling my coordinator they should probably send the fire men too, just in case. No such luck.
My parents are moving in 3 weeks. I think if I start crying now I should be ready to accept it as a reality by the time the move comes. The place hasn't looked itself in weeks though. Boxes everywhere. Furniture moved into corners of rooms. I'm not ready to say goodbye. But the reality is I'd probably never feel ready. I also don't want my security blanket to move to Cobourg, but it is, so tough cookies for me. And by the time I get done with my mom living here for 2 months, I'd probably be ready to post her all the way to Iqaluit. Should I back up a moment and confirm that yes my mother has decided she would like to live with me for 2 months while she finishes out her career, before she retires and moves to the new house with my father? She acts like it won't be a big deal. "I'll sleep on the couch", she says. Like I would let my mother sleep on this two seater couch for two months. I'm probably going to have to get a blow up mattress. At least then I would have something for any future crashers. I'm annoyed, but I just have to think of it as having a live-in chef for two months.
So that's about it. I was actually thinking about blogging right before the lights went out. And then when they came back on there was this audible cheer coming from the balcony. I opened my door and people in high rises all over the neighbourhood were hootin and hollerin to celebrate the return of our new age life source. And that kind of made me want to blog too. I hate the word blog. I do.
Blog out.
I went to the dentist today after work. No cavities, SCORE. I have been a bit better at flossing but I attribute my success to my new toothbrush, and maybe my new paste. Although the paste is pretty disgusting and made me throw up the first two or three times I used it. The granular gel seems to be effective. After that I hit up Oceans South of Eglinton to see if they carry this salad dressing I've been hunting for. The corporate website said they bought it but I couldn't find it. I settled for some cheap in-store sushi and headed back home. I wasn't home for 45 minutes before a giant flash from behind my curtains caught my attention. And 10 minutes in from that the lights were out, and the emergency alarm started to blare. Not that I shouldn't have already known this but in the past few weeks I took notice of the button on my bedroom wall that reads "push button to silence alarm", and boy am I glad I found that button. The front desk kept providing directions over the emergency speaker system and then they would run the alarm again requiring me to get up and silence it each time. Rather annoying but I suppose the small price to pay for personal safety. We started to get aural notices that the parking garage was flooding. I didn't know what to do. My car is parked up a slight incline and I kind of thought I would be safe. Assuming all water would flow down towards P2 and P3. I stuck it out for one more announcement where the desk guy said only South tower needed to evacuate their cars. And then finally the third announcement said the flood was being fixed. I'm still kind of anxious to go down and find out how far the water went up, even though I know it was safe.
I did get the chance to meet my neighbour. We were both sitting outside basking in the last bits of daylight. Although the sky was completely overcast and not providing much comfort. The lights on Hwy 10 were out and the traffic started to back up as drivers struggled to treat each intersection as a 4-way stop. We chatted across the privacy barrier. She's a cake decorator at a prominent grocery store chain. Her parents live out towards Miss-Etobicoke border. And she has an insane attention to detail that few could rival. I'll tell you how I knew my car was safe, because she told me. She told me the same moment that she first met me. When I asked how P1 was she said my car was ok, and at the same time we said "Silver Sebring", and then she said, "Yes, Silver Sebring, 9 spots up." I wanted to throw a box of toothpicks to the ground to see if she how quickly she could count them. It was uncanny.
I feel like I'm behind on updating. Lots of stuff happens in life that I want to keep track of but I'm le tired most of the time. Jackie came into town for a few nights so that was amaaaazing to see her. She was looking smoking hot, yes you were Jak. You're a fit little karate master now. Nik and I took a few nights up north. We're having some septic problems, so not sure how that's going to be for the rest of the summer. Spring floods in Minden have reeked havoc on the water table. Work is still good. As long as they still want me I'll be staying there. Also on the long weekend Friday Nik and I went to see a filming of a new CTV show, Spun Out. With the amazing Dave Foley. He walked out to the audience and said some hellos and then with no warning spun around and dropped back while yelling "TRUST EXPERIMENT." It was pretty awesome. We're going again this Friday. Except this time Nikki doesn't have the afternoon off so I'll have to wait all by myself. Ideally I would have a complete cessation of this damn nagging cough so I could properly laugh without risk of following that with a loud disturbing cough. We'll see how the cards fall on that one.
Oh and when the lights were all out, I got a call to let me know my credit card had been compromised. Some assnut decided it would be a good idea to be a good for nothing shit-head and steal my card number and try to run a transaction online at cash convertors. It's a well known scammer's trick to run small transaction values to see what gets approved and then take those cards and run larger values. It's ironic I was just looking at my card balance the other day and thinking how amazing it was how low I'd kept my purchases this month. At least it will be easy enough for me to spot anything that isn't mine. The same scam happened at the charity I worked at. Some poo-brain got a bunch of card numbers and ran hundreds of $5 donations on their website. The police came by their office to get more information. I remember being there later that day, and telling my coordinator they should probably send the fire men too, just in case. No such luck.
My parents are moving in 3 weeks. I think if I start crying now I should be ready to accept it as a reality by the time the move comes. The place hasn't looked itself in weeks though. Boxes everywhere. Furniture moved into corners of rooms. I'm not ready to say goodbye. But the reality is I'd probably never feel ready. I also don't want my security blanket to move to Cobourg, but it is, so tough cookies for me. And by the time I get done with my mom living here for 2 months, I'd probably be ready to post her all the way to Iqaluit. Should I back up a moment and confirm that yes my mother has decided she would like to live with me for 2 months while she finishes out her career, before she retires and moves to the new house with my father? She acts like it won't be a big deal. "I'll sleep on the couch", she says. Like I would let my mother sleep on this two seater couch for two months. I'm probably going to have to get a blow up mattress. At least then I would have something for any future crashers. I'm annoyed, but I just have to think of it as having a live-in chef for two months.
So that's about it. I was actually thinking about blogging right before the lights went out. And then when they came back on there was this audible cheer coming from the balcony. I opened my door and people in high rises all over the neighbourhood were hootin and hollerin to celebrate the return of our new age life source. And that kind of made me want to blog too. I hate the word blog. I do.
Blog out.
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