Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
ah, I’m a little late but whatever. You get the spirit.
Our holiday has been quite fun, up until last night when the little dude’s cold turned into an upper respiratory infection. We took him to the Children’s Hospital in Calgary after talking to the health line nurses all night to see a doctor (if I had been at home I would have just gone to my doctor but since we’re here we don’t have one!). He had his nose suctioned cleaned and we’re just suppose to watch him. If he gets worse we’re suppose to go back in but I’m pretty confident he’s turned a corner and is getting better not worse. We’ve been sitting in a steamy bathroom and under a Vicks tent to keep his airways clear. He’s a trooper, he’s been his laidback easy going self through the whole ordeal. Even at the hospital he was just hanging out and chatting with us and taking in all the sights. Its nice to have an easy-going babe, I tell ya.
His papa and me, on the otherhand, are totally bagged.
We’ll be home in a couple of days, and since the kidlet was sick I never did get to do any of my shopping I had planned. I suppose that’s just parenthood!
When I get home I’ll return to my regularly scheduled blogging. Maybe.
This is just getting crazy
Another storm, another power outage. I’m at Grandma’s house taking advantage of power, heat, and running water!
I also don’t have internet access from home even with power because we have some stupid virus on the machine that I can’t seem to get rid of and its sending out 200+ spam messages a day so Shaw cut me off. After I pleaded my case (newborn, shit computer) they turned me back on with the promise that I wouldn’t be online unless I was actively trying to get the virus cleaned up. Of course, because I’m running windows 98 it is turning out to be pretty bloody hard to clean it up.
We’re buying ourselves a new computer for Christmas. We seriously considered a Mac, but I need to be able to run Developers Studio for work I am hoping to do in the New Year so another PC it is. meh.
Very boring news, I know.
In other news, Callum is talking up a storm, and smiling like crazy. He is also fascinated with himself. He spends a great deal of time checking himself out in the mirror, smiling at himself, and having in depth conversations about life. With himself. I’m raising a narcissist. heh.
And he’s become a very demanding thing. My Grandma says he’s becoming spoiled 
.
I’m off to Calgary for two weeks on Saturday and probably won’t update much from now til the new year so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It was pretty at least
More wind, more snow, more power outages. Its been fun! whheee!
Last night my friend K came over for dinner and by 6:45 pm the snow was coming down with a fury and the wind picked up so we loaded the dog and the kid up, she blazed a trail out of my neighbourhood with her 4×4 and I followed in her tracks. It took us 45 minutes to go a distance that usually takes about 15! The little family camped out at her house for the night since both of our husbands were in Victoria for a course.
I had this idea that I’d do my family christmas picture out amoung the snow covered pine trees of our front yard, and had us all bundled and set up to do just that when the camera died. Of course. And we had no power to charge the battery. Of course. Today is sunny and beautiful and the snow is melting remarkably fast. Of course.
Vegas is going stir crazy because we can’t run him in the snow (he loses the ball) and the snow is up to my knees so walking him is even out of the question.
Tomorrow we’re going up to Courtenay to stay in a fancy resort for two nights and celebrate Christmas with Steve’s company. K and I have a day booked at the spa at the Kingfisher which is suppose to be spectacular so it should be quite the weekend indeed. Callum is coming with us and the rooms have these huge jacuzzi tubs so I am really looking forward to having a big bath with me, Steve and Callum. Callum loves his baths, so it should be fun to see him floating in a huge tub like that!
I have oodles more to say, but I’ll save it for another day!
Water, so very special and Random Acts of Kindness
Apparently my watershed has a boil water advisory. I found out last night, several days after the storm. We have been using the water rather freely. Since I’m not sick, I’m just going to keep using the water rather freely. We have a storage tank, so the water is clear as the tank settles out solids. Plus there’s a filter on the kitchen sink and so far, there hasn’t been any bacteria issues that have cropped up with respect to the water. (eh, or has there? anyone know?)
Steve had two truck books ordered and both were delivered in the last week by the same delivery truck driver. We got to talking on Saturday morning and he was telling me about the differences between Canada and Pakistan (where he was born) and a little bit about his life in general. During this conversation it came up that we haven’t had power for several days. After he left, Steve and his siblings were giggling that I spent so much time talking politics/life with the delivery driver. A few minutes later he returned with danishes for all of us! Totally made my day! Now I have to pass on this random act of kindness!
NOW I have something to blog about!
Wednesday morning this storm system came across the island bringing A LOT of rain and high winds. Typical with these sorts of storms our hydro was out of service by 9:00 am Wednesday morning. As I have previously mentioned, when the hydro goes out it means we have no services as we’re on electric heat and our water is pumped to the house via an electric pump. The storm also took out our phone so I was literally without any of my usual conveniences!
I was talking to Steve throughout the day on my cell phone and we decided that Callum and I would just hang tough until Steve came home then decide if we’d brave the night out here, or head into town and crash at Grandma’s house. He picked up extra batteries for the flashlights, propane and supper after work before heading home. At 6 he calls me from friends of ours in Parksville to tell me he can’t get to the house! A huge tree came down across one of the roads into our community, taking the hydro line with it, so a live wire was on the road (and the tree) and a fire truck was also there to stop anyone from attempting to cross the wire. Steve couldn’t get home but even worse, Callum and I couldn’t get OUT!
I had the forsight to grab the propane camping stove and lantern out of the shop earlier in the day, so Callum and I bunkered down expecting to spend a really long, dark, cold night alone out here. I made myself the worse grilled cheese sandwich EVER on the camp stove(burnt bread, and then the cheese didn’t melt!), very grudgingly brought more spider-invested wood into the house and lit the latern. All while Callum screamed his head off. It was fun. No. Really.
Damn it gets dark out here. And keeping a fire lit and a newborn fed is not exactly easy. I was bitter. Very, very bitter.
Thankfully BC Hydro was able get the tree and wire off the road and Steve was able to come home by 8:30 that night to my utter delight! We camped out in the living room in front of the fire.
We had to live without power until SATURDAY AFTERNOON. Callum and I spent Thursday night at Grandma’s house because honestly, I can’t go that long with no water and a newborn! I am not really built for back-to-nature living with the keeping the fire lit all day and bringing in buckets of rain water to flush my toilet (although, why don’t we use rainwater to flush our toilets instead of clean, treated water?!).
Friday afternoon Steve’s sister and brother came out for a visit so Friday night we all camped out in the living room in front of the fire. Its interesting trying to entertain your guests when you have absolutely no services!
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