The Great Blizzard of 2007

I am sure many of you have heard by now about the blizzard that struck our city on January 10, 2007. The day before, the t.v. and radio were givings us warnings about the blizzard but when you see clear skies, it was hard to imagine that the storm would really show up.

On the morning of the 10th we had gotten up about about 6:00am to the wind blowing in excess of 50km/hour. We looked outside and although it didn't look too bad, you could see the snow swirling making it hard to see. At that moment I decided it wasn't worth sending Kat to school as she would have to walk to the bus stop and I didn't want her doing that.

Cor started his truck around 7:00am and he left the house at 7:10am to go to work. His work is outside of the city and he normally is able to take the back roads to get to work and not have to go through the city at all. He called about 20 minutes later to see that he was stopped on the side of the Dalmeny road because he was unable to see more than a few feet in front of him and any of the other vehicles he saw were all in the ditch. He decided to turn around and come home as it wasn't worth risking his life to try and get to work.

He got home about 10 minutes before 8am and by that time, Boo had decided to stay home and Shorty was ready to go to school. Since Cor was going to wait until it got light out, I knew he could take Shorty to school and therefore I could attempt to get to work earlier. I had the van running and was ready to leave by 8:00am. I drove out of the driveway knowing that I wouldn't be traveling any faster than 40km per hour the whole way. From our house, I was unable to see farther than 2 houses down the street.

I made it to 33rd where it is totally open and was able to keep going down the street. About 3 blocks up, I had to slow right down as it seemed everyone else decided to go to work at the same time and they all decided to take the same street I took. No problem, I had given myself an hour to get to work knowing that if I got to work early, there would be plenty to do as I knew the cancellations for appointments would be coming in right left and center.

About halfway up 33rd street, my windshield wiper blade decided to come undone after I tried to clean it. Not good. So I pulled onto a side street to see if I could fix and luckily I was able to.

I made it to work without too much incident and it only took me 35 minutes instead of my usual 12-15.

I was working the front desk that day and we have a huge window that I can look up from my desk and see all the way to the street, which is the corner of Circle Drive and Miller Ave. That day, there were times when I could see the lights at the intersection, but as the day went on, I wasn't able to see more than 2 feet past the window.

Cor by 9:30am had been able to drop Shorty off at school and make it to work himself.

Things at work were going as expected with the 5 phone lines ringing non stop of people cancelling their appointments. We were able to stay on top of it and by noon almost everyone had cancelled their appointments.

At 1:00pm, I got a call from my best friend D to tell me that they had cancelled school and that her husband would pick up Shorty and bring him home for me. Shorty called me a while later to tell me that he got home safely.

By 2:30pm, the radio was telling people that if they were going to go home they had better try and go now. Our bosses at work conferred and talked to each of us to see if we thought we could make it home and if we could that we were free to leave. One of my coworkers, Ryan, who lives close to me came up and asked what I thought of us going home together. We could either take both vehicles or just one. I offered to take our van as I know how reliable it is and Ryan only has a small car. He said that worked for him and told me to get ready to go. So I command started the van and called the office manager and told her that Ryan and I were going to attempt the drive home together. She very willingly came and relieved me at the front desk. By this time the radio was telling us of all the roads the city police were closing, including some of the bridges.

The ride home was one of the most scary and bizarre rides of my life. I let Ryan drive as I didn't think I was brave enough to attempt it. So off we go. Our first hurdle was at the corner where our work is, Circle Drive and Millar Ave. It was blocked at one side by the police as they were only letting a few cars get onto the freeway going east at a time. Luckily were were headed west. We finally manuvered through all the vehicles in the intersection and made it to circle drive to head west. Driving seemed to be fine as long as we stayed in the middle of the road as there were cars stopped and abandoned on the right side of the road and many cars were in the left hand side trying to turn to side streets to get home. We decided to take the freeway home even though it is totally open and we knew that the drive would be treacherous. Except for stopping so that one lady could get her windshield wiper that had fallen off of her van, we were able to go without too many problems. There were still cars parked along the side of the road that were abandoned but for the most part, we were able to travel without problems. We made it up to Laurier Drive as I decided I wanted to get my friend's husband to come with us so that I wouldn't have to drive alone after dropping off Ryan.

We picked up Dave with little incident and then started off to Ryan's house. He only lives about 1/2 mile away but because of people being stuck in the middle of some of the roads, we had to do some back tracking. We were able to drop off Ryan without any problems and Dave then took the wheel. Again, the main problems were trying to see and make sure we didn't hit another vehicle. At one point, we were trying to go down a fairly main road but due to a school just getting out, there were a lot of people on the road walking, as there were no sidewalks that were travelable (is that a word?). We ended up having to come to a complete stop due to a van that was in the middle of the road, stuck and abandoned. After the cars behind us finally got turned around, we were able to due the same and were then able to make it home safely.

When Dave got my van home, I was very ready for a drink and thank goodness for a strong vodka at that moment. I thanked Dave over and over again for helping me out and he walked home from our house. Corey, in the meantime, was also in the process of making his way home from work, but his start out was much worse due to his workplace being out in the open in the country. Their parking lot had already blown in once and had been cleared out. Corey knew that his truck wouldn't make it through the snow, so he caught a ride with a coworker who also lives close to us and has a 4x4 truck. He was able to make it home about 1 hour after me.

It was not much more fun when we found out that Cor's dad had ended up in a ditch around 2:00pm and was still in the same spot at about 5:00pm. We had no way to get to him and ended up calling a different friend who has a 4x4 to try and get out to rescue him. In the meantime, my f-i-l was finally rescued by some men in a truck only to have that truck go into the ditch as well. They were all finally rescued by people on skidoos. Cor's dad ended up staying the night at a farmhouse on the Dalmeny road that he knew. The cool thing is that Cor's dad was mentioned in the paper.

During the night, the wind tapered down and the city cleaners started to clean. Many of them cleaned without stopping for many hours. Police and fire crews were actually taking these drivers cups of coffees to help keep them warm and awake. Vehicles that were abandoned were all towed to the closest parking lot and left there. People were able to call a certain number and were told from there which parking lot their car was in.

The next day, all the schools in the city were closed. Corey had taken the day off from work to help his dad get his truck and he was able to drive me to work. It was still a busy day at work, but mostly it was all about the the big storm of '07. For a good look at what the storm looked like, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7AP8UPic this shows very much what it looked like here.

Well, I wanted to post my story as I am sure many other people will also be doing.

Our New Year's Eve Tradition

A couple of years ago we used to invite our friends over and do a potlock midnight lunch. That stopped when the wrong mix of people were brought together and one family got upset and left early. We realized that wasn't the way to bring in the new year so instead we switched to a family day and evening that was much more enjoyable.
We spend the few days before the 31st getting ready. This year Cor replaced the carpet in our family room with laminate flooring. The old carpet was extremely gross looking and we are much more happier to have laminate as opposed to carpet.
We like to buy our own used movies and can ususally get them for about 10 dollars a movie. These are the movies that we picked to watch. We managed to watch all but the far left two. Everyone gets to pick one movie and it is a group decision about what we want to watch. It is a big mixture as you can see with a horror, a love story, a cartoon, an action and a comedy.




We started watching the movies about 3:30pm. We buy and make lots of food that is all finger food and munchies that we put out at the beginning and then are able to munch our way through the whole evening. We had everything from mushroom, spinach and crab dips to spring rolls, shrimp rings and chicken fingers and chicken wings and sausage and pickles and cheese. For dessert there was cream puffs and fruit to dip into chocolate.



Here is Shorty digging into the food. He wasn't all that hungry when it first came out but little by little he ate more and more. That was what it was there for.

We finished the evening by 1:30am and all was well. Kat left after the third movie to go and visit with her friends on msn. At 14, I am impressed we were graced by her pressence for 3 of the movies. Not bad at all :)



Now imagine that there are two more pictures that I have somehow managed to delete and will now have to wait until tomorrow to add. One is of Boo lying on the floor and the other of Kat laying on the couch. I can't figure out why this program hates me so much. Argghhh.

More Christmas Day Pictures

I had wanted to add these other pictures when I did the one for Christmas Day but the stupid thing wouldn't let me add more than 5 pictures. So here are the two that didn't make it.



This is Boo with Shorty in the background. She got pretty much everything she wanted off of her Christmas wish list.
This is Shorty opening up his T.V. We had a time keeping that thing hidden. When we first bought it, we took it to mom and dad's and dad hid it in his garage/workshop. The problem is that Shorty spends a lot of time over there and so dad had to cover it and surprisingly enough Shorty never asked about it. Then on Christmas Eve, dad had wrapped it for us and left it out in the open for us to take home later that night. We were all out there having a smoke when Shorty comes out and sees the wrapped box. Next to the wrapped box is our fireplace, which wasn't wrapped because we knew we were getting it. Shorty doesn't even see the fireplace and starts asking us why our present was wrapped when we knew what it was. It was everything I could do to keep a straight face and answer his questions. Later, when we went home, Cor made a special trip out to go and get a coke, but also picked up the t.v. and the fireplace. When he brought the fireplace in and got it set up, Shorty never even asked about the wrapped box, which was still in the back of the van. That box was finally brought in after midnight when they were all sleeping.

So that is our Christmas pictures. Next up will be from our New Year's Eve tradition.

New Year's Day and My Resolutions.

January 1, 2007.
Wow! I can't believe how fast this past year went. Does anyone have any resolutions? I have a couple and they are:

1. Lose more weight. I joined weight watchers in October but I haven't been all that faithful of sticking to it. My goal is to lose 2-3 pounds a week.
2. Exercise. I have these great pilates and exercise ball videos that I never use. I want to start exercising more. I don't like walking very much, I would rather do a video for 20 minutes a day and be done with it.
3. Stay more organized. I have been working on this for a while and have been making great progess. Corey got me a label maker for Christmas and I have been having lots of fun labeling all of the containers in the basement. This morning, Corey and I went through all the boxes and now everything is put in correct containers and they are now labeled along with the lids, so that doesn't get screwed up anymore. I bought these great containers from tupperware in the hopes that my pantry will be organized soon.
4. Continue to scrapbook and do other crafty things so that I don't feel like I never do anything for me.

I think that is about it. The good news is that except for the exercising, I have been doing all this stuff before today, so it is more a matter of continueing to do it as opposed to just starting it.

Happy News Year!!!!