Peterborough Wind Storm

a WICKED storm blew through Peterborough ( and most of Ontario ) last night....

Today, there were hundreds of people without power.... 90,000 in Ontario are still out of power tonight...

Scarey how fast this storm hit and how quickly it was over... here are some photos of downed trees and telephone lines...

More Wind Storm Photos

Lightning Storm in Peterborough

Around 11:30 Monday night, a storm blew through Peterborough.... bringing with it cooler temperatures ( SO Far anyway! ) and some neat lightning displays.... it was Amazing to watch.

The power went off first, then the wind picked up... furocious wind for a few minutes, and then the lightning started. I went downstairs and watched from the front verandah of Mrs Fisher's house.... Talk about an amazing work of God.... from pitch black one second, to the entire sky lighting up the next... it was as if God flipped the light on for a quick second....

made my spine tingle!!

Hey Carol

I tried your recipe.... The kids didn't go for the coffee instead of Khalua thing.. ( not that they'd have preferred the Khalua .. what ever THAT is )

however.... as taylor said...... I'm still EATING IT!!!!

I ended up only having 2 boxes of mousse.... ( I was tempted to use some from Taylor's over night bag .... but apparently that mousse doesn't taste quite as good ) ....
and it took me two boxes of Dream Whip... not sure why mine worked out different that way.... I bought those little two bite brownies... guess what?
ONE BITE..... they lied ! anyway, I digress:

Regardless, that is one awesome recipe....
mmmmmmmmmm baby..... it was almost as good as yours....

ok, not even CLOSE... but it still tasted ok!!

For Sale

When I arrived at my sister's place Wednesday afternoon, they had their garbage out for Thursday morning pick up... Oshawa has this all new recycling program, clear bags, food in a special garbage container etc etc etc. Good for the environment, but a lot of work.

Oshawa has a 4 item limit, and they had an old radio and fax machine that they were hoping to send to the garbage but cause they had 4 items already, the fax machine and radio were sitting in front of the garage, waiting for NEXT week...

I said to carol: " I can tell you what our FATHER would do.... he'd have a for sale sign on it and have it at the end of the driveway"
( My dad can see ice cubes to eskimos...)

anyway... she laughed..... that won't happen in THIS neighbourhood ( the houses on their street are pretty snottily tidy... it's nauseating, really.. but I digress )

so anyway.....when I went to pick the girls up Thursday afternoon, Carol was still at work... so I took the liberty of doing some uh.... SELLING...... made up a sign, and moved the items to the road.... and left my dad's telephone # on it!

In my mind I could hear Carol saying... NOT IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD... and me replying... OH YES YOU CAN!!!

the funny part is...... Some guy in a truck stopped to see the radio..... I told Carol if she SELLS IT, I get half!

Photos on the road yesterday

typical photos from the back seat : Abby snoozing, and Anna reading a book....























and this is the view of traffic behind me.... I wish I could say I was leaving them in a cloud of smoke!!

Spooked

well the kids and I came home tonight at supper time... we'd been gone about 27 hours ... I took the girls to visit their cousin Katie in Oshawa, and Taylor and I went to Peterborough to do a couple of booked inspections..... When we pulled into the driveway tonight, this is the view we got :

The door was WIDE open............... jeeeeeeeeeeeeeepers.


When we went in, nothing SEEMED to have been taken , nothing had been disturbed.... it totally freaked us out though. The handle was still locked, but the door wide open....

We have always had a key hidden out back; I'm not sure who has it, but it's gone....

soooooooooo..... Off to Home Depot..... two new door handles, front and back, and a new dead bolt... all keyed alike.... and we're NOT gonna hide a key out back this time....

That, though, could be a worry ....

with the old door handle, you had to unlock it to open it... this one is like a hotel door.... it opens from the inside, but remains locked.....I've had the new lock/handle on for 45 minutes, and have already locked myself out once......

duh!!

My Sester ..... to quote Larry the Cable Guy

this is a picture of my sister... after eating Death By Chocolate......

I am not saying she enjoyed it but she lit up a cigarette afterwards.........

Roast Dork for supper tonight

picked up some Beef K Bobs at the Butcher shop tonight on the way home..... they looked SO goooood!






went out and started up the BBQ....stuck that long lighter thing into the BBQ and for a quick second there was a hesitation and then... WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

now the hair on my arm matches the hair on my head....

GONE!

Lunch at Carol and David's house

oh baby.... i think I put on 10 lbs today....

Carol and david had us over for lunch today.... Ribs, big HUGE JUICY hamburgers, and all KINDS of extras... garden salad, potatoe salad, etc etc etc....

Katie and I stopped on the way home from church to pick up a couple of items for lunch.. we brought home some big olives,.... and to kick it up a notch ( to quote Emeril ) .... we peeled some fresh garlic... sliced them into slivers and stuffed the olives with garlic... OH BABY were they good.... i will say this though.....while we were singing in the evening service, the people in the first 5 rows got up and moved back... hmmmmmm!

the piece de resistance of the meal was Carol's dessert .... Death By Chocolate.... if the garlic doesn't kill you, the calories in THIS dessert WILL... ay yi yi

After church, Carol and David and Katie had a practice for VBS ... that left Jacob with me.... We played soccer in the church parking lot for a while... but since I'm so gracefully UNFIT, it was not exactly a fair game.... he could outrun me like crazy... of course, I'd just pick him up and throw him in the bushes.....

besides... it was hot and sweaty outside.... we took the game IN, and played soccer in the church foyer ( My grandmother would NOT be impressed ) ......

we didn't play SOCCER per se, we had a contest... we stood on opposite sides of the foyer, beside a big brick column... the rules were : you had to hold your hand on the column, kick the ball and try to hit the other column... it was a shoot out of EPIC proportions....

we tied 7-7 !! it was pretty fun, I'll say!

Sunday night

well I had a wonderful day today in Oshawa... spent the day with my sister and her family...

We sang at Calvary this morning, which was fun.... Carol and I sing with Charles Ting ... he is SUCH a neat guy.... great singer, but a fun guy all around.... I gave him a very hard time all day, cause he got to sing lead so many times.....every time I complained, I'd say... HOW COME You got that song?

He looked me right in the eye and said
" Cause you are SPECIAL!"

Charles, how come you got the good mic ? Mine has a crack?

"cause you are Special!!"

How come You get to stand on the left? how come... how come.... how come.....

ALL day, his answer was the same....

"Cause you are SPECIAL!!!!!"

I haven't laughed that hard in a while!!! it was very SPECIAL!

I think the time we laughed the hardest though was when Aida got a chance to play X box... ... Jacob, my nephew, has a really neat Steering wheel set up for his X Box ( here's David playing it )














Aida doesn't have a driver's licence and has never played X Box... so for her to play her first game on x box as a DRIVING GAME... made it all the more entertaining!! She was in a car rally kind of race, racing through the streets of Paris....but instead of driving a race car, she had a City Bus. It was hysterical.... ..... at one point, she went through a park, bodies and lawn chairs were flying EVERYWHERE!! She looked over at Charles and said>>> I WANT THIS GAME FOR MY BIRTHDAY!
so for her 40th birthday, we're all gonna chip in and buy her an X box... we figure it's cheap entertainment, and likely safer for us all to have her drive THERE than on the real streets!!!

here's Charles & Aida... when there were heading home.... thankfully, Charles drove!!

this is my 200th post since Nov 22/05

I'm not sure what that means other than ... i have TOOO much to say!!!

all that said, let me ramble on for a while... that IS the title of my BLOG!! this is my space and I can cry if I want to!!

Today is Saturday.... am still in Peterborough as I am singing with my sister and her praise team tomorrow This was us back in May singing together.














Carol and I are supposed to do one song together.. special music... but alas, we've not practiced That is SUCH a paul/carol thing..." oh that's close enough" was always our philosophy back when we travelled together in the 80's .... sigh
We may have to practice by phone in the morning to sound polished! LOL!!!

ok then...on a serious note: Spent today running errands, had lunch with Mark Fisher, ( I live with his mom ) .....

mark just got a new Peterbilt truck.. he drives for Scotlynn Commodities in Simcoe ... have yet to get a ride in his new truck.... i may sneak it out tonight while he is sleeping!!! HA HA!!

.... other than THIS, the only news is my kids are home from the cottage... WHOOEEEE!
I haven't seen them yet... will probably go back to Brantford Monday night and spend some time with them... with them getting home late today from the cottage and with me singing tomorrow, it was too rushed to get together before then... sigh...

I missed my kids when they were away!

Cottage Country today

spent a lot of time driving today, went through several towns.... Bensfort, Keene, Norwood, Havelock, Apsley, Burleigh Falls, Lakefield, and home to Peterborough.... saw some gorgeous country side today....















one of the things that I found totally amazing was the Chrysler dealership in Norwood.. check out how many cars they have on their lot.... for a town of 1300 people... I figure they must ALL drive Chryslers.... I was careful to hurry THROUGH town, in my Ford!!



















towards the end of the day, i was inspecting a place ( gorgeous spot ) on Jack Lake, SE of Apsley..... heading into the back yard to take pictures, I upset a Squirrel... he was SOOOO mad at me for being in HIS back yard!!!

Some Photos

saw this buggy yesterday on my way North on Cty Rd 121 NW of Lindsay... there is a fair amount of mennonite people living in that area.... One of my favourite spots to stop is a mennonite bakery near there, only open on Fridays and Saturdays... all home made stuff, made in a wood cookstove.... man, does their baking amaze me....

The bottom photos are two of my office/room where I rent in Peterborough.... no, sadly, it isn't always quite that tidy..... usually, but not always!

I didn't choose the curtains... pretty though eh?!

Click

well... my friend Pam ( miss pamyla ) came to Ontario for a wedding yesterday.... because her time was so limited, and her trip rushed, her entire week was planned out.....thankfully, I made the "chosen few " list, and I got to see her a couple of times.... tonight she and I went to see the movie "Click" ....

This movie is a must see movie for parents..... it sure helped me put my life into perspective... since I rush around SO much, I end up fast forwarding my life away..... and in the end, what do I have to show for it? I came away from that movie eager to make my relationship with my kids even stronger.....I was gonna drive to Barry's Bay just to say I LOVE YOU to my kids.... but being a rational creature, I came home to my comfy bed!!!!

I have to tell you though, that movie sure made me think.... As I sat at my desk thinking about my life, my eyes wandered to the things in my desk drawer ( quite OBVIOUSLY I have a short attention span!! ) ... anyway, it brought back memories from my childhood....When I was a kid, my dad, an insurance broker, had his office in our house. When he wasn't around, I would sneak out to his office ( in Randboro and in Belleville ) and sit in his desk chair..... and look at the cool things in his desk drawers..... I remember he had this really cool tape measure, some really cool screw drivers ( the kind you use on your glasses ), he had old glasses, cool pens, broken pens, etc etc etc. I used to find such delight in just picking the things up and looking at them.... interestingly enough, my kids now do that with my desk.
Last fall one night when I was still singing with the Chapelaires, Anna was home alone, while Abby and I had gone to a concert in Rodney..... On the way home, I spent most of the trip talking on the cell phone with Anna ( she was a little spooked by being alone ) ... all the while we talked, she was sitting at my desk going through my desk drawer!! The only difference between me doing that as a kid, and HER .... was that when SHE was done, the desk drawers were organized!!! bless her pea picking heart!

so tonight, I was looking at my desk drawer..... here are some of the treasures that have found a final resting place in my desk drawers :

- A Westclock Pocket Ben pocket watch, that used to belong to Alden Learned.

- A cool cowboy tie that I got from my friend Dorothy ... ( I am neither cool OR a cowboy, so the tie stays IN THE DRAWER!! )

- a lapel Button ( I used to collect buttons ) ... that says : Improve your image : Be seen with me!

- Lock De-Icer ... handy for those cold July Nights in Brantford!!

- A contact lense for my right eye .... still in the package... expiry November 2003.... Spose it's too late to wear it???

- 8 rolls of pennies! jeepers..... Coffee Money!

- A shoe horn from Tana

- a brand new Parker Pen - A stainless steel jotter... still in the package... I LOVE parker pens.. I'm saving this one for a rainy day!

- a Garrison padlock... missing the keys, of course... but in mint condition.... can you say YARD SALE?

- a gorgeous smooth purple rock... from my childhood... I think I found it in New Brunswick somewhere when I was a kid... I LOVE this rock!

- 1800 business cards... ( NO I DID NOT COUNT THEM! )

- a house key... from hmmmm 4 houses ago!!!

- a very corroded TTC subway token... back when they used to cost a $1

- some really cool Mastercraft mini - plyers.....

- a tube of Calvin Clein skin moisturizer.... not doing my skin much good, in my drawer!

- an old cell phone cover... the one I gave up using when I got the Montreal Canadiens' cover

- two very cool old jacknives.... i don't know who I got those from...







and that is only in the top left drawer..... some other night, I'll show you what is in my OTHER desk drawers!

it's like a trip down memory lane.... no wonder my kids love doing this... no wonder I loved doing it in my dad's....

sigh.... life goes by too fast

Strawberry Jam Again

Well the kids have gone to the cottage with their mom... They rent a place in Barry's Bay ( north of Bancroft ) When they go up there, I get pretty lonesome ... There is no phone at the cottage and cell phone's don't work that far north... So it's a week of no contact....Which makes me feel pretty far away .....

Last night when I called them to say Goodbye, Taylor asked if I'd bring over a couple more jars of Strawberry Jam ( jam that Anna and I made last weekend ) ..... It was flattering to know that he likes the stuff... And has gone through almost a whole jar this week...

anyway, I got to thinking, that if we go through jam THIS fast, we'll run out in no time .

So I went and picked more berries and made a whole bunch more jam.... Today I went south of town ( Brantford ) and found a new place.... This was the 4th farm where I've picked berries this year... today's were the biggest, juiciest berries so far.... and the cheapest... last week, the 4 litre baskets were $6 each.... At THIS place, they are $3 .. Can you JUST imagine!!! ( here is where I quote my father again.... " Small things amuse small minds " )

anyway, here are some photos of the jam and the berries.....

Making Jam is MESSY

I have to admit... this week making the jam was not only WAY less fun with Anna not here, but it was uh... SLIGHTLY more messy.......................

More Berry photos