Happy Holidays

Sorry for the delayed post everyone.. this has been a busy Christmas. Between leaving to my parents and having no Internet access for a couple of days, to working through Christmas night & Boxing day, to waiting to get the chance to get some pictures off my camera... well, you get the drift. ;o)

As I posted in my Christmas Pictures, someone put a White Christmas on their Wish List this year... We woke up Christmas Eve to a beautiful snow fall, so the munchkin just had to go out and build himself a snowman! Kids can be so cute...
Unfortunately the snowman didn't live long, it started to rain late Christmas morning, so by the time we left to go home, the poor creation was pretty much already gone... oh well, at least I got a picture of it.
After a few days of wet, warm weather, the temperature dropped yesterday and everything is bitter cold again, this is sure shaping up to be a strange winter so far..

Holy Heaping Snowfall Batman!

Last night Nova Scotia got slapped upside the proverbial head by winter!

What started off is a warm flurry in the afternoon turned to a wet slushy snowstorm by supper time. As the storm got worse, the wind picked up and the wet snow started sticking to everything.
Although I enjoyed a night out with the wife at our staff party, it was hectic just trying to get there... we caught the 5:30 bus at 6:15, at the terminal, 2 busses didn't show, and the 3rd bus was late. We ended up finally getting to the party at 7:30 even though we left an hour and a half sooner... a trip that should have only taken 45 mins at most.
Getting to work was no better, with busses being late or not even showing. At work my coworker and I experienced a non-ending series of power outage alarms that went on way beyond our shift ending... as it is I stayed till 7:30 am just to help out.

I found out my wife faired no better. The bus got stuck on the way back, it took her nearly 2 hours to get home. Soon after she got there, the power went out for the second time of the night. The night went on with blowing wet snow and electric blue flares as power transformers popped all over Dartmouth. Though we got power back by 5:30, most of the city was still without power well into the afternoon. (I'll try to get some pictures of the fantastical scenes, man I wish I had my camera yesterday morning!)
We're suppose to fare no better this weekend... oh mother nature is not done with us yet. Sunday we're suppose to get rain and freezing rain, making the 2 feet of compressed half-frozen slush even worse!

On the bright side, we're most likely going to have a white Christmas.... And the kids are having a royal ball in the snow!

A White Christmas' Tease

As the kids dig into their advent calenders, and people start doing their cram holiday shopping, we got a little tease of winter to come the past couple of days.

The first snow is finally staying on the ground, and although it's just a few wisps, and that the light fluries are more blowing aroudn than staying on the ground, it does nothing to quell the excitement of my son realizing that winter and snow is finally here. I remember a time when I got excited about winter, though I don't enthusiastically look forward to it like I used to.. I guess 12 years of arctic conditions in Winnipeg have jaded me towoards the enjyoment of this frigid season.

Lets see how much of the white stuff will stay on the ground...

Winter Creeping in....

Well winter is finally starting to creep in.. it was bloody well cold this morning when I was coming home from work, a sudden turn towards winter from the warm wet rainy weather we've been having. All that was left of Thursday rain was a few frozen sheets of ice where puddles used to be. Tonight wasn't so bad, but it doesn't promiss to get much warmer soon.

With my wife's parents dropping in town at the first of the month, we're setting up the decorations this weekend. We've replaced the old light bulbs with strings of LED lights... they were cheap, will use less power, and I don't need to worry about bulbs burning out or breaking anymore. Not to mention the lifespan that these LED strings promote. The white from the strings isn't as blue as some LED strings I've seen so far, so that's a good thing too.. I'll see about getting a pic or two up once we've got the living room all decked out.

With the hassle of the holidays, I've pretty much put my gaming groups on hold, lets see if the players will be as gung-ho about the campaign in the New Year as they've been so far. Game Masters out there can sympathize in that it's difficult to keep a dependable gaming group going - particularly in online campaigns. We've been at the Adventure Path for 2 years now, and I've yet to keep a group long enough to get very far with it. I had even started novelizing the latest groups adventures, but with the constant drop in and out of characters in the party, I'm wondering just how coherent a story it'll make...

Happy Hallowe'en Indeed!

It was a pleasantly warm Hallowe'en this year, great for Trick or Treat'ing. The one thing I love about having young kids is that you get to keep some of the candy!... I like to think of it as a tax for the one checking the loot to make sure it's ok. ;o)

We brought the kids around Porter's Lake this year where my parents live with little more than warm sweaters under their costumes. This fall has been uncharacteristically warm, the trees still bear a lot of leaves, and winter seems to be a long time away... Locals have told me this is the warmest fall that we've had in a good 30-40 years.

The kids are enjoying it, though I'm waiting for their disappointment on how little snow we'll be getting this winter if the warm weather continues.

Boo!

Hallowe'en is just around the corner, so I thought I would get ready with an early surprise.. This years pumpkin is already carved!

Tumbling into Fall

Temperatures are finally beginning to fall as the season grows late. This has been a warm season for us, though the leaves are finally starting to turn. The one thing I love about the Maritimes is the array of beautiful colours that fall brings: reds, oranges, gold, brown, purple, all make a rainbow canopy of colour that rolls across the countryside.

Yesterday I got to chaperone my kid's class as we went off to Ross Farm. With 10 kids per two parents it was fairly manageable as we toured the early period farm. The buildings range in age from the mid-1700s to the late 1800s as the town slowly grew - so did the complexity of the things they made. Not only did the kids learn a little about history, but they learned the praticality of it all as we experienced workshops in Blacksmithing, Woodworking and Farming. Frankly I never seen kids so happy about shovelling manuer... (they wouldn't find it so exciting if they had to do it each day!) The village was quiet, being nearly the end of season and a weekday, so we mostly had the town to ourselves. With two classes that was fortunate for us as we could control the groups better.

Over all it was a fun trip, even with me only getting 3 hours of sleep afterward before going to work.. it was a long day, but the kids had a blast, so I would say it was worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here in Canada we're celebrating Thanksgiving, a time to celebrate the harvest and to relax after the hard work of the summer, signaling the transition into winter. If the farmer's almanac is correct, that'll nearly be the case, as it predicts a sudden shift into a cold harsh snowy season to come.

Meanwhile we're enjoying record high temperatures for the fall, as we tumble further into October, the trees are just now starting to turn to their seasonal colours. After a warm dry summer, we've gone through 3 days now of rainy dismal weather, and the weather office doesn't predict sunshine till sometime Tuesday... and I was hoping to do some gardening this weekend.. it'll soon be the last harvest of the season, and I don't want my veggies over-ripening before I have a chance to pick them.

Serenity has been out for a week now and I haven't had the chance to see it yet! It's driving me nuts! I'm not expecting it to be entirely like Firefly, I love the show, and from what I see of the previous, I'm going to enjoy some of the changes. If I don't get to see it Tuesday my next night off to see the movie won't be till Monday... sigh! the curse of working nights.

Shopping Cart March

Those who know me know that I'm not a strongly political person. I rarely follow the news if it doesn't involve space and technology, and I find the media reports little more than the worse of news and rarely the good things that happen. After all sensational news gets better rates.

Since I've moved here, I've slowly been getting more and more interested with the community, and what affects the Maritimes, and particularly the Harbour area. So when I saw posters demanding for more affordable housing, I couldn't resist and showed up to the event more inquisitive than wanting to be outspoken. Lets just say the cause consumed me and I marched with the small group to let the government know that people are tired of being broke. Though many news sources were there, the only article I've seen online so far is from an indy news source, though we'll see once the papers publish later this morning.

A Chilling Discovery

Well, my garden faired pretty well, it didn't get flattened by the rain as I feared.. we really needed that rain though... man did my garden ever turn out strange this year:
The cucumbers look like gourds the way they're fat at the bottom but skinny at the top. My carrots are these fat short mutations. They all taste fine fortunately, the tomoatoes are the only things that have come out the way we were expecting... and man did I ever have a lot of tomatoes to pick this week! Looks like it's time to make some spaghetti sauce! :o)

I had a chilling discovery today... I wasn't looking forward to coming in to the sauna that I was expecting the office to be, only to find the air handler had been fixed this morning. So I'm chilling here - quite litterally - at my desk drinking coffee to keep warm. Although I need my jacket, it's quite comforting to know I'm not going to roast in here again tonight.

Breezing By

Well, as luck would be Ophelia didn't hit the Maritimes as bad as many had feared. Though I believe the southern part of the province got the whipping it was suppose to get, the storm then drifted east.
Here in Halifax we got about half the rain expected, and barely any wind at all! I'll find out later today how well my garden faired the torment of nature. I still got fairly wet on my venture to work tonight, but I was expecting to get drenched! So I don't feel so bad.

Now only if the air handler hadn't died at work today, I wouldn't be baking in the office right now! And worse, they probably won't get it fixed till Monday, so I'll be baking again tonight! I'm definately wearing some shorts for tonight's shift! If I'm going to work in near oven-baked temperatures, I might as well be comfortable.

The worst part of working overnights is weekends... friends and family want to do stuff on the weekend as 'they' have time off. All 'I' want to do is sleep! So I usually go on very limmited amounts of sleep over the weekend, otherwise I may never get to see my family. It can be hard... they have all these plans for the day, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and snooze. Not that I don't appreciate or enjoy the things we do, I just rather sleep during the day when I'm suppose to, rather than sleep at work and get fired! Though I often joke that sleep is a poor substitute for running out of coffee, and that - like sanity, you only need enough so people don't worry about you, I can only go so long on limmited amounts of rest before my body enforces a state of commotose.

Here Comes the Rain!

After a pretty dry summer, it looks like Tropical Storm Ophelia (who thinks up these names anyway!?) is going to be dumping us a whole lotta rain! So much rain that we'll be getting 50-100 mm of rain in a 15 hour period... and she's picking up speed - hitting us in the morning, instead of tomorrow afternoon... I'm beginning to think that my umbrealla won't be enough!
I think that's a little more than the ground can absorb in one shot, I hope it doesn't ruin my garden, we've been enjoying the carrots, tomatoes, cucumber and turnips this year, though the lettuce didn't fair as well as we had hoped.

They're advising power outages and such all through the province, this is going to be a long weekend.... sigh!

Happy Labour Day!

Not all of us have Labour Day off, though working the morning of it and having the night off, I'm not sure if you would consider that 'working' Labour Day or not - though 7 hours of my shift should be paid Stat Holiday wages. :o) For those who don't know, I work the overnight shift for an alarm monitoring station, so my day is basically reversed from most people. My wake/work/sleep cycle would fit well in Australia. Working the graveyard shift often rewards me looks of adversion or horror that I'm subjected to such hours. What many people fail to comprehend is that I willingly work these hours and enjoy my schedule.

After I get off work today we're heading on a road trip up towards Grand Pre and Hawkorn Farm Zoo (hope I spelled that rigth). Though I don't think my parents realize that the zoo will most likely be closed due to the holiday, it'll be a nice day trip where I can take some pictures of mainland Nova Scotia. Mind you the price of gas these days will make this a costly trip I'm sure....
Hopefully I can catch some Z's on the road, otherwise it's going to be a very long day indeed...

For those following my photo archive on my main site, there will be new pictures loaded shortly, I've been working nearly every day for the past couple of weeks, but I have a weekend coming up and should have time to catch up on some of my web work.
I actually have been doing a fair bit of work to my websites, but as most of it has been for my D&D group, it's locked and reserved for my players. Though I would love to share the content with a larger audience, not all the material is Open Game content, and hence cannot be seen by those outside of the campaign.

Have yourselves a good long weekend!

Family Woes

I haven't mentioned this before, but lately we've noticed some odd behaviour with our youngest son.

It first started out as a delay in his speech. He understands well enough, but doesn't seem to bother to want to talk. Which is ok, as long as he listens - which sometimes he doesn't and he tunes you right out.. can be very frustrating.

This spring he started 'spacing out' where he'd freeze up and become non-responsive for 5-10 seconds. These spacing out sessions have slowly gotten worse, and we were starting to get a bit worried. Then a woman at Fun Mountain noted that it looked like seisures. This of course was the cause for much concern.

Well, after some testing, the doctors have confirmed he has epilepsy, and have started treatments. They were surprised it was not diagnosed sooner... symtoms that are clear to them weren't so clear to us, and no doctor in Winnipeg ever suggested that there was something wrong. Problems like his speech delay, his lack of sleep, his knack of tuning people out, his temper tantrums, etc. should start to get under control and be more manageable - or so we hope.
The doctors have started him on Tegretol, the most common of the treatments. Hopefully the treatments will start off on the right foot, I would hate starting to experiment meds on the poor little guy just cause the doctors can't sort out what level of epilepsy he has...

The tortures of Physiotherapy

Whoever said: "It has to hurt to heal!" surely was thinking of physiotherapy!

I'm in week 3 of physio now and my arm hasn't quite straightened out. The elbow is still at a 30 degree angle, and there's a knot in my shoulder muscle. So they've really started laying on the pressure, litterally! At week 6 since my accident, there's little worry about my bone, it's strong enough to support most weight, so weight they are applying to get my elbow straight... if we don't get it fixed soon, it may never staighten out... a scary thought.

So I'm taking the pain, my arm is still a little sore, but I have so much more flexibility in it now that I'm just going to grin and bear it!

Monday we toured a bit of Halifax. It was rainy, but not cold, so we wandered the streets getting soaked. I have some beautiful pictures of the Public Gardens which I'll be posting soon as I take them off the camera. I was hoping to get pictures of the Halifax Citadel, but at $25 for the family to see an old fort on a rainy day, we decided to wait till nicer weather.

Found a great place for Gelati downtown Halifax called Nio Gio, they're a little expensive compared to what we used to get in Winnipeg, but as this is the first place we've found serving the Italian Ice Cream confection in this town, we're willing to pay for it.

Look Ma, No Sling!

Well, I started physio this week, and as painful as it is (well not a lot, but enough!), it's really paying off!

I can almost straigten my arm out (after 1 month of being up in a sling, it's not easy) and since my appointment yesterday I've tucked my sling into my backpack and haven't used it since! I'm patting myself on the back on this one....

My physiotherapist is hoping I can straighten my arm out fully by the end of the week. A challenge considering how tight my bicept is... My bone hasn't completely mended and the arm is still bruised and swollen. My arm won't be able to do much for a few weeks, not till the bone is fully healed, but just having it 'look' normal is a pleasant change.

I can type a lot easier now, and can even write without it hurting.. my arm still can't support itself, so most of the things I do sitting down.

Let's see what I can do after they're done torturing my arm today after I get off work..

Natal Day Long Weekend arrives

With the August long weekend comes the Natal Day celebration, where Halifax celebrates its origins as one of Canada's earliest seaport. The Maritimes never developped as quickly as Eastern Canada, so Halifax has not lost it's charm as a green, beautiful harbour town.

This year signals the 50th aniversary of the MacDonald Bridge, so the fireworks tonight were spectacular! - Launched right off the bridge itself.

I'm glad I was able to see them, seeing as I'll be working the rest of the weekend and I'll miss Sundays and Mondays fireworks. :o(
Hopefully I'll be able to catch tomorrow's parade...

Check out the guy beside me trying to capture the fireworks on his cell camera... as much as I like toys, there are just some things you have to admit just can't do well...

Summer's moving on..

Well, summer is progressing in full force, after last week's heat wave, temperatures are back down to normal, just in time for the Natal Day celebrations.. talk about a long weekend! With fireworks off the bridge and concerts galore, I'll see about trying to take a few pictures - though I'm working half of the weekend, so we'll see just how much I can get.

My arm is gradually healing, I can remove the slign and let my arm rest on my lap, though mending, it's not fully healed yet. I've started typing with both hands again, though it is slightly painful, it's better than chugging away one-handed... With physio I'll gradually gain the mobility of my right arm back, but they don't want to push things till the bone is fully healed.

One hand typing....

Well I'm slowly managing life with reduced use of my right hand... I went to the doctor's for my first check up, 1 week after the incident... it's healing well, and I seem to be doing ok. I'm off the heavy meds and seem to be managing well enough with a little boost of extra strength Tylenol to take the edge off of the discomfort.

My left hand is getting a little more agile as I heavily depend on it to do most of my tasks, though my handwriting still sucks. As I can now start using my right hand for more things, such as hold or manipulate light objcts, I've resorted to getting as close to things as possible and writting with my right again.

I can still work, which is fortunate, the bills don't stop coming in, need some way of paying them.
The weather has been prett sucky lately, but at least we have some nice days, and despite the cloudy sky, it's still warm.

So much for biking season...

Well after 33 years it finally happened.... I broke a bone. For the longest time I've joked about rebounding from just about anything. No matter how severe the accident, I would walk away with only a few scratches.

How did it all happen?
Well I was biking home Wednesday morning, zipping down the hill and entering the Perks parking lot, when this car that I taken for having parked suddenly backs out taking the whole lane. I hit my back breaks, but with only 4 feet between us, I wasn't going to stop in time. Forgetting I had brand spanking new front end breaks, I squeezed them a little too hard and suddenly toppled forward. My arm made contact with his rear left panel, and well, the car was more resilient than my arm and it went pop!

So I have a latteral fracture of the right humerus, not good considering many hand nerves wrap along the bone. I'm fortunate enough so far to have not suffered any any nerve damage. So the doctor are hoping that gravity and proper positioning will allow the arm to heal naturally. To put it in a cast risks pinching a nerve, to operate to pin the bone runs the risk of them cutting a nerve. So lets hope it can heal on its own.... I rather like the use of my right hand....

So I'm managing things with my left hand till my arm heals. Though I can manage typing with my off hand, my handwritting looks like something from 2nd grade! I also didn't realise just how much one depends on both hands to do some of the simplest tasks. Getting dressed is very challenging!
So there goes cycling for the rest of the summer... and, as I mentioned above, I had just finished tuning it for the season. It also limmits what summer activities I'm going to be able to do.... no swimming, etc. Well I guess it could be worse, at least I'm still mobile...

Hitting summer with a splash!

Finally as the hot weather hits we get to enjoy some fun in the sun!

As temperatures hit 31C today, you just need to find a way to cool off! Though we could have just gone to the beach, we planned a road trip to spend an extra special day to beat the heat. Here's the family enjoying the wave pool at Magic Mountain. What a fun filled day that was!

Hope you're all enjoying summer too!

Instant Summer!

Well after a cold spring, summer has come with a vengence!

The warm weather was slow in coming with a scattered warm days brightining up the cold and dreary rain of spring. Since mid June things have started looking up, we finally got our planting in at my parents' place, I got a bike for work, and over all summer was slowly settling in....

Then today temperatures hit in the high 30s! Man what a surprise that was! If this warm front keeps up the beaches will soon be full of people! Ironic how mother nature waited until the kids were out of class to introduce summer into its fullness.

With working nights I don't know how much of the beach I'll get to enjoy this summer, as I generally sleep during the day afternoon... but I'm sure I can sneak a few rays in here and there. :)

Starting some things over

Well, guess it's time to start some things over again....
Since I got canned from Elco Systems 2 weeks ago, I've had a bit of time to think where I can go from here.

My final resolution is to rebuild my business here in the Maritimes and really make a go at this thing... It's going to be a hell of a lot of work, but if I play my cards right, this is going to be better than any 'job' I've ever had!

So, if there's anyone you know in the HRM that is looking for computer sales and service, have them drop me a line! :o)

Jack Frost biting your nose off

I'm sure most of us have heard the term 'Jack Frost nipping at your nose' from one of the most popular Christmas Caroles, Silver Bells.

Well if Jack is out tonight, he's bitting our noses off! With wind chills dropping the mercury to -30c, it's starting to feel like the prairies here! I'm just glad to be back indoors and not freezing my tail off at the bus stop like I was on my way home from work. It doesn't look like it's going to warm up before the end of the weekend either, so I'm dreading heading out tomorrow. I feel sorry for those not used to this bone chilling weather, and hope all my friends out there are nice and warm.

We're pretty much all dug out here now in the Halifax region, I don't know about the more rural areas, but pretty much all the streets and sidewalks are done here in town - at least on the Dartmouth side.

Another NorEaster

Well,
Nature seems to favour Mondays as the day to dump stuff on us. Though the storm hit us yesterday, shutting down transit and any events, continual blowing wind with a bit of snow has kept the city closed. Blowing snow and icy roads is what has shut everything down, even though much is already plowed. Most malls and business are closed till noon...
When we were living in Winnipeg, you'd never see this sort of thing, then again as much as Winnipeggers complain they get a lot of snow, they've never seen anything like this!


Another NorEaster
(This was the picture at my parents Saturday before this storm even started)

Talk about the weather!

Wow, look at all that snow!
Not a week after Halifax gets brought down to a crawl that mother nature has hit us again!
It wasn't necessarily a lot of snow, just how it came down... extreme winds and varying temperatures gave to wet blowing snow with ice pellets. Being sent home early from work for fear that they would shut down transit, I had trouble seeing as I tried to walk the less than 10 minutes from the office to bus stop. But I made it home, once the weather dies down a bit, I'll take a couple of snap shots to show those of you not subjected to this weather what nature has dumped on us this time. :)