Such insane balance.
Delicate feet grip tightrope-
longing to fall free.
Tag: blogging
Flood
I don’t want to write a lot about the flooding that happened here, because the news already took care of that better than I ever could. I just wanted to share some pictures that I took of the river on my regular dog walk route.
This first one is at the end of a boardwalk. Usually I would walk down those steps and walk along the river… but as you can see the river took out the steps and the bank.
If you imagine looking up and to the right from that view, you’d see this next one, which I think is very beautiful. I know its hard to picture, but if you can imagine for a second… the trees over there are usually standing on dry land, and not surrounded by water. This is a view of someone’s house and backyard, drowning beneath the current.
I took this next one from higher ground (actually on Friday). It’s basically the same area as the above picture, but you can see a little bit of the house as it peaks up screaming “save me!”. Unfortunately, that’s just the risk you take having a house on the water… in fairness I don’t think anyone ever predicted this sort of flooding would happen here… ever.
The dogs were perplexed as to why the river was overtaking their usual route. This path is actually quite far away from where the water usually starts.
These next trees stand on an island… I’m hoping the deer that usually hang out there found a safe place to go. That’s Canada Olympic Park in the background.
And one last shot for good measure. There’s a nice walking path somewhere underneath that bridge in the distance.
Anyways, this is a big inconvenience for the city since there was so much flooding downtown. I don’t know how they’ll manage, or if it’s even possible, to sort out the mess that is the stampede grounds/Saddledome before Stampede is supposed to start.
It’s terrible, of course, for anyone whose home was flooded. Many of my friends were in evacuation zones, and I know a good number who did get some pretty bad flooding.. and it sucks. Big time. But! At the end of the day, it could have been a lot worse. People are safe and already preparing to clean up this silly mess.
I myself was fortunate enough to avoid any damage even though I’m not far from the river. And my work has been cancelled for the immediate future due to being completely flooded, also.
So I’ll be spending next week helping friends out with their clean up! Right now all anyone can do is wait patiently (impatiently) for the water to go away. I think everyone is in good spirits, though. I’ve seen nothing but helpful and positive messages from people preparing/organising clean up efforts.
Just gotta stay positive and do what must be done!
air to breathe
I met a man once.
When we got to talking he asked me what I did.
I told him I’m a dancer.
“Neat” he said, and then “What do you really do, though? What are you actually going to do with your life?”
If I can’t dance, then I might as well die right now, I said to him earnestly.
I don’t think he believed me, for he only laughed and turned away.
After he left, I began to notice my skin was turning cold, crackling, and threatening to fall apart….. it had been too long since I had moved. Even that short conversation with the unbelieving man was too grand a pause, too much time away from dancing.
So I ran as fast I could and leapt, flew through the air, wind catching hold of my hair… giving myself up to my life’s purpose. I felt the warmth return to my skin, my pores brimming with satisfaction, maintaining seamless balance. It was as though finally I had provided them with the air they needed to breathe.
I think I may have landed sometime after, I’m not sure.
In my heart I’m still flying through the air…
Photo Credit: Alexander Yakolev
How to pack ineffectively
Liam and I had possession of our house last week, yet somehow we have still not moved in due to being the slowest, laziest packers on the planet. Actually he’s been very good, it’s really just me. I’ve never moved before, so I’m only just discovering the pain that is packing your life away into boxes.
I’m trying to downsize as much as possible so I don’t have immense piles of crap cluttering up my new house… crap that I’ve dragged around since childhood. I’ve been mentally preparing for it for a few months, so some things are easy to get rid of.. others not so much. In any case it’s been more time consuming than I thought, especially since I have the attention span of a nat. This is the method that I’ve been using to pack:
1. Get box and go to room to be packed
2. Place one item into box
3. Take a break
4. Look at box
5. Have a coffee
6. Look at more items
7. Get really tired
8. Take a nap
9. Repeat next day
Can you see my predicament? At this rate it’ll be winter again before I’m in the house.
I know where I live
A couple nights ago I went out for a few drinks with some girls from my program for one of their birthdays. We went to some bar not far from my house, I’d say it takes 15 minutes tops by car if the roads aren’t busy. I took a taxi because I knew I’d have at least a couple drinks and obviously wasn’t going to want to drive, and I ended up staying there for quite a while. By the time I left to flag down a taxi it was close to 2 am.
The point of this story is the interaction I had with the taxi driver. He presumed arrogantly that because I was a young girl leaving a bar late at night that I must be completely plastered. I wasn’t drunk in the least. Tired, yes, but undoubtedly coherent. He decided that I must be so out of it that he could pull one over on me and take me sight seeing in my own hometown. It went like this:
Taxi driver: Hi. Where would you like to go?
I gave him my house address, thanked him, and sat quietly in the backseat. He proceeded to drive on, and I sat there eagerly awaiting my chance to crawl into bed and sleep. Somehow that wasn’t going to be the end of my night, however, as I noticed the taxi driver going in the complete opposite direction of my house.
Me: Umm… sorry but where are you going?
Taxi driver: To your house.
Me: My house is actually the other direction.
He pulls up to the left hand turn lane and we sit for a few minutes at a red light. Since it’s 2 am the roads are dead. It’s just me and him in this horrible taxi ride of bullshit.
Taxi driver: No, I am going the right way.
Me: It’s much faster if you turn right here and go down this road. I can direct you.
Taxi driver: I know where I’m going.
Me: Sorry, I know you can go this way to get there, but it takes twice as long. Can we just go the other way, please?
Taxi driver: Well, I’m already in this left turn lane.
Me: There’s nobody on the roads, I’m sure it’ll be fine if you just go.
Taxi driver: I can’t do that. Don’t worry it doesn’t take any longer going this way.
Me: Yes it does.
Taxi driver: No, no. It’s about the same distance.
I was pretty grumpy from being tired, and my annoyance level was escalating very quickly. I mean who is this guy to contradict me? I’m a paying customer. Don’t try and pull this crap on me man.
Me: Sorry but I have lived here for over twenty years and I can assure you it takes much longer this way.
Taxi driver: No it’s fine. You just relax back there, little girl. I’ll get you home in no time.
Even more annoyed now at being dismissed and called “little girl” in a very disrespectful way.
Me: I think I know the fastest route to my house, man. You just want to go this way so that it costs me more money.
Taxi driver: What? I don’t think so.
Me: ….
Taxi driver: I’ll get you home.
Me: Look, I’ll just get out here I don’t need to spend so much money. I’d rather walk.
I gave him a scowl through the mirror. He sighed at this point and then finally corrected his route and went the proper way.
Taxi driver: Okay fine I go this way.
Me: Thank you.
We rode for the next 10 minutes in horribly tense and uncomfortable silence, although I had a wonderful sense of self-satisfaction from having won the argument.
I think there must be some invisible aura of argument emanating from me because somehow I always end up having bizarre debates with people. Or maybe I just seem really easy to manipulate and rip off. When I was younger I was incredibly shy and so took a lot of crap from people in positions of authority. I also had one really horrible encounter with someone once and ever since then I decided I need to develop a tough skin and stand up for myself. So while I have been developing a confident take-no-crap personality on the inside, my physical self has not caught up yet, so I still have people trying to walk all over me.
Aren’t they surprised when it turns out to be the opposite. I almost enjoy it now. Almost.
Any one else ever have a taxi driver try and take the longest route possible? What did you do?
Some call it red 