Who am I? I have a happy little existence with my husband, my large yellow lab & my two kittens. My dog is 100 lbs of bouncy joy. My male cat is addicted to "Greenies", catnip & thinks he's a dog. My female cat looks like a sweet housecat, but is a serial killer.
I took up fencing after I turned 40 & wanted to find a sport that would keep me active and fit into my old age.
I spend my time coaching beginners, training, & working at our vintage autosound business.
Note: Some of my blog entries are only available to my "Blog Buddies". They are either private in nature or about coaching. I make my coaching entries private because public entries can be read by the general public. While I never use names, the descriptions of the events can reveal information and I want to respect the privacy of my students. If you would like to be on my list, please PM me and I will add you.
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Perspective:
It's also a gravy train for governments with or without decriminalization. ...
Just got back from my niece's wedding. It was on the same day and a few miles SE from where my husband & I tied the knot 11 years ago.
Like our wedding, the weather played a role in the days events. For us, lighting took the steeple off of the church 2 weeks prior. This was quickly repaired so we were able to take our vows protected from the hot prairie sun. Rain arrived just in time for the reception before returning back sunshine after dinner. The night sky favoured us with a wonderful Northern lights display to finish the evening off.
My niece... well it was a little bit more dramatic. During the wedding it was blistering hot. Being used to record high temperatures and horrible humidity in Vancouver, hubby and I were about the only folks who were comfortable. It was great having dry heat.
By the beginning of the reception I must admit that the heat was bothering me. Oddly enough, my solution was to gather up the children and play games.... okay I admit I had some partying in me, and this seemed like a good solution to being stuck with "watching" my 4 year old niece & her 8 year old brother.... as the 4 year old didn't really understand rock-paper-scissors and I was fresh out of sit-at-the-table games.
Naturally chasing young children around in 40C temps didn't have the cooling effect that my slightly inebriated mind was hoping for. The tent felt like it encased 250 people's worth of body heat in addition to the baking prairie sun when I returned to listen to endless speeches prior to the food being served.
When the clouds rolled in and we got some rain, there was an audible sigh of relief as this cooled things down. After dinner, I wandered out (as many others did) to look at the weather. Thunder & lighting show wasn't nearly as impressive as it often is on the open prairie, but the wind started to pick up. With no funnel clouds forming I wandered back under the tent to listen to some more boring speeches before dessert.
Mid-way through one speech the wind gusted through, knocking down some wine glasses... then another gust... you could feel the tent lift. The MC said "don't panic" which I thought was funny as he was the only one that looked scared (the post near him moved significantly). I heard my husband hollered to open the flaps, as I edged my way towards the outside of the tent wondering why everyone was staying in their seats. Couldn't they see that another gust or two and this tent was about to collapse on 250 people?
Oddly enough this made me feel a little guilty that I was saving my butt while they stood immobile, so I started opening up as many flaps as I could (plus it provided an escape route). At that point I realized there were several posts that has moved in. It took several guys and me to put them back in place... they were heavy!
While I was doing this, my husband & his brother & sister were getting all the tables to extinguish their candles. Every table had a dozen of "tea lights"... pretty, but deadly if the tent came down. As I went around the outside of the tent, ensuring all the posts were where they should be, I noticed others doing the same while my 80 year old mother-in-law was b-lining for the house... smart girl! You don't live that long by staying in places that might collapse. I wondered if I should start getting the kids and elderly out from the tent as no one seemed to be doing that. I changed my mind when I felt the wind die down again to gentle gusts.
We heard later, other towns didn't do so well with the wind. One had several people die when the stage collapsed at a music festival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt-vO...layer_embedded
There was also a tornado that formed further north. This caused a minor inconvenience for us on the way home as one of the oil refineries went down, and many gas stations were without gas... most towns it was spotty, some had gas while others didn't. However there were many that had none AT ALL. I would have never thought I would see the day where Alberta had no gas. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Canada, Alberta is like Texas.... it's mostly about oil, ranches and cowboys.
08-03-2009 07:58 PM