Near misses

Last week we had an unexpected snowfall. Snow was forecast for "higher elevations", which doesn't usually mean us, and when I left for work it was damp but not cold. Then I get a call saying "It's snowing here, and the highway is getting dicey." So I headed home while I still could and planned on working the rest of the day from there.

When I got home, we were without power. Power was out the whole day. We spent the day in semi-darkness, watching snow fall, and listening to the crack and crash of falling branches around our neighborhood.

But it could have been a lot worse, with several near misses:

The roads were getting dicey. The highway was slow but at least no accidents. I only just made it up the hill at the end of our road, and only thanks to a couple of patches of bare road where trees overhang, that gave me traction to get up speed for the next stretch.

We have a wood stove for warmth, so the house was livable. And we could boil kettles for drinks, and we cooked a simple supper on it just before the power came back that evening.

We have overhead lines for power and cable running from the road to the house. Half of the cherry tree at the front of the property split away and nearly took out the lines. Just the ends of some branches ended up resting on them, which I was able to reach with long loppers and cut them away.

At the side of the house, a couple of massive branches fell from the arbutus at the edge of the property. One fell onto a gravel path a few feet from the back of the garage. The other fell onto the carport roof. As I was clearing them away yesterday it was obvious how lucky we were that they did no damage. We have a deck above the garage and fencing for privacy along the edge of the carport where it butts up to the deck. Either of those branches could easily have wrecked the fence or the deck railings.

Yes, we had a lot to be thankful for that day.

Communications technology

It's Christmas day. We live halfway around the world from the rest of our respective families, but we've been talking to them for the last three hours or so. Thanks to modern technology. Yes, phones have been around for a long time now, but connecting internationally is cheap and easy these days, plus there's Skype and Zoom and other media to keep in touch.

And keeping working this year would have been impossible without the bandwidth and networking tools available now.

Virtual meetings will never be able to replace the emotional connection of visiting someone in person, or huddling in a group around a crowded table in a bar or coffee shop, let alone a much-needed hug from time to time. But they can at least keep the world ticking over until we can safely meet again face to face.

More little things

Through all the stresses of this extraordinary year, one thing I can thankfully say is that I'm not having trouble sleeping. If anything, it's the opposite - I often finish the day so tired I need a nap before continuing with my evening. But when it comes to bedtime, I'm usually out like a light. I guess the daytime stresses are tiring, but clearly not preying on my mind too much.

Another thing to be thankful for is the easy commute to work. Something I'm too used to taking for granted came front of mind this morning when I breezed through an unusually long run of green lights. But even without that, the drive is way easier than the trip many people endure.

More small positives today:

The car is still behaving itself. After something like that gives me trouble, it takes a while for my anxiety to lessen and I can take it for granted that it will continue to work as expected.

Along the same lines, my bike tires were still solid after pumping them up yesterday. And the rain finally stopped allowing me to park on the edge of town and cycle the rest of the way for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was good to get the heart rate up a bit.

We had an online Branch party last week, and this afternoon the admin IM'd me to say I'd won a couple of prizes - a $$ value to be taken as gift certificates to the local business of my choice. This was unexpected and a pleasant surprise. 

Back to the "taking for granted" theme, we are raising funds to make up gift baskets for a local charity so I donated my winnings there. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table ... things a lot of people can't take for granted.

The little things

The news has been so depressing this year (COVID, COVID denial, and don't even start on the US election fiasco ... more people voted for the other guy! Get over it!) that it's easy to overlook the little things in day-to-day life that shed a more positive light.

I realized I should try to build up some immunity to the negativity by paying more attention to the positives. And I remembered that I started this blog nine years ago for that very reason.

So, yesterday ...

My car started. Not a big deal? Well, it's been giving trouble recently, flat battery one day, boosted it, seemed ok, but flat again the next day. Got it replaced but worried that there might be an electrical fault draining it. So it was a relief when it actually started fine at last.

On top of that, the clock/radio that had stopped working a couple of weeks ago (hence the worry about an electrical fault) is suddenly working again.

Amazon seems to have fixed the problem they were having with shipping to Canada, so a book I was trying to order is finally ordered.

Cheerful staff at the grocery store.

Getting my mind back in gear on my next writing project.

Spring mornings

My daughter is getting a couple of weeks' work experience for her culinary arts program at school. She's working at a little farm market/cafe a few kilometers away, and I've been driving her there for her early morning start.

On my way home this morning it struck me what a beautiful time of day this is right now. After such a dismal winter, the sun has made its appearance this week and I'm driving on quiet roads through lush green. At times like this I'm reminded why our move here 13 years ago was such a good decision.

The right to vote

I've lived all my life in a western democracy, and yet I've never before been eligible to vote in anything more than what amounts to local elections. Until a few years ago I lived in the island of Guernsey, a self-governing Crown dependency. Sure, we elected out own government, but with a population of 60,000 it was hardly a player on the world stage. And although many aspects of our lives were under the influence of Britain, we had no representation in Westminster.

Now, a Canadian citizen, I am able to vote for representation in a much larger community.

I just did so for the first time today, in the BC Provincial election.

It felt good.

The right to vote is important. Shame so many people don't appreciate it enough to make use of it.