Ice storm and Christmas
I hope everyone's holiday season has been bright and beautiful.
The ice storm hit like Thor's hammer!
By the evening of Friday the 20th, everything was coated in the stuff and made walking hazardous. I had to do my cleaning job the next morning, and THAT sure was not fun trying to get there because there was even more ice on the ground at that point; I basically had to skate there. Then I skated over to Liat & Alora's place to visit for a few hours before the worst part of the storm was due to hit, and then I met Trevor at Galleria to look for wheat-free noodles. After that, we skated to Centrepoint where I finished my Christmas shopping.
All that ice on top of snow outside Galleria.
On Saturday night at around 9:30, the power went out. Sunday was spent in the dark, where we ate cold food and drank lukewarm coffee (for some reason we still had hot water!) and periodically went outside to take pictures of the ice. I mostly wrote and drew all day, and we went out and barbecued dinner. Once it got dark we lit a bunch of large candles and placed them on the coffee table, which we surrounded with our selves, warm blankets, egg nog, and Cards Against Humanity. It stayed relatively warm in that spot, but the rest of the apartment was getting really cold really fast. We kept the curtains open, however, because power lines would frequently come down, or branches would land on the power lines, and there'd be big bursts of blue-green light that looked pretty neat despite the sucky reality of what was happening. Sometimes the lines would come down very close by and we could hear the loud buzzing and sizzling.
Trevor barbecuing our dinner! We made sure we were in a clear area away from where tree branches or actual trees would fall on him x_x
The cypress on the far right collapsed later on.
Our lilac trees :(
Our lilac trees :(
It was around 9pm when Trevor and I decided to go stay with Liat & Alora. They were one of the only buildings at Bathurst & Steeles with power, although they didn't have hot water or heat because both are connected to their twin building which was in the dark. We packed up a few essentials and skated to the bus stop, and were creeped out by how bloody DARK everything was. The traffic lights were all out, so we had a fun time crossing Yonge & Clark without getting killed. Yonge & Steeles was even worse, but at least we didn't have to cross anything to get from the Viva/YRT stop to the TTC stop. We missed a #60 that closed the door in our faces after we'd nearly broken our necks running on ice to get to it, and we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one. That gave me time to continue texting Liat, take pictures, and watch the hazardous intersection traffic. On the other side of Steeles, there were bright blue-green flashes where more power lines were coming down.
One side of Steeles West in the dark.
Trevor on the inside of the TTC stop and me on the outside with all the ice on the glass :P
Crossing Steeles was another scary moment, but obviously we survived :P Again, it was eerie to see everything in the dark and so many trees broken from the ice. At the girls' place we relaxed with hot drinks and warm blankets. Their place is drafty because of the old windows there, but otherwise it stayed quite nice. The internet was down which drove Trevor and the girls mad, but hey, at least there was electricity!
Power at home came back on at 11:30pm. Trevor and I chose to stay with the girls for the night anyway, because that's never a bad decision and we always have fun! Besides, I had come down with a cold and didn't feel like going back out into the storm again.
On Monday, Liat & Alora had to go rescue Daddison's (that is, Liat's dad's) perishable food in the twin building next door to theirs. Two buildings away, Liat's mom was stuck fourteen floors up with a dead phone and lots of perishable food. Trevor and I wanted to help the girls, but they made us go home instead. With Daddison's and Susie's help, the girls quickly got all the food back to their own place and stored everything in the fridge and freezer for them.
Setting sunlight on an icy tree outside Centrepoint Mall. We stopped here to see if the power was back on yet and it had just been restored. No Frills and Target's food section remained closed off because they had to throw away all that food :(
It was really good to get back home to heat and internet!
Christmas Eve and Day were very quiet. Elisa and I were able to afford a few small gifts for each other and for Trevor, but Trevor didn't get paid until Boxing Day. So Christmas Day was spent watching a Jim Carrey marathon and me playing Gaia Online while we all sat together and relaxed. In the afternoon we went out for a walk because it had snowed on top of all the ice, so it had truly become a winter wonderland. Several streets in Thornhill still didn't have power, even Elgin and Henderson which are only the next streets over from us.
I was so, so thankful that we had power when tens of thousands of people still did not. To me, that alone made it a very good Christmas.
We couldn't get past all these downed trees to get through the clearing that cuts behind E.J. Sands Public School to Clark. But moments after I took this pic, a random Russian guy came out from behind the trees and told us to turn back because the bridge that would lead us to Clark was covered in downed trees as well.
On Boxing Day, we had even more snow. Trevor and I went out to get some groceries and to pick up a Keurig as a Christmas gift for us. On the 27th, he and I spent the evening at Promenade and he bought me some Christmas gifts and some K-cups. His grandparents' power came back on that day too, right on Art's 77th birthday.
My weekend was spent with the girls again! Today I'm working on a necklace commission for Catherine and I might do some scrapbooking. Tomorrow we're heading down to Kitchener-Waterloo for the New Year's Eve party at Kent & Nicole's new place! It's hard to believe that the year ends in less than 48 hours. Where the hell did 2013 even go??
So here's my list of Christmas gifts this year!
- RPG Maker
- Keurig (well that was for all of us)
- Yves Rocher Cocoa Raspberry body lotion
- B&BW Country Chic body spray
- B&BW Marshmallow Kiss body lotion
- 2 nail polishes
- $10 Gaia Online card
- Claire's earrings and necklaces (I LOVE the 10 for $10 clearouts!)
- Amazingly awesome lip balms (there are three normal Lip Smacker ones, but the others are from Claire's and are as follows: Maple Bacon, S'mores, Peanut Butter, and Strawberry Jam)
- Duck Dynasty slippers. They're big pink ducks and are wearing pink camo bandanas around their foreheads and are wearing dark sunglasses. xD
- Two BEAUTIFUL nail polishes and incense from Kent & Nicole
- Delicious soaps and a bracelet from Kathy
- A gorgeous painting from Liat & Alora
The ice storm hit like Thor's hammer!
By the evening of Friday the 20th, everything was coated in the stuff and made walking hazardous. I had to do my cleaning job the next morning, and THAT sure was not fun trying to get there because there was even more ice on the ground at that point; I basically had to skate there. Then I skated over to Liat & Alora's place to visit for a few hours before the worst part of the storm was due to hit, and then I met Trevor at Galleria to look for wheat-free noodles. After that, we skated to Centrepoint where I finished my Christmas shopping.
All that ice on top of snow outside Galleria.
On Saturday night at around 9:30, the power went out. Sunday was spent in the dark, where we ate cold food and drank lukewarm coffee (for some reason we still had hot water!) and periodically went outside to take pictures of the ice. I mostly wrote and drew all day, and we went out and barbecued dinner. Once it got dark we lit a bunch of large candles and placed them on the coffee table, which we surrounded with our selves, warm blankets, egg nog, and Cards Against Humanity. It stayed relatively warm in that spot, but the rest of the apartment was getting really cold really fast. We kept the curtains open, however, because power lines would frequently come down, or branches would land on the power lines, and there'd be big bursts of blue-green light that looked pretty neat despite the sucky reality of what was happening. Sometimes the lines would come down very close by and we could hear the loud buzzing and sizzling.
Trevor barbecuing our dinner! We made sure we were in a clear area away from where tree branches or actual trees would fall on him x_x
The cypress on the far right collapsed later on.
Our lilac trees :(
Our lilac trees :(
It was around 9pm when Trevor and I decided to go stay with Liat & Alora. They were one of the only buildings at Bathurst & Steeles with power, although they didn't have hot water or heat because both are connected to their twin building which was in the dark. We packed up a few essentials and skated to the bus stop, and were creeped out by how bloody DARK everything was. The traffic lights were all out, so we had a fun time crossing Yonge & Clark without getting killed. Yonge & Steeles was even worse, but at least we didn't have to cross anything to get from the Viva/YRT stop to the TTC stop. We missed a #60 that closed the door in our faces after we'd nearly broken our necks running on ice to get to it, and we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one. That gave me time to continue texting Liat, take pictures, and watch the hazardous intersection traffic. On the other side of Steeles, there were bright blue-green flashes where more power lines were coming down.
One side of Steeles West in the dark.
Trevor on the inside of the TTC stop and me on the outside with all the ice on the glass :P
Crossing Steeles was another scary moment, but obviously we survived :P Again, it was eerie to see everything in the dark and so many trees broken from the ice. At the girls' place we relaxed with hot drinks and warm blankets. Their place is drafty because of the old windows there, but otherwise it stayed quite nice. The internet was down which drove Trevor and the girls mad, but hey, at least there was electricity!
Power at home came back on at 11:30pm. Trevor and I chose to stay with the girls for the night anyway, because that's never a bad decision and we always have fun! Besides, I had come down with a cold and didn't feel like going back out into the storm again.
On Monday, Liat & Alora had to go rescue Daddison's (that is, Liat's dad's) perishable food in the twin building next door to theirs. Two buildings away, Liat's mom was stuck fourteen floors up with a dead phone and lots of perishable food. Trevor and I wanted to help the girls, but they made us go home instead. With Daddison's and Susie's help, the girls quickly got all the food back to their own place and stored everything in the fridge and freezer for them.
Setting sunlight on an icy tree outside Centrepoint Mall. We stopped here to see if the power was back on yet and it had just been restored. No Frills and Target's food section remained closed off because they had to throw away all that food :(
It was really good to get back home to heat and internet!
Christmas Eve and Day were very quiet. Elisa and I were able to afford a few small gifts for each other and for Trevor, but Trevor didn't get paid until Boxing Day. So Christmas Day was spent watching a Jim Carrey marathon and me playing Gaia Online while we all sat together and relaxed. In the afternoon we went out for a walk because it had snowed on top of all the ice, so it had truly become a winter wonderland. Several streets in Thornhill still didn't have power, even Elgin and Henderson which are only the next streets over from us.
I was so, so thankful that we had power when tens of thousands of people still did not. To me, that alone made it a very good Christmas.
We couldn't get past all these downed trees to get through the clearing that cuts behind E.J. Sands Public School to Clark. But moments after I took this pic, a random Russian guy came out from behind the trees and told us to turn back because the bridge that would lead us to Clark was covered in downed trees as well.
On Boxing Day, we had even more snow. Trevor and I went out to get some groceries and to pick up a Keurig as a Christmas gift for us. On the 27th, he and I spent the evening at Promenade and he bought me some Christmas gifts and some K-cups. His grandparents' power came back on that day too, right on Art's 77th birthday.
My weekend was spent with the girls again! Today I'm working on a necklace commission for Catherine and I might do some scrapbooking. Tomorrow we're heading down to Kitchener-Waterloo for the New Year's Eve party at Kent & Nicole's new place! It's hard to believe that the year ends in less than 48 hours. Where the hell did 2013 even go??
So here's my list of Christmas gifts this year!
- RPG Maker
- Keurig (well that was for all of us)
- Yves Rocher Cocoa Raspberry body lotion
- B&BW Country Chic body spray
- B&BW Marshmallow Kiss body lotion
- 2 nail polishes
- $10 Gaia Online card
- Claire's earrings and necklaces (I LOVE the 10 for $10 clearouts!)
- Amazingly awesome lip balms (there are three normal Lip Smacker ones, but the others are from Claire's and are as follows: Maple Bacon, S'mores, Peanut Butter, and Strawberry Jam)
- Duck Dynasty slippers. They're big pink ducks and are wearing pink camo bandanas around their foreheads and are wearing dark sunglasses. xD
- Two BEAUTIFUL nail polishes and incense from Kent & Nicole
- Delicious soaps and a bracelet from Kathy
- A gorgeous painting from Liat & Alora