Hazel


As I write this post on Sunday morning, nobody had answered this question

we don’t normally think of Ontario as being hit by violent storms but a really strong hurricane hit Toronto and places north in the mid 1950s. Do you know what hurricane it was?

The answer was Hurricane Hazel. It’s probably a nickname that every little girl in Ontario named Hazel has had at one point. There’s even one former mayor who earned the name.

Hurricane Hazel was a recurring topic of discussion from my mom as she and dad lived in the path of it, north of Toronto, at the time. There’s an interesting look “60 years later” here.

Thanks, WestonWeb.ca

When you look at it now and compare to storms that we normally see reported on in the news, you can see that the path really is bizarre. Normally, a hurricane heads east out over the Atlantic Ocean once it hits land. We normally worry about the Atlantic provinces as being the ones that would be most affected by a hurricane.

As I was formulating the questions for yesterday’s post in my mind, I was reminded of a conversation with Mom about “Hurricane Hazel Babies”. From what I’ve read, that would be babies born on or around October 16, 1954. Or were they conceived on that date? It was the topic of conception that made me wonder and, of course, the internet has an answer for everything.

On a whim, I did a search and found all kinds of conception date calculators! Here’s one of them. So, rather than using nine months, this may be a little more accurate at 38 weeks. Spoiler – born on October 16, 1954 generates a possible conception day of November 23, 1953.

So, you can tuck this little bit of trivia away for next month, the 67th anniversary of the hurricane that caused so much damage. And, yes, there’s a website to calculate that as well.

OTR Links 09/27/2021


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Week Ending 2021-09-26


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week. They’re posted to the blog daily under the title OTR Links.

Sunday

  • If you’re looking to walk on your holidays, here’s a top 10 list of walkable cities in Canada
  • There’s a lot of noise from Microsoft about the death of the password – probably a good move for some

Monday

  • I’ve been reading about designing the classroom of the future for years now – here’s another one
  • I wish that I would have had the nerve to write a response to these student questions

Tuesday

  • The article is probably over titled but I’m still shocked that people don’t know how to change the default search engine in their browser
  • If you are a lover of different fonts, you’ll love this collection

Wednesday

  • I find this depressing – what will it do to the future of Chromebooks which relies on an efficient browser
  • It should come as no surprise to anyone that Google leads the pack in this category of trackers

Thursday

  • There are lots of familiar software title names in this list of copycats and some have truly stood the test of time
  • Not living in an Apple world, I didn’t realize that watch faces were an issue. I have millions available for my Samsung

Friday

  • He’s a newscaster on WDIV and does a great job there but he’s also a terrific singer with a new album
  • It makes sense to me but if we won’t legislate adults, I suspect we haven’t got a prayer of legislating stuents to get vaccinated

Saturday

  • Every time I see reports like this, I get angry thinking about how someone had an operation delayed
  • When I lived in Toronto, I walked Bloor Street so many times. I had no idea about who it was named after – scary

Blog Posts on
doug — off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – September 24, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/pHd5f-

voicEd Radio

There was no show on voicEd Radio this past week.

All of the shows are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

It was time for a small holiday for us this past week. It had been so longer, I’d forgotten how to pack a suitcase. Thank goodness for t-shirts and blue jeans. Nothing fancy to get crinkled.

The one thing that I forgot to back though was a power bar! I had the cables for the necessities but finding enough outlets in your bedroom can be a challenge. They had to take turns getting charged.

Video of the Week

A fascinating tourist stop and I got to traverse it at night which made all the lighting extra special.

Photo of the Week

It was the Uncommon Festival in town this weekend and we had a dragon visit us.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

Whatever happened to …


… 100 year storms?

I’ll be honest; I could do with a storm like we’ve had recently every 100 years! But, that’s not the way it works – here’s a good description.

Around here, we’ve had three or four weather broadcasts where the forecaster has declared that we’ve had a 100 year storm. We’ve certainly had some big storms this summer. I guess they get classified that way.

Cleanup on the soy bean field

The one this week caught my eye this morning while out for a dog walk. About a week ago, this was a soy bean field ready for harvest. The harvest happened and the beans stay in the harvester and the dried stems and branches come out the back. Normally, they would just sit there and get ploughed under. Not when a 100 year storm comes along though. During the rain, this would have been a stream of water going across the field to drain into the culvert in the bottom right corner of the picture. Now, we’re looking at the aftermath and all the fluff from the soy beans is at the bottom of what would have been the stream of water.

There are advantages to a heavy rainfall. Over the summer, I’ve accumulated quite a collection of bugs on the front of my car and the windshield. Most of them are gone now! For the most part, we’re safe from big storms but not completely immune. Here are some top storms from Ontario.

For a Sunday, your thoughts?

  • did your part of the province get hit with part of the 100 year storm this week?
  • was it defined as a 100 year storm by your local weather expert?
  • we don’t normally think of Ontario as being hit by violent storms but a really strong hurricane hit Toronto and places north in the mid 1950s. Do you know what hurricane it was?
  • this summer, the west coast of Ontario, particularly Huron, Bruce, and Grey counties got hit hard with rain – but not as hard as Goderich a few years ago? What happened then?
  • what was the biggest storm to ever hit your community?
  • it’s a necessary evil, but as a secondary school teacher, I always hated fire and tornado drills. Have you done yours yet? Has anything changed in the days of COVID?

I’d be interested in your stormy thoughts on this post. Please share in the comments below.

This is part of a regular Sunday morning series. They’re all collected here and I’m always looking for new ideas. Please reach out and let me know if you have an idea.

OTR Links 09/26/2021


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.