I’m doing something that I never do these days. I’m writing this post on Monday morning live. On a regular day, I would have written something yesterday and it would be scheduled to go live at 5am. It would have been crafted to the best of my ability and proofread a couple of times. I’m probably going to miss that self-imposed deadline and I don’t feel any pressure. It’s not like I’m a newspaper with deadlines and all that.
I’m also not alone. One of our sleepover house guests is lying on the couch scrolling through her social media feed. She could have slept in her old bedroom but elected not to. It’s been repurposed. Her dog is sleeping on the new couch in the living room and I hope knows enough to get off there before my wife wakes up.
As I walked past, I heard this odd thumping which was actually his tail thumping on the couch. Ah, it’s nice to be loved. Why would that sound seem so loud?
During my walk out here, it was like walking in a fog. Of course, yesterday we had the whole family plus more over to celebrate Christmas. It was, as they say, like feeding time at the zoo at times. But, in absolutely the best way possible. The normally impeccable kitchen is considerably less peccable this morning. (yes, I know I’m not using the right word but it is still early)
I did a whack of dishes and lots of attempt at cleaning things up before going to bed but there still is more to come.
The three of us are just sitting here in the rec room and it is just so calm. Math check – the dog followed me out here.
Then, I got it. It wasn’t all the action from yesterday that was the difference. It’s the fact that the wind has stopped. It’s been wild here. Here’s a picture from our back yard from yesterday.
The perspective isn’t there; that drift in the back yard is about two metres high. I took a quick snap as Jaimie and I returned from fighting the winds. It was wild.
For the past 2-3 days, in addition to the joyful sounds of Christmas, there has been this rumble in the background as the wind has just been pounding us. With nothing but an empty field across the road, we just got clobbered just leaving the house. It hurt as it pounded my face just getting Jaimie out for a break. It was impossible to walk in a straight line; either with two feet or four fett.
For now, it’s stopped and I can hear things in the house that I haven’t heard for a couple of days. I have the fireplace going and I’m actually hearing it working. While we’ve had a fire there yesterday, we could only feel the warmth; we couldn’t actually hear it. It seems so, so loud now.
Truth be told, we only got a fraction of what most of the rest of the province got. The news has just been full of stories about the weather; the most bizarre from this end of the province was people getting storm-stayed in a Walmart in Chatham. As bad as that may sound, I’m so thankful that they weren’t trapped in vehicles on the 401.
It’s 5:15 now and my good friend Aviva just checked in to let me know that there wasn’t a post at 5am. In a perfect publishing world, I would have made a mistake and mis-scheduled something. Things are so different this morning. I’ll hit publish in a minute, Aviva. I’ve promised to do something nice for breakfast this morning so I’ve got to get going.
I’m thankful for the calm that we’re enjoying this morning. I know that it’s Boxing Day and the stores will be open and going nuts in places in a couple of hours. My inclination right now is to just ignore all this. It’s so nice and calm; I feel like a nice long dog walk would be a whole lot better for the soul.
We’re nowhere near the end of winter and I know that we’re in for much more wind and snow. The best move may well be to enjoy the beauty of this calmness.
Christmas is always an opportunity to sit and appreciate all that life has offered. To that list, at this moment, I’m also adding peace and calm. It’s such a noticeable change from the past couple of days and I’m loving it right now.
I hope that you and your family had a safe a loving Christmas. It’s been a strange couple of days and we’ll be a while cleaning and digging out from it.
I’ve been writing and hopefully doing a good job of proofreading as I create this. I’ve got to get into gear here.
I wish you all the best.
doug --- off the record 