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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Staying home - bunkering down

I had every intention of going to work Monday.
Tuesday was set up to be a half-day connecting remotely until noon.

Monday is now a day where I will be connecting remotely.

I'm lucky my job allows me to function from home. I suspect some folks won't be happy I didn't make it in, but with rolling blackouts expected throughout Durham Region tomorrow, GO expecting significant delays due to malfunctioning signals, tree branches landing on buses, tree branches landing on tracks and power disruptions to signals and stations, I'd rather avoid any possible shit-show and just stay here and spend my time working than commuting.

My condo complex was hit pretty hard. There are trees down everywhere blocking driveways, damaging roofs and pulling down metres of eavestroughs. It's a mess. My husband was excited to finally have a use for his chainsaw operator's licence. He was out there like the villain from the Chainsaw Massacre.

I spent $300 on groceries today in preparation of my Christmas dinner bonanza of 14 people. I don't know how many times I've yelled at the kid and husband to shut the damn fridge during our rolling brown-outs.

I know this could be worse. We haven't reached a crisis of Walking Dead proportions or filling up the bath tub with cold water so we can brush our teeth for a month, but losing hydro for 12 hours can really take its toll on some folks.

Thank god for pillar candles is all I can say.

8 comments:

J said...

So sorry to hear this CJ! I hope you and your family are keeping safe. Here in Halton some people's power have been out for more than a day.

Bicky said...

My train was about 20 minutes late getting in. We crept til Guildwood and then picked up the pace a little bit. Our CSA, Matt, was great about keeping us informed of the slow down.

Overall not a bad ride in.

George said...

We in Oakville only lost power fro about 50 minutes and that was at 4am. Our complex suffered very little damage aside from tree ranches coming down. All trees are pruned every year just in case things like this happen.

It's odd how we only got slightly inconvenienced but people 5k away got major damage and a long blackout.

GO is on an adjusted storm schedule today so train times and stops will probably have been changed a bit. Everything looks good this jorning...so far....

Have a good christmas everyone. We deserve it after the July storm and now this one.

C.J. Smith said...

Hi J
We're all safe. We have stable power now after multiple brown-outs. However, some parts of Durham such as south Ajax and Newcastle have been without power for 30 hours now. We've been spared that stretch.

MATT said...

Power flickered in Scarborough a couple of times over the last two days. Large areas of my neighbourhood are without power, but I'm one of the lucky few to still have juice running.

Morning commute was a mess today; I weighed my options of a bus-shuttle-subway TTC commute, or a surely-delayed GO Train. Went with the train. It's hard to say what the total delay was, but I think it was in the 30-minute range. GO sent an email that Guildwood station was without power, so I couldn't tap NOR pay for a paper ticket...free train ride! Small victories, I suppose.

Hope everyone stays safe.

Al said...

Power was out in my south ajax. Audley/Bayly from sometime after 5:30 am Sunday till 10 pm sunday night.
Thank goodness for Gas fireplace and stovetop. Business as usual for breakfast, heat, coffee, egg and toast. No problem.

TomW said...

If you're power is out (or there's a risk it will go out), fill a container with water, and put it outside. Once it's a lump of ice and the power's out, put it in the fridge. Will keep it cool for a long while.

TomW said...

Oh, and if you have spare space in your freezer, fill it up with stuff (e.g containers of water again!). That will result in it warming much more slowly if you loose power.