Whoops!

It was a cool, humid, sometimes cloudy day, with occasional gusts of wind.  This morning, just around 6am, when we were all fast asleep, I heard a crash in the living room.  I didn’t know what it was, it woke me up, so I got up to go see what had happened.  Accompanied by my tiny shadow, I walked down the hall to the living room.  I noticed that the room was brighter than usual, but as I rounded the corner I saw that the curtains over the picture window had fallen, complete with the rod, onto the floor.  A quick check showed that one of the supports had fallen but we’re trying to work out how this happened — the curtains fell about a metre to the left of the window, and it was the right-hand support that had broken, so you’d expect that it would have fallen straight down, or at least dangled from the left  side.  No idea, and I’ll have to work out what to do with it.  Annoying.  Jerry went to check it out, then came back to tell me that he needed to go out RIGHT THIS SECOND and picked up his harness… 😆 Don didn’t hear anything, he was so completely asleep, and we’re thinking of perhaps spending the day out in the country tomorrow if his legs feel up to it.  We won’t know until the morning, so stand by!

I fell asleep this afternoon for a couple of hours.  After the curtain incident, I went back to sleep for a while, then got up, convinced that I had something booked this morning.  I didn’t, but I was partly zoned out for much of the morning, so I gave up and had an afternoon nap.  May I say that naps are a wonderful invention, and are highly underrated?

Listening to the news is quite depressing and stressful.  There are more, and larger, wildfires in the Territories (just below the Arctic Circle) and in BC where entire towns (and the capital of the Northwest Territories) have been largely evacuated ahead of fast moving fires.  The smoke is already extending to the East Coast (covering Ottawa) and down into the USA.  It’s horrifying to see the images of the flames, the red skies and thick smoke… thousands of refugees fleeing their homes!  So far, fortunately, there aren’t any casualties. Then there are the ongoing stories of the Hawaiian fires and how quickly they engulfed a town, with tragic loss of life.  And incoming storms, floods, drought, crop losses… it’s really distressing.  I could just switch channels, but that just lets me be blinkered and doesn’t solve the issues.  I rather wish that I could do something meaningful to help in these situations, but I can’t do anything more than perhaps donating to the Red Cross.  

I was unsurprised but disgusted when at least one airline was called out for price gouging during the evacuation.  The cost of a flight out of the evacuation zone jumped overnight from $300 to $4500!  That’s beyond unconscionable, honestly.  Other, smaller, airlines responded by increasing the frequency of flights and holding the fares.  It’s a stopgap, and not a sustainable option, but the timing for evacuation is quite short (2 days) so the airlines said they’d waive certain fees to allow pets to fly with their owners (in cargo, not in cabin); for change fees for people booked to travel into the evacuation zone and so on.  It’s encouraging to see that, although they will probably be struggling for a while.  I’ll just comment negatively on the concept of “surge pricing” especially in such an emergency, commend the smaller businesses for putting their passengers first, and then move on to my nightly duties!

I’m at the stage in my crochet project where it feels like it’s going to continue for ever, and I’m not progressing… it happens with every one that I do, as I’ve struggled with the setup (my least favourite part) and now just have to finish off.  But it seems that the wool just extends itself instead of running down, and I keep thinking, “OK, I’ll be done in a couple of hours… maybe tomorrow…” and I’m stuck in a recursive loop!  Pictures will be coming soon, as I intend to complete this by the end of the weekend.  Then I will need to start on the next one, which I hope will be quicker.

OK, it’s puppy tummy rubbing time, and I’m being poked by his telescopic paw and getting THE LOOK of alleged neglect!  I’d better get to work before I’m attacked… Good night!