A few more gardening pics

I took it easy today, other than going to the garden centre to get some Climatis Ivy and some roses. It was hot by Calgary standards, and Linda wanted to wait till the evening when it got a little cooler. That seemed like a good idea to me.

Just as we were about to head out Linda got a call from work about coming in next week. The only problem is that her manager had approved holidays for this coming week, long before the flood, but it seemed that someone didn't get the message. Considering many City servers were flooded I suppose that shouldn't be a big surprise. There's been a bit of back and forth and at the moment it looks like she still has vacation this coming week.

I got one chuckle out of the flood this week. The only bridge that failed was the one inspected by the company that runs trains over it. They were more interested in "not interrupting the flow of commerce" than ensuring public safety. There could easily have been 4 flaming rail cars floating down stream on a flooded Bow River. I can't think of how that could possibly turn out anything other than bad, and catastrophic is easy to imagine. Their idea of "inspection"seems to be answering the question, "are the tracks still there". Maybe this is why we have so many derailments. So much for industry self regulation.

It wasn't until I was a grown up that I fully understood the great Canadian curse, "God Damn the CPR!" They've run their tracks through the middle of almost every town in western Canada, and there is not a damn thing the municipalities can do about it. My work building is right beside the tracks, and let's just say it gets a bit distracting at times. I sure hope the City was keeping track during the bridge issue, and sends the CPR a bill. They ought to include lost time for 10's of thousands of people sitting in traffic as some of the major roads in Calgary were closed.

I feel for the people that were flooded. It's a horrible thing to happen to your home. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But what were these people thinking? It's a flood plain. Now we all have to pay to rebuild their homes. In Calgary it might be another 100 years till they flood again. But that isn't true in High River. So far there have been a huge number of homes condemned. I don't know if they can search them for possessions that can be salvaged.

Before they rebuild the town, there ought to be some serious conversations, starting with the question is this a sensible place to build a town? Used to be we wanted to build near a river. Now we know how to reliably pump water and move goods, so this isn't as big a concern as it was. It should be no surprise that High River floods. The name is the first clue. I don't even know how many times it's had major floods, and this last few weeks isn't the first, or even the second. There's been a bunch of major floods, and any number of minor ones.

So if they decide they really do want to build a town there, they ought to take about a bazillion tonnes of gravel, and build the whole town about 10 feet higher. Or if that isn't an option, then put up huge banks on the river, and I do mean huge, say 10 to 20 feet above THIS flood level, and then decide where the town boundaries are, and put the same dike around the entire town. Too expensive, you say? Go fuck yourself with some barbed and pointy instrument. How often are we expected to let ordinary people lose everything from a flood? And how often are the taxpayers going to be on the hook for damage? Fix it once, and carry on. Maybe we shouldn't allow people to build in a flood plain, or do so at their own risk, with any home they build being completely uninsurable. Good luck getting a mortgage.

Where was I? Oh yes, plants. In the evening we got things planted. We have more day lilies than we know what to do with. We only planted a few a long time ago, and they've been happily breeding and growing. I was dealing with a solid root ball nearly a foot across at one point. Some might not survive. Oh well.

I do have to say I wasn't impressed with the class of people at the plant store. The staff were nice, the other customer's were jerks. Someone stole our cart. One big woman stopped in the middle where several of us were trying to get through, and announced with a pissy face that we had room to get by. She hadn't noticed we had roses. I managed to scratch her leg going by. Yay me!

Here's more photos of the patio. There are some climatis to climb up the lattice, and some roses and day lilies to help shade their roots. The big blue thing is a mint of some variety. I loves that corner.

It's been nice sitting outside on the patio. Lately the weather has been really nice for it. Watching some of our neighbour's checking it out has been fun. There's a bit more to do on the front, mainly the areas just around the boxes. The theory was that there was some extra plants there, with a brick border to keep the grass out. That was a futile thought. I'm not sure what is going to happen there. No doubt The One That Knows All is cogitating on it. I've got some tasks for tomorrow in prep for a big change.

Then will come the back yard. That will be more work than the entire front. It's a mess and I hate it. I'm not looking forward to doing anything with it. Does anyone have a teenager they could rent out for some slave labour, I mean that wants to earn some money for strong back, weak mind sort of work?

Today the only workout was some stretching in the morning, and after the gardening. Sophia had suggesting using a golf ball on my foot instead of a softball. That hurt a lot more than I thought it would. I didn't think my foot was that sort, in that one spot. My goodness. With any luck tomorrow I'll be up for my first road bike trip.

I saw Belinda!

Funny how things go from day to day. The last bike was clunky and bleah. Today as I got out of bed I knew I'd get on my bike pretty quick, and it would be good. It's odd, I felt a bit stiff and sore, yet I knew the bike would be good, at least for a while. And so it was. Right from the first pedal it was a nice smooth spin. I had a supervisor keeping a firm eye on things, though she didn't say much.

After a nice warm up I started going up through the gears to find a spot where I could feel the work, but not be overworking. There was a sweet spot at 225 watts where I could go for a minute then recover, then do it again several times. Then to one gear easier, and settle in at 190 or so for two minutes. My legs didn't mind this at the time, especially after a good stretch and core session after. At the end of the day they're feeling a bit tired. I think, I hope, I'm ready to take the trainer tire off and try a road outside. Not Road to Nepal, I know that's too much for me. But it would be nice to get out towards Millarville, maybe on Monday if the weather is still nice.

Visited with my buddy James. Love conversing with him. Then off to Owl's Nest to buy some books to support their flood fund raiser for Pixie Hollow book store in High River. We had arranged to meet our buddies Kris and Sophia. Later we wandered over to the farmer's market and met Leana totally by accident. Here's the books I got, and the difficulties of getting the photo should be apparent.

But the fun part of the day was when I was talking to James at Lazy Loaf and Kettle. Such good food there! We were out on the patio in perfect weather, and shortly after sitting down a small party got up and left. I just about swallowed my teeth.

Writers, you know what I mean when you can see and hear your book characters in your head? Well, one of the characters in my book was in that party. It was Belinda, if you've read this particular snippet. I almost said hello, so it was a good thing I had a mouth full of sandwich. She looked exactly has I had pictured her in the book. I just wish I'd been close enough to hear her talking but that would have been creepy. This girl was wearing a red summer dress from a light fabric that faded to a mesh at the top and bottom, exactly something I could picture Belinda wearing. Brown hair, in a braid, near waist length, check. Pretty, check. Tall, check. Nice figure, check.

As I thought about it over the next couple minutes, I was wondering if this happens to other writers?

Since my brain has been well into the book lately, here's another snippet. No Belinda in this one though.



Les strode into the primary control room, dropped his hard hat on the table, and himself in the chair with castors. He gave himself a push against the instrument panel to spin around once while crossing the room to end up in his favourite position, feet on a desk corner and head against a corner of the annunciator panel.

`How many times did you have to practice that before getting it right?` Dwen asked.

Les rolled his eyes to the left. Dwen was seated at the computer, ostensibly working on her daily report. `Let me think. What with all the spare time last set of nights, and the quiet days this week, I’m sure this must have been the first time.`

`The scary thing is that I believe you. Anybody else trying that would give themselves a concussion. How do you get away with it?`

`I didn’t even think about it. Perhaps that’s the secret. If it works for the gateless gate, it ought to work for a chair. In any case, things are good.`

`Well yes, that I could tell. Even if I had to go look at it.`

Les kept a tactful silence.

`So what does your buddy have to say for himself?`

`Mmm? Oh yes, Andy. I know him from a book club. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and told me he was looking for someone a little more outgoing, and I don’t know, a little more on the ball.`

`And?`

`I had told him the story of how the plant engineer got covered in foam, and how you argued with Stu about the piping set up. Plus a little about the training that I’ve had here. I guess he remembered, and asked if you were single or what. I hadn’t paid much attention to your relationship with what’s his nose, but said I would ask. Then I met Stella, you broke up with Al, and it all came together.`

Les shifted to a more normal posture, and looked earnest. `I don’t really know if you’ll get along or not, but he isn’t a creep. He’s fairly fit and likes outdoor stuff, so you’ll at least be able to talk to him about that. Stella seems nice, but she had a bad experience on a date. She figures meeting another couple somewhere is more reassuring than being with someone she doesn’t know very well.`

Dwen settled back in her chair. `I suppose that’s fair enough. Where did you have in mind?`

`Stromboli’s is supposed to be good, and it’s central. Andy’s been there and is willing to go again. It’s right in Kensington beside the Plaza Theatre, if we want to do a movie after dinner. There’s a bunch of coffee shops just around the corner, and it’s a short drive to Electric Avenue if we want to do that.`

`I’ve heard good things about Stromboli’s, and I like strolling through Kensington. Along the river is nice too. I’m not much on drinking these days. If Stella has had a bad experience she probably wants to avoid alcohol for a while. So you figure that Andy will behave himself?`

`Well, he’s not going to try to rape you with another couple right there, though I suspect you could deal with that. If we all meet at the restaurant with our own cars, there’s no opportunity for the screw or walk routine.`

`All right. I haven’t had much luck with the guys I’ve met lately, so maybe a semi-blind date will change my luck. This coming Saturday?`

Les beamed. `Great! I owe you a favour, though if things work out with Andy for you, I’ll consider it paid off. Meet there at 7, have dinner, and see how things are going before we decide on plans for later?`

`Sure. You can even give Andy a hint and tell him not to splash on any aftershave. I’ll let you make the plans and reservations.`

...

`Hey Les, how’d your date with Dwen go?` Eric called across the coffee room.

Les took a plastic container from his lunch bag and put it into the fridge. `A date with Dwen. What makes you think that?`

`Saw you and her coming out of Stromboli’s on Saturday.`

`Ah, and did you see the other two people between us as well?`

Eric rolled his eyes up and to the left. `Not really. To tell the truth, I didn’t even recognize our Dwen at first, then I took a good look. I never realized she had such great legs. Then I noticed you. Maybe there was another couple, but so what? How’s Dwen in bed, big boy?`

`That couple was a tall guy, taller even than me, with black hair, and a blonde woman about Dwen’s height. His name is Andy and her’s is Stella. You didn’t notice Stella’s arm in mine, and our date was just fine, thank you very much, though I don’t know what business it is of yours. I’m glad you’re not a witness in my defense in court. The lawyers would tear you apart in cross examination.`

Les had taken a seat facing Eric, with his back to the door. `Since she’s just walked in, you could ask her how things went on her date. I’m sure she’d be delighted with your compliment, and if you ask nice, she might even answer the other question you asked me.`

`Hey guys. Do I want to know what I’ve walked into, or should I go come in again and pretend it’s the first time tonight?` Dwen asked.

Did you miss the 1500 posts retrospective?

The vet adventure

First, if you haven't read my retrospective on hitting 1500 blog posts, you need to go look it over. I included links to a bunch of posts that might help explain what's going on here.

Today's adventure was to take two cats to the vet at the same time. Oddly enough, we've never done that before. All our other cats were on different inspection and validation schedules. Since these two are  almost exactly the same age, and we got them at the same time, they are on the same inspection schedule. Somehow, I had to do this alone. Linda, displaying her talent for knowing ALL, had another appointment so she couldn't help.

There was a promising beginning, both were asleep in the afternoon sun. I stalked and pounced Curtis. The capture went well, since he's pretty amiable about that. He was not happy about being stuffed into the carrier. He somehow managed to get his toes into the air slots, and resisted quite strongly. I had to pull him out, flip him over, hold him by the paws and slide him in.

Celina was even tougher. She is very strong for her size. When I tried the same stunt, she somehow managed to double back on me like a snake and almost escaped. There were  a bunch of very plaintive complaints. The car was a very loud trip, but once we all got into the vet's waiting room they were placid again. There was a small dog going crazy there, so I think they felt they had to be dignified and stoic, just to keep up the cat image.

This is the same vet we've been going to for about 30 years now. They just moved closer to us, into the space a Roger's Video store used to be in. You know, I miss that whole business model already. I'm pretty sure by the time I get onto the "get things over the internet and display them on your 60 inch flat screen", there will be some entirely new thing coming along. And when or if I get on THAT, it will be on the way out shortly after. Since by then I'll be getting on, and Kurzweil's singularity may have happened, I (me personally) might not have the wetware capable of compliance. By then every book on earth will be dust or nearly so, except for a few in museums. I don't know what I'll do to amuse myself then.

Where was I? Yes, wrestling with cats. Good exercise. The cats are fine, other than Curtis being a few pounds to heavy according to the vet, and a tendency to some teeth issues. As always, once they were out even at the vet's office, they didn't want to get back in again. I'm fine, though the matter was in doubt for a few minutes. Afterward the wine and nice dinner was well earned.

Yesterday I was just about ready to head downstairs for a spin session when I saw an email from my boss about coming in to work. So I did for a few hours to push a brutal spreadsheet a little further towards completion. After getting home I got on the bike and had a moderate spin session, then a good core and stretch session. Mobile plank and all. The side plank with the leg raises is coming along.

I could feel it a bit in my legs this morning, leading to another stretch session. Mowing the lawn counts as core, since it's one of those push mowers. It was a beautiful day here, and for much of the last several years I'd have gone for a bike ride. However I'm still getting my bike sit bones toughened up, and I'm not sure how my legs will deal with some of the hills. Eventually I'll have to try.

1500

This is published post 1500. There are couple drafts floating around, but they don't count. I hit 1000 (and of course my newer readers will want to read that one as an intro) on Sept 2, 2011, so that's just over 660 days for the 500 posts. About 2070 days for 1500 posts overall. Starting the beginning of this year I wrote a post a day until mid April, for 104 days in a row. Some of you do run streaks, I do writing streaks. Though lots of my writing energy is going into my novel.

That should be enough numbers for now. No cake for the blog this time. Things are all messed up here with the flood. Evidently during one of the news scrums today, it was noted that for all Calgarians who complained about the lack of stop light synchronization, now they really know what it's like without any, since at the moment all stoplights are on their own, and many aren't working at all. It's traffic chaos right now, and I'm glad I don't have to be out in it. Except I was, work called me in this morning, after I read on our info site that the office would be closed today.

So what have I been up to for 500 blog posts? Here's a selection of some that amuse me for one reason or another. If I'd written this last week, or next week the selection might be different. Is there one I missed that you think should be here? Feel free to comment. Think one of these is sub-par? There is a special form you can fill out at keith@bitemybutt.com.

Yes, feel free to leave comments. I like them, and sometimes respond to them. I read them all, usually several times. I don't have all that many readers, according to the lying Blogger stats, but I appreciate the ones I have. As you know, I have only the finest quality readers.

I've been working a bunch on my novel, and have posted periodic snippets. Work is chugging along well, thank you very much. I continue to try to balance my social life and fitness life, and it's been a bit of a struggle. The fitness is getting harder. I think this old age thing is getting closer.

Amelia snuck in a rant on me. Rotten humans.

My all time pool swim gross out. Not hair. Not band aids. Beyond even floating phlegm.

Versatile deep thoughts.

Boobs, a rant. One of the all time favourite posts, at the top of the reading heap for a long time. My mom even commented on it. I don't really believe the Blogger stats any more. I don't know what they measure, and they can't even put things in proper descending order. So I don't really know what my most popular posts are. But lots of readers liked this one.

I finally got pissed about training Skynet, and fixed my blog. I implore you to fix yours if you are still putting your reader through the text recognition hoops. I fixed my blog so that anonymous comments were not permitted. Since then I have deleted 1 (count 'em ONE) piece of spam, and I had to think about it.

I took a day and toured Calgary's +15 system, and taking photos. Note - DO NOT load this on a portable device over your phone line. Many photos in there.

After this rant I had to wash the froth off the screen.

A follow up of sorts, though one person emailed me to say I'd missed an obvious title of "a feel up of boobs". Poor me.

People wonder why we don't have a dog. Their dietary choices explain all.

Some of you probably don't want to read about this, since you know it will be happening soon.

I didn't blog about Amelia at the time. We were too upset. She had been slowly slipping, and then sort of fell over the ledge. We had rescued her from the SPCA, and I don't think she ever got over the experience. She was a nervous twitchy cat all her life with us, and even though we tried to give her a good home, there were several adventures along the way. See her rant above. We waited several months before we got new cat overlords. They have worked out very well, benignly ruling, and having their fur groomed. Curtis in particular has had his fur improve 100%. It was coarse and greasy, now it is soft and silky.

One of my trademarked lotsa stuff in a post. One of my inspirations finished a half ironman at 82.

Social media musings.

Long political rant with an amusing allegory.

I get asked how to go from fat to fit. Here's how.

I won a prize! And other stuff about me. Me! Yes, me!

A rant about the health care our health care system needs.

Zombies, a rant.

News. Or rather, what isn't news.

You can still leave a comment on any of these, though I have comment moderation turned on for older posts. This ensures I see them, and I'm always delighted by comments.

Excitement is building, coming soon

A quiet day. Core. Gardening. Aggressive cat cuddling. Invasive human cuddling by cats, as per the photo. Both wanted my lap and attention.

Working on my novel. Here's a snippet for your reading pleasure.



`Dwen, have you seen Bill since last coffee?` Mitch asked as she joined the rest of the crew in the lunch room.

`Yes, I was down there about 4. He’d done the samples and was going to check the aerator motors and do some shoveling on the walkway. Why?` It had been a long shift, and her husky voice said, what now?

Mitch sighed. `No special reason, but it’s not like him to miss a coffee break without telling someone. I wouldn’t think about if it wasn’t so cold out. Did you read in the paper the other day about that poor woman coming home from a date? She slipped and banged her head on the car going down, then froze to death less than 20 feet from her front door. I’d hate to see anything like that happen here.`

`So would I.` She picked up the phone and called the old aeration control room. `Nothing. I’ll page him to call us here.` After doing so Dwen plugged in the kettle for hot water to make one of her specialty hot chocolates. The kettle boiled without the phone ringing. Rather than pour the water, she caught the Mitch’s eye. `Bill isn’t normally this late, and there wasn’t anything going on that would make him late. Your call, do you want to go looking for him?`

`I’m going to feel awfully stupid if all we do is interrupt his nap.`

‘He’d deserve it for not letting us know. Les told somebody, I’ll bet.’

‘He did, like always.’

One of the other operators had just finished rinsing his dishes. `If you like, rather than going back to the primary control room, I’ll go through the tunnels down to secondary, and meet you there. I was going to go early anyway and take a walk, and there’s as good a place as any.`

`Thanks Erik,` Mitch said. `Gord, you stay here till someone calls you. If Bill shows up or calls, page me.`

Dwen and Mitch checked outside the back door, but Bill’s truck wasn’t there. They had taken separate routes through the main building in case Bill had walked over for some reason, and met at the door closest to old aeration.

After a minute of buttoning and zipping, they stepped out into the cold pre dawn air. They walked directly over to the central entrance to the walkways over the aeration tanks. They paused for a minute before entering the fog bank that was always over the tanks in winter.

`It doesn’t look like any footprints have come out, and it’s been a while since it was shoveled here`, Dwen observed.

`Lets go straight to the building. If Bill isn’t there, I want to wait till Erik joins us before we go anywhere else. The last thing we need is to go chasing our tails.`

Dwen always enjoyed looking at objects that were covered in built up frost. They were so pretty, especially trees. Since the plant produced the conditions for the frost build up, she had lots of opportunities to see it. She wasn’t looking at that this time. She looked at the surface of the walkway, and at each intersection they peered out as far as they could. Not that it would do them much good, visibility ranged from a few feet to a few dozen feet in a swirling shifting pattern of pre-dawn fog. In a few minutes they arrived at the control room door. They looked particularly carefully at the walkway outside the door, but didn’t see any footprints.

A quick look inside the small control room showed them they were alone. Bill’s truck was parked outside on the clarifier deck where it belonged. `No parka here, but I didn’t see anything to indicate he went out of the room onto the walkway,’ Mitch said.

`Before we walked down here, maybe we should have called Les in primary,` Dwen said. `Bill’s got to be somewhere, and he isn’t here.` A phone call to the primary control room woke a dozing Les, who said that Bill wasn’t there. `And that’s all the operators accounted for, except Bill. Where could he have got to? Maybe Erik found him in the tunnels.`

Through force of habit, Dwen had been looking over the instrument readings. `Boy, the DO sure took a dip in tank 2 about an hour ago. I wonder why? It was fine when I was down here.` She started keying through the computer. Mitch distrusted computers, and had pulled out the old pen charts.

`And it’s only number 2,` said Mitch. `The rest look fine.`

The door they had come in a few minutes ago pulled open, and Erik walked out of the fog. He shook his head. `I took a trike and checked out all the new tunnels, then rode over here, carried it down the stairs by the old alum room, and checked out this gallery. Nothing. You didn’t find him either?

`No. We called Les, and we haven’t heard from Gord up at the lunch room. What now?` Mitch was plainly baffled.

Dwen turned to them with a sick look. `The DO in tank two was down, but is coming back up, and it only happened in that tank, right? What’s the worst thing for depressing DO?` she asked, in the tone of someone who already knew the answer.

`Blood, of course,` replied Mitch. `But the slaughterhouses warn us when they are sending high blood content into the system, and besides, it would be everywhere...` He stopped in horror.

`One of the aeration motors is tripped out.` Dwn considered for a moment. `It’s going to be dawn soon. Lets close the inlet and outlet gates to tank 2, and shut off the motors. It’s low flow right now, so the rest of the system can pick up the load. He’s got to be somewhere.`

Erik went to get one of the powerful hand flashlights and a sample pole from the truck. He met them at the door to the RAS pumphouse, at the east end of the aeration tank. This was both the beginning and end of the tank, since the inlet flowed down an inside channel to the east end of the tank, then into the tank to the north of the channel. The flow through the tank went west beside the channel, through a cut underneath it, and back down the south side of the channel toward the east again. They decided to start looking at the end of the tank and work against the normal flow. Without the aerators going, the fog wasn’t the normal roiling mist that made it impossible to see the surface of the tank; it was more like a normal mist coming off water. A slight breeze blew it aside. Working together, they carefully looked at each cell, leaning through the railings to look under the walkway as they went.

`This is the cell where the motor had tripped out, isn’t it?` Dwen asked as they got to the third cell from the beginning of the tank.

`Yes,` replied Mitch in an absent sort of way. He was looking over the motor and bearing assembly. `This seems fine.`

`Dwen, look! Here, hold the light. Over there,` Erik cried. He sprinted down the walkway to the other side of the cell, and used the sample pole to reach down to the liquid level. Dwen had followed him, and managed to get the light onto the foamy lump Eirk was prodding at, just as half of Bill’s face rolled up to stare at them. Erik leaned heavily on the railing and was sick. Dwen was never sure how she didn’t lose her grip on the flashlight as she collapsed onto the snowy walkway. Mitch joined them, and his breakfast made a contribution to the tank. There was silence for a moment.

`Erik, can you work him over to the side of tank? Do you think we can get him out with the sample pole?` Dwen made a sound deep in her throat. `I hate to say this, but is all of him there?`

We have a patio again

More gardening today. My neighbour a couple of houses down and I took his truck to Rona. I wanted to get some lattice and a few other odds and ends, and finally get some privacy again. We used to have a lattice a while ago. Every spring I would go out and screw it together where it had come loose. Then several years ago I realized that it was coming completely apart. I took it down, and over that summer I dug out the boxes and put down a layer of newspaper and cedar mulch.

I don't want to think about how long ago that was. It's been a while. Now, doesn't this look much better? Still lots to do.

It's still not the nice thicker cedar we used to have but better than nothing. Tomorrow I'll go get some Climatus, and some roses to climb up the lattice. Stay tuned for further BIG changes. Hint, much as we like blue, it won't be there much longer.

I've lived with cats most of my life. It never ceases to amaze me the postures they sleep in once they come to realize the house is safe, and no predators are going to pounce on them. If I tried to tuck him into this position, Curtis would protest a lot. Here he's merely complaining I've interrupted his sleep.

Last night I was up late writing. I turned around to see the cats curled up on the chair together. Celina was giving me the look telling me I was keeping her up. I love how cat's eyes behave in photos.

My feet are less tender, but it still comes and goes. I was a bit of a slacker today, other than wrestling with lattice in the wind, trying to get it done before the rain.

We sat out on the patio this evening, drinking a glass of wine. It's a nice evening, a bit cool and breezy. Although I've been having fun being domestic the last few days, I'm not unmindful of people a few miles away dealing with a major flood.

I got a chuckle out of our Mayor. At one point during a press conference he felt compelled to talk about people boating on the river. The swollen dangerous river that has burst it's banks in several places and is still running at record levels. You can see the clip here. The words Nenshi Noun will enter the local language. As in, Don't be a Nenshi Noun, used to describe idiotic and inconsiderate behaviour. Here's a bunch of Nenshi related stuff to amuse you.

Today on short notice they put out a call for volunteers to assemble at McMahon Stadium for 10 am. They hoped for 600, and could deal with a max of 1000. There was 2500 people there willing to work. The evac centers have been turning away volunteers on an hourly basis. The Stampede grounds are a mess, and they had to practically tranquilize herds of volunteers that wanted to go in and start cleaning before the water had even gone away. Stampede starts July 5, and believe it or not, they are going ahead. Maybe not as the year of planning had anticipated, but going ahead.

Today I saw a photo of part of the LRT tracks near the Stampede Grounds, here's a screen shot. They look like a roller coaster ride. As far as I know they are still pumping out the LRT tunnels and haven't even been able to assess the damage down there. It could be weeks before the south LRT is working again. The only practical way of getting to Stamped is the LRT, so this is going to be interesting. There is a crew pumping out 7 stories of the garage under city hall. It's going to be weeks before people are working in there again. They are trying to arrange alternate work arrangements for Linda and many other City workers. Wouldn't you know it, this is the time of year we pay our property tax.

On a personal front, my office is dry, and has been dry. The power was out, and our building is in the queue to be assessed. They are restoring power very carefully, and all the buildings in a substation grid have to be ready to go. I'll be off Tuesday for sure, and they don't know about Wednesday.

To be honest I'm liking the break. I've been taking the various officials at their word and avoiding the emergency areas. There are times when the best help you can give is staying out of the way.

We gardened

I have overdosed on flood porn. I've been obsessive about checking twitter and facebook every few minutes and looking at the many many pictures and videos. I won't put any of it here, since I'm assuming that if you want to look, you can ask Mrs Google yourself. We remain warm and dry.

Yesterday evening was actually like summer, and we went for a bit of a walk. There was a nice sunset with a beautiful full moon showing up.

 Today started nice. Linda went out to the garden centre and got some plants. As many of you know, our flower beds have been a disaster of their own for a while. This is the year to start doing something about it. I'd dug out the two long front ones and cleaned out the growth. Two roses were to replace the day lilies and other encroaching plants at the end of the boxes. If these roses are anything like the Alberta rose by the garage, in a few years I'll be trimming it back with a chainsaw and trying to keep it out of the lawn.

The idea was to take out the lilies and divide them up. We wanted to be pretty through about getting the intruders out, but couldn't wash them like we had planned. Calgary has banned the outdoor use of tap water to help the treatment plants stay on top of the required supply. In a side note, I am laughing at all the people buying bottled water. Calgary tap water is very good all the time, and it's still exceeding the provincial standards.

So we had fun hacking the lilies apart and put them in the other boxes. Chatting to a couple neighbours.  Enjoying the sunshine. Glad I'd sprayed mosquito repellent.

We were just about done when it started raining, so we packed it up. Old day lilies are really tough, so I hope at least some survive the experience.

It rained a very little bit, much less than what we had expected from the clouds. After we were gone we slipped back out to battle the swarms of mosquitoes to plant the last of the other stuff. Petunias, I think Linda said they were. Whatever. Most of my experience is with waste water and petroleum plants. I barely know one kind of green plant from another.

I was down really working my left calf muscle, and a bit of tenderness on the bottom of my foot. It was fine during our walk and tightened up a lot after. Today it's been tight again, so I was downstairs rolling and stretching. It almost feels bruised.