Day 44: A new assignment

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 44: A new assignment

They say that all beginnings are difficult and I can attest to that. Take yesterday for instance …

I started a new temp assignment and was sent to 2266 Raspberry Street (not a real address). I looked up the address on Google to find out how to get there and felt confident that all would go well. It didn’t.

For starters, I missed my bus stop. Even though I knew where I was going, I didn’t know exactly where to get off the bus. When it reached Sheppard Avenue though, I knew I’d gone too far and had to backtrack.

After getting off at the right stop, I had to find Raspberry Street, which was easy enough and so was locating number 2266. 

The trouble started when I tried to get into the building. The doors had a security lock and one needed a passcode to get in. Hm, now what? There was no phone to call anyone and there was nobody around.

That’s when I spied two gardeners at work. I tried to persuade one of them to let me into the building, but I was met with ‘Sorry, no English’. Well, I didn’t speak Spanish, so now what? Eventually the gardener’s supervisor showed up, he did speak English and let me into the building.

From there on everything went smooth. I was shown to my work spot, explained what to do and even though it was all new to me I was confident that I could handle it. As a temp one has to be adaptable.

Around 10:00 a.m. I felt like a coffee, but … there was no coffee available. Neither was there tea, juice or even water. My goodness, talk of a problem! So I made my way to the nearest gas station where that boasted ‘Coffee on the go’. Perfect. The coffee wasn’t all that great, but it was better than nothing.

This is why I prefer working in downtown Toronto rather than in the suburbs. Downtown has everything: coffee shops, eateries, and a variety of stores. It has happened that I forgot my comb or lipstick. It may not seem like an emergency to you, but it is to me. If I can't comb my hair I look like Medusa and if I can't touch up my lipstick I look like death warmed up. It's also nice to be able to pick up a lunch, a snack, or anything else one might need.

Anyway, I battled my way through the day, doing this, that and the other, and made it to 4:00 p.m., home time. When I exited the building, I noticed it was pouring rain. A deluge you might say. Now what? I had to make it to the bus stop, but I couldn’t possibly leave the building under these conditions. I had to wait it out until the rain eased up a bit.

When I saw the bus coming, I knew, it’s now or never. Rain or no rain, I had to catch this bus because who knew when there would be another one. Ready, set, go … I sprinted across the tarmac to the bus stop and made it with seconds to spare.

I wasn’t the only one who got caught in the rain, people were dripping everywhere. One or two had brought an umbrella, which I should have done too, but who thinks of taking along an umbrella when the forecast is sunny with 20% chance of rain? Cold and wet I took a seat and shivered all the way home.

Today, things went a lot better. I got off the bus at the right stop, been given a fob I managed to get into the building, and to be on the safe side I brought a jacket and an umbrella. And what’d you think, it’s warm, it’s sunny, with not a cloud in sight.

Day 65: The Weather - According to my Son

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 65: The Weather - According to my Son

A few days ago, I had to go out. Even though it was December and presumably cold, before going out I asked my son “Is it cold out there?”

Heaven knows why I asked because I never get an accurate response. Dieter is one of those people who is completely unaffected by the cold. It must be pretty bad before he wears a coat and he never ever wears a hat or a scarf. So really, I don’t know why I bothered checking with him.

When Dieter says it’s nice, that means that I need a light sweater. When he says it’s a little chilly, a warmer sweater is needed. When he says it’s cold, I better bundle up in a coat, scarf, hat, and gloves. And when he says that it’s very cold, that means it’s freezing the balls off a brass monkey.

In summer, his temperature assessment is equally deceiving. When he says that it’s a little chilly, it’s actually quite nice. The kind of day that I can go out in a short-sleeved shirt. When he says it’s warm, that’s my cue to reach for something sleeveless. When he says it’s very warm, that means it’s hot. I can handle the heat up to 28 degrees C (86 degrees F) comfortably, but anything above that is too hot. So, when Dieter says it’s hot, that means outside the birds are falling out of the trees.

I’ll bet now you’re wondering how he describes wind and rain. So, I’ll tell you. When Dieter says, it’s okay, that means there’s a bit of a breeze. When he says there a bit of a breeze, it’s actually quite windy. And when he says it’s windy, there’s a storm going on. Now when he says that it’s very windy ... well, wherever you’re going you’re in danger of being airborne.

As for rain, he certainly can’t be trusted. It’s misty means it’s drizzling. It’s drizzling means it’s raining. It’s raining means it’s pouring. And when he says it’s raining hard there’s practically a hurricane going on.

My weather app on my phone is equally unreliable.

For instance. For today my phone said that it was 12 deg C (54 deg F). I’m sure it was 12/54 degrees somewhere, but it wasn’t in Toronto.

There have been days that the app says that 75% chance of rain is expected and there’s not a drop of water to be seen. Last winter the app predicted 6 cm of snow (a little more than 2 inches) and we got nothing than a light dusting.

Fortunately, even though my son fails to give me an accurate description of the weather and my phone app is frequently wrong, I can always rely on my cats.

When they groom themselves and they wipe a paw behind their ears ... it’s gonna rain. When the wiping involves a triple action, it’s gonna come down in buckets.

On the other hand, if they claw at the furniture or carpets, wind is expected. And believe me, it never fails.

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Day 22: Wedding superstitions

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 22: Wedding superstitions

Her wedding day is one of the most important days in a woman’s life.  Because of the importance of the day, a number of superstitions and old wive's tales are connected with the event which can spin already nervous brides into a frenzy.  Whether or not these superstitions are true is beside the point, most brides will rather not test their luck.

The Outfit

It is said that the bride should not tailor her own dress and not even help with the stitching because for every stitch of the needle she will cry a tear in her marriage.

The outfit should not be tried on before the wedding other than for fittings.  Should the bride show off her outfit chances are she will not get married.

Neither should the groom see the bride in her wedding fineries before the big day.  Of all superstitions, this is possibly the strongest one and followed by brides the world over.

Pearls

Pearls represent tears.  The bad luck superstition around the bride wearing pearls states that the pearls represent the tears she will shed during her married life.  The good luck superstition of the wearing of pearls states that the pearls take away the tears that the bride would have shed. 

Rain

Rain on the wedding day can also be taken as a good or a bad sign.  One superstition states that rain on a wedding day predicts tears in the marriage; another superstition associates a rainy wedding day with the gift of children to the couple.

The Church

Seeing a nun or a monk outside the church can be one of two things.  Either the marriage will not be blessed with children, or the couple will fall into poverty.

Seeing a black cat on the way to the church is a sign of good luck.

For good luck in a marriage, rather marry on a weekday than a Saturday.  While no bad luck is associated with a weekend wedding, no good luck is associated with it either, so, no luck at all.  According to superstition, Wednesday is the best day to marry.

Signing your Married Name

This is considered another way of tempting faith.  If you dare to sign a document with your married name, chances are the wedding will not take place or the marriage is doomed.

Dropping of the Ring

It is said that if the best man or the groom drops the ring the marriage won’t last.

The Wedding Night

Finally, there is the wedding night with the threat that who falls asleep first will be the first to die.

If all these superstitions were to be believed, it’s no wonder brides are jittery.  To play it safe, just stick to the wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue and don’t let the rest worry you.

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Are cats meteorologists

All winter I’ve been bragging about the mild temperatures in Toronto. We experienced a mild November, a pleasant December, January was not nearly as cold as expected, and February – usually the coldest month – was surprisingly warm. But now, now that we’re halfway in March, now we’re getting it.

For days now we’ve suffered freezing temperatures, with the wind chill often recording -20 or even -25. My winter coat, which I haven’t worn all winter, now comes out of the closet, along with ear warmers, gloves, and a scarf. That is, if I go outside because a few times now I’ve forfeited setting foot out the door.

Like everyone else, I’m looking forward to spring. Just six more days and the new season arrives and with it hopefully warmer weather.

As for now, Toronto – the whole of Ontario actually – is under a snow alert. There’s talk of inches and inches of snow. So far I haven’t seen anything. When I look outside I see that the balcony, the parking lot below and the surrounding fields are having a light dusting of the white stuff, but that’s it. Not 12 inches like expected, barely 2 millimeters.

A few weeks ago, it was the same when rain is expected. The weather report warned of heavy rainfall and flooding, but all Toronto experienced was a light drizzle.

These meteorologists constantly get it wrong. I don’t know what their job involves, but they don’t seem to be very good at it.

Now my cats, on the other hand, they have an excellent handle on the weather situation. If they’re grooming themselves and they wash behind their ears, rain is coming. I don’t know about other cats, but I can trust my lot.

Cat owners might be familiar with this. The cat licks her front paw and then wipes the paw back to front over her ear. If it’s a single wipe, there’s nothing to worry about, but if the paw goes over the ear two, three or even four times … then there’s definitely a chance of rain.

Perhaps the institute for weather predictions should fire their meteorologists and hire a couple of cats.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

I'm leaving

Fall has arrived. Yes, I know, officially fall arrived on September 21^st but on that day, and the days that followed, Toronto enjoyed a bright sun in a blue sky and a temperature warm enough to be outside in shirt sleeves.

Today all that has changed. The sun is nowhere to be seen, the sky is a mass of grey clouds, and it’s cold. To make matters worse, it’s raining, and rain always makes a day seem even colder.

Ordinarily, I love a rainy day, the harder it rains the better I feel. I get really creative or I curl up on the sofa with a good book, with tea and chocolates within reach.

When I have to go out I don’t like a rainy day quite as much. I have to put on a jacket and instead of sunglasses take an umbrella along. Not that an umbrella guarantees me staying dry, I’ve had more than one umbrella ruined when the wind blew it inside out.

Some might say that fall is beautiful, and I agree. The Don Valley in Toronto displays a magnificent array of colors, but for how long. Soon those yellow, orange and red leaves fall off the trees and then they lay on the ground, rotting away. Except for chrysanthemums flowers are dying and nature loses all its color.

And from here on it’s only going to get worse. If meteorologists are to be believed, we’re having a tough winter ahead of us. We’ve had a wonderful long hot summer, so they are predicting an awful long and cold winter. Ugh, I can just imagine, temperatures way below zero, snow up to our ears, black ice … well, it is Canada.

If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, to me this is the most miserable time of the year. Fall has only just started and I’ve already had enough of it.

In winter, with packs of snow, nature at least gets transformed into a magical landscape and there’s some fun to be had. Skiing, ice skating, throwing snowballs at each other, but what’s to be done in the fall … throwing wet leaves at each other?

Maybe I should do like the Canadian geese, head south and wait for winter to pass. I can’t fly, but I can walk.

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How do you feel about fall?

I select a turtleneck instead of a shirt, pull on a jacket and wrap a scarf around my neck.  Outside it’s chilly.  Not really cold, but there is a definite nip in the air.  The wind makes me turn up the collar of my jacket. 

When I look up I see a gray sky packed with low hanging, fast moving clouds.  I feel like turning around, going back inside and crawling into bed.  I feel like joining the bears and the squirrels that hibernate until March or even April. 

As I leave the subway station and climb the stairs to street level, I zipper my jacket and walk face down, looking at the pavement.   Instead of a flimsy skirt, I now wear slacks.  Sandals have been replaced with shoes.  Soon shoes will have to make way for warmer boots.

On my way to work, I see plenty of people who are dressed like me.  They wear sweaters, jackets and scarves.  They no longer sashay, but stride with a sense of purpose and urgency.  They no longer look around, checking if they are seen.  Now they, too, walk with bended heads.

Looking up now, I don’t like what I see.  Some trees are still green, but they are thinning.  Others are turning yellow.  Were they yellow yesterday, or has this happened overnight?  Leaves in various shades of gold and brown rush along the pavement and swirl around my feet.  When I step on them they make a crunchy sound and turn to bits.

The lilies in the flowerbeds are hanging their heads.  They look sad, like they know their days are numbered.  The geraniums are still there, but they don’t look as radiant anymore as they once did.  They have not seen the sun in a few days and they seem to suffer from a lack of warmth.

I suffer from lack of warmth too.  It is bad enough that the fall has arrived; but, that Torontonians have not had a proper summer makes it all the worse.  We had a few warm days, but those days felt more like spring than summer. 

Where are the days when it was already warm early in the morning and one could just feel that it was going to be scorching hot later on?  Where are the days that people were sitting in the shade, huffing and puffing, fanning themselves against the heat?  There has been no heat this summer.

Although I am not a big fan of the scorching heat, and I moan and grown at the sun like everybody else when it is really hot, the notion of heat when one is desperate with ice cold hands and feet is a nice prospect.  It’s something to get one through the moment, through the day and through the long winter.  But somehow we have been cheated.  Summer has passed us by. 

As I stand in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, I look out the window.  It has suddenly gone very dark, it is raining and drops of water are steadily trailing down the glass.  It is like Mother Nature is crying.  Down below the red and white lights of traffic contrast against the wet, black street.  The reflected colors remind me of a lit-up Christmas tree.

During lunchtime, I go outside to clear my head.  There is some blue in the sky now, but still far too many gray clouds.  A few intrepid souls are braving it and are going for a walk.  I have no such intentions.  I would rather stay inside and go in search of a hot bowl of soup.

The park, usually packed with lunchtime office workers and tourists, is now almost empty.  There is nobody strolling along the gravel paths; nobody squatting on the grass; nobody sitting under a tree on a shaded bench.  Now there are only pigeons and seagulls pecking at whatever they can find.   A few people are standing around in a watery sun, bundled up with coats and scarves.

Just before I go back inside I look up and see a flock of Canadian geese.  Are they heading south already?   I wish I could grow wings and join them.

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Namaqualand's transformation

While living in South Africa, a neighbor recommended we should visit Namaqualand. Apparently it was just the right time. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I was prepared to take her word for it. So we went.
The 1111 km (690 miles) was quite a long drive and we hoped it would be worth it. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at our destination and we found a brown colored, barren land. This, this is what we had come all the way for! 

Not that we were alone. There were hundreds of other people there, strolling around, emerging from tents, having breakfast on blankets.

We soon found out that some of the people were reporters and photographers, having camped out at this location for days. According to them, any moment now something amazing was about to happen.

“This happens but once a year,” one of the reporters told me. “One moment there’s nothing but barren landscape, the next a sea of flowers explodes before your eyes.”

Flowers? Where were these flowers going to come from? I saw nothing but soil and rocks.

"You just wait," he said, "just tight and you’ll witness something you won’t forget for the rest of your life." So we waited.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long. During mid-afternoon, dark clouds gathered over Namaqualand and when the first drops of rains splashed on the ground, everyone got terribly excited. 

Within minutes, I could see why. Patches of color started to sprout from the barren soil and the more it rained the more flowers started to bloom. By the end of the day, there were flowers as far as the eye could see.

This video shows the event in a way that I could never explain. Not to worry, you don’t have to watch the whole 51 minutes of it (although you might want to). At the 45 second mark, you can see Namaqualand’s transformation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gx-aCsURq0

If you prefer photos, this reportage shows some beautiful images.

http://www.atlasofwonders.com/2013/02/namaqualand-flower-power.html

Snow ... Snow! ... Snow?

For those who haven’t quite decided what to do for a living, or those thinking about a career change, consider becoming a meteorologist.  Anyone qualifies and no experience necessary.

Take for instance yesterday’s weather forecast for Toronto.  The meteorologist predicted that the city was going to get snow.  Not just a few flurries, but the mother of snow storms.  It would snow between midnight and Friday 4:00 p.m. and as much as 6 inches (15 cm) was expected.

Before I continue, I should say that Toronto hasn’t had much of a winter so far.  It hasn’t been really cold and we’ve seen little or no snow.  So now, before it was all over with March around the corner, it was finally going to happen.

Kids rejoiced that they wouldn’t have to go to school.  Workers mentally rubbed their hands at the prospect of a day off.

Me, I was looking forward to a nice thick blanket of snow.  If I wanted a cold winter without snow, I could have stayed in South Africa.

When I woke up this morning I lay for a moment and wondered how much snow had actually fallen.  Would we be able to go to work?  Were the trains running?  If I went to work, would I find the office open or would there be a notice on the door “Closed on account of weather”?

Full of expectation I tiptoed to the window and opened the curtains, expecting to see the fields and trees weighed down with snow.  The cars in the parking lot waiting for the scraper to arrive so they could take their owners to work.   

What I saw was … a grey parking lot, slick with rain.  Where was the snow?  What had happened to the mother of all snow storms?  Where were the 6 inches?  We didn’t get 6 inches, we didn’t get 2 inches, we got nothing!  Nothing at all!!!

Later we heard that the snowstorm had passed us by.  Toronto was supposed to get a storm, but the strong wind had blown the snow elsewhere. 

Was this the first time the Toronto meteorologist got it wrong?  Let me put it this way … liar, liar, I’m surprised your pants isn’t constantly on fire.

Hello Phil

 

Yesterday was Groundhog Day.  The day Punxsutawney Phil tells us whether we get a late or early spring.  If we are to believe the little rodent, it will be a late one.  Phil proclaimed …

 

As I look at the crowd on Gobbler’s Knob

Many shadows I do see

So six more weeks of winter it must be

 

Six “more” weeks of winter?

We in Toronto haven’t really had a winter.

It’s been a little chilly, and we had a few flurries of snow, but nothing compared to other years.

I haven’t worn a sweater yet and my winter coat has been more in the closet than out.  In fact, this has been more like a long fall than a winter.

 

In the morning when I open the curtains I see either sunshine and blue skies, or soft rain from grey clouds.  I like them both equally.  While I like sunny days, every now and then a little rain must fall.  While I like rainy days, too much grey can be depressing.

 

Personally I rather like wet days.  The grayer the sky, the heaver the rain, the more creative I get.  In case you’re wondering if I’m a water sign … no, I’m a Gemini.  In the Chinese calendar I’m a rooster, a fire rooster at that.

 

Despite not being related to water I do some of my best work on rainy days and get some of my best ideas when I’m around water.  Showering and doing the dishes are inspiring, but what really gets me going is washing windows.  There’s a certain calm in washing glass, and while going from left to right and up and down, ideas for stories just come flooding in.

 

There are other people who think at their best when surrounded by water.  There was one writer who considered moving to Hawaii for precisely this reason.  His grandmother promptly replied “You want to be surrounded by water?  Take a bath.”