By the Numbers

I like facts, and I like the numbers because when designated authorities provide the numbers, it's easy to see that all the hyperbole is a little off the mark for some areas. Like the one I live in. We are currently designated in the "orange" zone, but I can see our county heading to the red or grey zone because of larger places like the "top-four" part of our county.

This page for Simcoe-Muskoka heath unit has a wealth of information (see: Simcoe-Muskoka Health Stats), but the majority of cases are pegged mostly in the southern area of the county - Barrie, Bradford West-Gwillimbury, New Tecumseth, Innisfill, Essa ... areas in the more northern part of the county (like Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, etc.) have fairly small numbers of cases, and even less numbers of hospitalized cases.

Excitement is Simple

At least it's simple for some of us. Being such a homebody, it doesn't always take much to excitement me. Little things ... mastering a recipe; finding a lost earring; getting mail (real mail, the kind that gets delivered to your mailbox), getting a delivery ... ah, and that's what happened today.  I have to go back a bit to explain it. For years I've been collecting pieces for my Christmas village ... back when I started they were small. Villages came as "sets" with 4 to 6 buildings and a string of lights that fit up inside the building to light them up.

As the years went by, different manufacturers came out with slightly larger buildings, and often they were purchased as individual pieces, not all at once in "sets".  As I started buying one or two of those every year, I began giving away my older, smaller and medium, buildings.

A Christmas Letter

It's that time of year again ... Christmas. The season for goodwill, peace, and joy ... and for Christians, the celebration of Christ on earth.

For many, it's also a time of sadness. For some, moving forward from loss seems impossible to do. For others, it's a time to remember the Ghosts of Christmas past.

Dear Mom & Dad, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends long gone ...

Hurricane Season in Florida - Irma, Jose, Katia

Like everyone else this last week, I've been watching the events surrounding #HurricaneIrma as they've unfolded, from the time it began in the Caribbean up til today (Sept. 9th). What happens from here is not yet set in stone (10:00am), and Irma's path has changed several times over the course of the last few days.

First reports were that Irma would hit the eastern side of Florida; subsequent reports showed it striding purposefully up the direct center of Florida; and then, the path predicted was for the western seaboard of Florida. At this moment, it's set to come down on the southeastern part of Florida (outer edges of the Miami area), but hurricane warnings for Eastern Florida have been cancelled by the National Weather Service, and warnings for the western side of Florida were issued.

What Makes a Grinch Smile?

In our house, even the grinchiest, bah humbug, visitor will crack a smile when this little guy pipes up and sends out his Christmas Greeting.

I got this cutie 3 or 4 years ago at a liquidation outlet, and since then, every year at Christmas he sits on the front staircase to greet our visitors. Even after all this time, he still makes me laugh. By the time he's done his song, most people are laughing, or grinning ear to ear. When I feel a little miserable, I'll turn him on and be smiling by the end. Probably one of my favourite holiday decorations.

When I first got him, I thought my daughter's two Boston Terriers would get a kick out of him ... they loved stuffed things, but you have to watch them because they can destroy one in under a minute. I didn't want them to wreck it, but ... well, the first time we played it the dogs were terrified ... hahaha. It didn't take them long to realize that Santa Dog wasn't coming after them, and once they warmed up to the idea that it was just a toy, well, I had to move him out of reach. Toys = chewing to those two girls, and chewing ends up with a destroyed toy.

Swinging into Another Fall

Orillia's "Island Princess"

... fall season that is. Oh, I know ... it's still a little ways off since the start of the season isn't til the 20th of the month, but that's looming up pretty quickly. The older you get, the faster time passes - a fact that I don't like much. When I younger the summers seemed to last forever. Now, they fly by in the blink of eye. Frankly, winter doesn't have to exist at all for me ... that would be something I'd like to see "fly by", but for me it's always the winter that seems to last the longest.

Winter Survival

February 16th, 2010

For the first winter in many years I actually feel as though I’m going to survive it – I supposed that’s partly because the amount of snow we’ve received this year is negligible compared to other recent years and partly because I’ve been forcing myself to go outdoors for at least 5 days out of every week – no matter what the weather.

You all know by now that I simply hate winter (you'll see those words pretty often in my writings, so I'll apologize now for being repetitive), and cold, and snow, so forcing myself outside so often is quite an accomplishment for me.  During winters where we have continuous and copious amounts of heavy snow, it's easy to make yourself go outside ... someone has to shovel. Since I suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and part of the treatment for that is "light therapy", the most preferable type of light is natural sunlight, which means going outside.

October's End - Frighteningly Bad

November 1st, 2012

Hurricane Sandy-parker2, morguefile

In many areas across the eastern US the end of October turned out to be pretty scary - no, not the Halloween kind of scary. The life-devastating kind of scary. Some areas in the US found themselves tossed upside down by Hurricane Sandy; floods, high winds, demolished homes and even (sadly) some lost lives. That's the saddest part really. "Things" can be replaced, but people can't. In NYC, I read that for the first time ever they cancelled the Halloween parade.

Snow Galore

December 9th, 2008

©J. Gracey Stinson

So, what actually happened on December 9th, 2008?  It snowed. It snowed a lot. It snowed some more. I shoveled. I shoveled a lot. I shoveled some more. That’s it in a nutshell. Okay, okay…that’s hardly interesting, I know. But that is what happened. It started snowing sometime through the night on the 8th, and when I crawled out of bed in the wee small hours of the 9th it was still snowing.

Early that morning our angel of a neighbour across the street appeared in our driveway with his snowblower. Around 11:30ish my husband went out and shoveled again…oh yes, it was still snowing.

Early afternoon I started putting on my duds to go out and shovel again since my husband and gone off to check on my aunt, do her errands and clear out her drive and walkway.  Just about then a truck showed up at the end of our drive with a brand new snowblower on the back.

The Shadow of Winter

November 6th, 2009

I am so not looking forward this. The summer days fled before they even had a chance to take hold. Where was summer this year? What happened to it…it was too little, too late, too short, too cold. A lot of “too’s” for one season. Somewhere along the way, I missed it…except for a few days here and there summer resembled spring, and brings up no summer memories from the depth of my mind.

When I was a kid summer was looooong, and hot. Heat waves, burning sun, the smell of water and sand at the beach, the call of seagulls and the drone of small planes overhead. I don’t remember any of that from this year.

Autumn flew in on spectacularly colourful wings almost overnight, and blew out in an autumn storm just as quickly. The colours were wonderful, intense…but too short. Now, the trees are bare, and although the grass is still green, everything else is brown.

Winter is coming…too soon. Like a mantra the thought weaves through my mind…winter is coming, winter is coming. I dread winter. The dreary days with no sunlight, the snow, mounds of it, blocking you off from your neighbours – winter is greedy. It demands attention. Snowfall requires shoveling…daily, twice daily…sometimes more. The days are short, so outdoor work gets packed into a smaller space of time; the worker is harder, and colder and more tiring. It requires work just to get outside, between boots and snowsuits and gloves, hats, scarves…protection.

Fall Is Arriving

October 10th, 2010

©V. Hickey
(used with permission)

We’re moving into the cooler weather now…not really cold yet, except overnight where it dips down to minus 1 celsius already, but we’ve had a pretty wet fall.  Most of September was rather wet with much cooler temperatures than we generally see in September.  It was a little disappointing, actually…we look at September as the last blast of summer, but this year it felt much more like the omen of a bad winter to come than the end of summer. Cold nights and warm sunny days help to make the autumn colours, but I often wish for longer summers. Oh, I don't mind cooler nights at all (easier sleeping), but those nights also bring frost, signalling an end to many of the garden plants.

Country road in fall.

We saw temperatures dipping down to almost freezing even at the end of August during the night, making for an early show of autumn colour. Normally the leaves don’t begin to show the change of season until sometime in late September/early October, but 2010 brought the colour change while we were still counting off the last weeks of August.

Glorious reds in Autumn.

I really love the autumn…it’s blaze of colour makes our country surroundings beautiful (I'd even say awesome since it never fails to catch your attention), especially during the early periods of fall when  the grass and some of the trees are still the bright, strident green you see after a rainfall, and the grass is thick and lush. The heavy night dews give the autumn grass and lawn a deep green we don’t see at other times of the year.

Spring grass has a light fresh green colour, and summer grass has a slightly dry and sometimes dull green from the hot days and little rain, but in fall it’s simply that colour we call green – grass green. The bright yellows, reds, oranges and sometimes brown or melon of the leaves contrasting with that lovely green is a jaw-dropping blast of brilliant contrast in our part of the world. I love it.  Crisp days of sunshine, blue sky, and even bluer water.

Summer ... and the Water is Fine!

July 25th, 2010

This year, summer is turning out to be…well…summer! In the last few years our summer season has been much cooler than we normally expect, and a lot wetter, leaving us with only small periods of time to get out and enjoy the sun and summer activity. Last year, I spent a lot of the summer wearing long sleeves, jeans and even turtlenecks. That wasn’t my idea of a nice summer. This year, however, has been an old-fashioned summer with lots of sun, hot days and cooler nights. Sure, we’ve had some rain and thunderstorms here and there, but on the whole, it’s been great. We’ve been able to spend time at the beach, and out on the boat and walking and hiking. I haven’t spent nearly as much time at the computer this summer, but I’m storing up lots of photographs that I can process through the winter months.

Our grandkids love getting out in the boat with us – one of their favourite activities is tubing, but we haven’t gone out and purchased one as of yet. We’ve used a borrowed one on occasion and while it’s a blast of fun, it scares me a little. Seeing my grandkids bouncing off a flying donut in a rough lake full of other boaters scares the crap out of me…I know it shouldn’t, because we follow all the safety rules, but still…. When my own girls were little we taught them how to waterski and that didn’t scare me as much as watching my grandkids in these tubes…which to me look like nothing more than huge inner-tubes with a bottom.  Most often when we’ve got the kids out we’ll take the boat over to one of provincial parks (we’ve got a few in our area) and anchor off the swimming area and we’ll all swim off the boat.