Awaiting The Arrival Of The Storm

It won't be the first time we've had a face-to-face with a
hurricane. Little did I know when we moved the family to the
east coast of Canada back in '91 that we were headed for what
would ( might ) become hurricane alley.
Our introduction to a storm with real teeth was Hurricane
Juan in September 2003.
The only reason I will forever remain familiar with the date,
is that we had just moved into our brand new home. Literally,
just moved in. With the aid of friends we had moved all of
our boxed possessions into our new home in a small community
about ten Kilometres away. We were tired by the time we got
everything into the new house so we set up the bed - and
went to sleep.
I remember waking up at about 4AM and looking out the window
and thinking, " That's quite a storm." Little did I know.
When we got up under the benefit of morning light our
intention had been to scamper over to the old house and do
some final cleaning for the new owners and finalize the sale.
Well....there must have been 50 trees down across our new
driveway. I found our chainsaw and took an hour or two
cutting a path to get the car out so we could get over to the
old house. We had no idea what we might find there but based on
what we found at the new house we were prepared for anything.
As we were to discover both old house and new were right in
Juan's path. There was a mature tree leaning up against the
new house and peeking into the second story bathroom window.
There was a second mature tree blown up against the second
story deck off the kitchen. A third tree had been uprooted
and thrown against one of our cars the miracle being that
damage was limited to some dents in the hood. The other car
escaped unscathed.Over at the old house - the structure
itself was unblemished but a couple of towering, stately
hemlocks had succumbed under the strain of 100 + Kilometre
and hour winds - turning a once very secluded seeming back
yard into a new "open concept" whose appeal was from my
perspective - at the very least - lacking. But thankfully
the fallen trees had done so away from the house - and
no one was hurt at either place...the outcome could have
been so much different. It took a good eighteen months
to heal the scars where whole stands of trees had been
uprooted or snapped like matchsticks and the
neighbourhoods once again assumed something akin to
residential elegence...
The worst I suppose was the two weeks where we suffered
with no power. Imagine living in the city for two weeks
without electricity. Now imagine living in rural Canada
where you rely on a pump to retrieve water from your well -
and a pump to make your septic system function. Two
weeks without showers and toilets far exceeds an
inconvenience.
I'm watching Hurricane Bill with some interest. Fingers
crossed that Nova Scotia Power is better equipped to
handle extreme conditions than it was six years ago.
So far, so good...the hurricane did force us to cut short
a vacation in Ottawa where we had the rare good fortune
of having both my sons Tyler and Matt and Matt's beautiful
family, both my brothers and their terrific partners all
together at Mom's house.
Charlene and I arrived Wednesday. We flew in - our first
experience with Porter Airline. Tyler and I had the
chance to golf at his home course "Grayhawk" in Ottawa's
east end with Matt and family not arriving until later
in the day. Poor Mom...she worked for weeks preparing
for the gathering, and when we left she was still hard at
it. We left a day earlier than planned. With Hurricane
Bill gaining strength in the Atlantic it became apparent
that flying home as scheduled on Sunday was not going
to happen. Porter had already tried to contact us when
I reached them mid morning Saturday. We had seats on a
plane headed for Halifax at 2PM yesterday and by 5PM
Halifax time we were back home. Having suffered through
several bad experiences flying with Air Canada my
expectations had been low trying Porter for the first time.
Full marks to Porter. Hassle free, error free and
reasonable...that's all you want. We will definitely fly
Porter next time we travel to Ottawa or Toronto.
I actually considered heading out to the golf course this
morning to see if I could get a game in before "Bill"
flexed. When I got out of bed at 6AM it was raining
with gusto so I shelved that idea. By 6:15 the rain had
stopped but by 10AM the rains were back so I am pleased
I resisted the temptation. It's coming down heavily
now so I am going to to sign off now...in case the power
goes off.
Stay dry and may the light be with you...
Don