Happy Ash Day!
Yes, today marks the first day of the Celtic tree month of Ash.
“It feels more like my birthday today than it did on Monday,” HRH said when he woke me up this morning. “I’m in a great mood.”
That likely has more to do with the thought of cider and Brie than Ash Day, but it tickles him nonetheless.
Caught up in the editing nightmare and the race against the deadline, I managed to miss the second anniversary of Owls’ Court last Thursday February 12.
I must really have been fried to miss the hordes of tap-dancing owls wearing pointy party hats and blowing noisemakers.
It hasn’t been an easy week. Today’s “I-can’t-believe-this” moments included the discovery that the author of this MS left out about fifteen pages of text and rituals here and there — just never wrote them. Guess who picks up the slack?
The good news is that they extended my deadline to Tuesday (because Monday is President’s Day!), and thank goodness, because I had no idea I’d have to get this creative. Someone’s evidently looking out for me on this project, because I have all Monday to do it now. All the impressive work I’ve been pulling off has garnered me a nice break. (Look — karma in action!)
Anyways, HRH just came home and handed me a Kim Possible valentine and a box of hand-made chocolates with a big grin. “You didn’t have to do that,” I said, melting completely. (First over the Kim Possible Valentine – you have no idea how much of a kick I got out of it — and then the chocolate.) “I know,” said HRH. “But you’ve had a hard week.” He knows how disgusted I feel about artificial celebrations like Valentine’s Day, which are pushed by commercial operators and socialise people to think that being part of a relationship is the Right Thing and expected of everyone. Spending money doesn’t make you any more special to someone. Sure, it’s nice to be spoiled sometimes, but I’d prefer to be spoiled on an occasion of HRH’s choosing. Although the laugh’s on me this year – apparently it’s fun to give me stuff when I don’t expect it, and since I don’t expect anything on Valentine’s Day, well…
In fact, I got two Valentines today. The first was from my goddaughter, which was simply adorable. I have both of them pinned up on my bulletin board.
Dress rehearsal for the Beethoven tonight. Let’s hope all goes well.
I think I’d like winter to be over now.
Is it too much to ask that the electricity we pay for stay on for at least three days in a row?
Yes, we lost power again last night. Four hours of no heat during the coldest part of the night means that we lost all the warmth stored up in the apartment once more.
I no longer care what the reason may be – whether it’s the major NDG power transfer system finally dying due to old age, or the lousy wiring job in our apartment possibly shorting out the entire block – I just don’t care. I’m tired of resetting clocks, alarms, and volume levels. I’m tired of having to blast all our ineffective heaters just to get things to a comfortable temperature so I can function like a relatively normal human being again.
At first it was charming – we’d light candles, sit and chat quietly, watch the snow fall. Then it became slightly irritating, as the power would cut out when I needed to reach a deadline, make dinner, was expecting a call, was in the process of finishing something valuable on the computer, or some such thing. Now it’s just an instant anger-inducing inconvenience that makes me growly no matter what I’m doing, even if it’s as benign as reading on the sofa with a pile of cats.
Forty-seven days until spring. As the days count down, the temperature will rise, and people will consume less electricity, reducing the stress on the outdated power grid. Perhaps then we’ll experience fewer interruptions in our electrical supply.
I’m trying to be optimistic about it.
Because it deserves its very own post:
As if substandard heaters aren’t enough, the electrical upgrade the landlord did around the time we moved in wasn’t sufficient to handle all the new electrical heaters going at once. Our power blew yesterday, and our heaters were offline for about twelve hours.
More excitingness included a half dozen emergency vehicles blocking off our street yesterday and brown-outs. I know Hydro-Quebec’s system is stressed when the temperature drops like this, but these problems aren’t general, they’re limited to our building, or ours plus the building on each side. The tenants have all decided to make a list of Things To Be Addressed and send it in a registered letter to the landlord. I know the heat is a big issue, but for me, the most annoying day-to-day problem is the front door. It’s a split door — the doorway is wide, and has two doors hung in it. Problem is, they’re each narrower than your average door, and the left one is always locked. When I leave with my cello over my shoulder, I have to struggle to pull the door open, hold it open because the spring closing is aggressively set, wriggle through and immediately run down the five steps while the door slams shut because there’s no landing on the other side. The door isn’t even wide enough to get a laundry basket through without turning sideways.
Sure, fine, you might say; it’s not so bad. Right. Except that locked left-hand door is highly illegal, because any emergency crew trying to get in won’t be able to fit. They’re lovely doors. I’d hate to see them get hacked down. Worse, if there’s a fire inside, it’s not a legally safe exit. We’ve got about fifty people in this building; the thought of all of them trying to jam through that narrow door is just ugly. (Fire escapes? What fire escapes? We discovered last summer that they lead right back into the basement of the building.)
Wow, I didn’t mean to go on a minor rant like that. I like this apartment a lot, I really do. One always discovers good things and bad things throughout a stay somewhere, though.
Good things yesterday involved the beginning of a new game (with lots of sugar! Yay meringues!), and getting long-awaited info to appreciative parties including friends, students, a newsletter co-ordinator, and the US acquisitions editor.
And today… home-baked cookies!