The Mormons are here for their Bible study with one of my room mates.I wish they would take it somewhere more appropriate, because they tie up the whole kitchen, and they never cease asking me to join them.I don't like being unkind to them, but I see their religion as nothing more than a lot of hocus pocus, and they are so damn aggressive at times. I'm not feeling to irritable this morning though, so I poke around in the refrigerator while I'm waiting for the office to take my call.Eventually they do, and as luck would have it, I score two trailers to unload tomorrow, at time and a half. I go to the front door and look out on a day that's still trying to decide what it wants to be. My throat is feeling scratchy too, and with an achy body, I think I'm starting to get a cold. Calgary weather is not as severe as that in Edmonton just three hours to the north, because warm wind often comes in over the mountains.It certainly breaks up winter, but it can make a cold hang on for a long time, with all the warm,cold cycles. I don't get sick much anymore.Not since 1990 when I got slammed with a bunch of different things all at once, and I thought I was going to die.Whatever it was must have given me one hell of an immunity to just about everything.Cold and flu I only catch in mild form, and far less frequently than in the past.Still, even in mild form, a cold can sometimes be hard to get rid of.
In all,I can't complain of my health.But I seem to have entered a period of being rather less healthy than I was in Edmonton.As much as I'm not susceptible to contagion, I've developed a couple of other problems, one being gout, the other plantars faschitis. They both nag me these days, sometimes ferociously. I wonder how well I'll be able to walk in ten years time. I've always had legs that tighten up for no discernible reason too, except in mid summer when the reason is heat. In the back of my mind I worry about this some.
It's not so much my health that the weather messes with. Weather is sometimes unstable here in Calgary.For the whole first three years here it was dry both winter and summer.Then we got a wet summer.But the worst was just last year, when the rains came in mid June, and the Elbow River that runs past my house started to flood.We watched it for a couple of days until it rose to where it was almost touching the bridge crossing 25th Avenue. Eventually, on a Saturday night,some policemen came into our building and told us we were being evacuated, that we would have to leave as soon as we could, and if we were still there in four hours time, we could be subject to arrest. The river was up over the end of the street about two hundred feet from my door, so I didn't waste any time at all. The cop told me I should head for the residences at the Southern Alberta Institute Of Technology, as they were taking in flood victims.I got onto a transit bus, which had been provided free of charge, and it took a bunch of us there.I'd never been evacuated from anywhere before, but I immediately found it very stressful.All I'd managed to gather were a couple of changes of clothes. Left behind, among other things was my guitar, which my favorite band had signed for me. I thought and worried a lot about that guitar, but concluded it was most likely alright.Still, it stressed me out.I thought about food in the fridge that was most likely bound to rot, and about sewage backing up into my apartment.But I was blessed with a safe bed that night, and I knew that was the most important thing.
On that Sunday morning I got up to go to work, and that presented a problem.I was in the northwest side of the city and I worked in the northeast.Not normally a problem, except on a Sunday at five AM. Two hours later I could catch a bus to Marlbourough transit station.But as it was I would have to walk all the way downtown to catch a train early enough to get me to work on time- if the flood water hadn't shut the line down. So I started down the steep hill on 10TH Street S.W. into Sunnyside. When I got to Fifth Avenue, at the foot of the hill, I heard a car way down by Memorial Drive rev it's motor, and the long screech of tires.I looked up to see a car coming quickly northbound, but after it had gone about a block, it swerved toward the east side of the street.It was followed by a huge bang when the car hit a building. Right away I knew it was bad, even being a few blocks away.I continued walking toward the scene.There was no way around it. I had a cellphone but I noticed that there were already people on the scene when I got there, and the sirens were already filling up the night with what seemed like a demonic howl. I knew the alarm had already been turned in, so I decided not to get involved.If I did, I'd be delayed for hours, and I needed to get to work.I decided I'd call in later as a witness.I wasn't certain what I could offer to enlighten the cops as to what happened, but I'd call in later.As I passed by the wrecked car and building, the first firetruck was just arriving.There appeared to be about five people in the car.All three in the rear seat seemed slumped over, and the red lights on the firetruck panned over the scene.It was still wet on the road, but not raining much, and other emergency vehicles were arriving as I walked past.
On Monday morning, I was still at the residence, on a tiny, hard little bed that was wrecking my back.But at least I had a place to stay.I went off to work that morning too, and because it was a weekday, getting to work was much easier. By ten O'clock I'd unloaded two trailers and was headed home to see what the situation looked like.My street was still all blocked off, but a cop told me I could go into the building to get anything I might need.I was told I'd have fifteen minutes. Inside I could see that river water had reached and entered our front door and gone down into the basement.My suite on the second floor was still high and dry, so I went in, gathered up my guitar, tossed a roast ham and some ground beef into the dumpster and left. The evacuation lasted three more days, but the weather was improving and I had my guitar.Things could have been much worse.I heard news that three people had died in the accident I'd seen.I went in to the police station and filled out a statement. The cop said he didn't think I'd seen a lot that would be helpful, but thanked me for coming anyway.True to his word, I never heard from them again.
In all,I can't complain of my health.But I seem to have entered a period of being rather less healthy than I was in Edmonton.As much as I'm not susceptible to contagion, I've developed a couple of other problems, one being gout, the other plantars faschitis. They both nag me these days, sometimes ferociously. I wonder how well I'll be able to walk in ten years time. I've always had legs that tighten up for no discernible reason too, except in mid summer when the reason is heat. In the back of my mind I worry about this some.
It's not so much my health that the weather messes with. Weather is sometimes unstable here in Calgary.For the whole first three years here it was dry both winter and summer.Then we got a wet summer.But the worst was just last year, when the rains came in mid June, and the Elbow River that runs past my house started to flood.We watched it for a couple of days until it rose to where it was almost touching the bridge crossing 25th Avenue. Eventually, on a Saturday night,some policemen came into our building and told us we were being evacuated, that we would have to leave as soon as we could, and if we were still there in four hours time, we could be subject to arrest. The river was up over the end of the street about two hundred feet from my door, so I didn't waste any time at all. The cop told me I should head for the residences at the Southern Alberta Institute Of Technology, as they were taking in flood victims.I got onto a transit bus, which had been provided free of charge, and it took a bunch of us there.I'd never been evacuated from anywhere before, but I immediately found it very stressful.All I'd managed to gather were a couple of changes of clothes. Left behind, among other things was my guitar, which my favorite band had signed for me. I thought and worried a lot about that guitar, but concluded it was most likely alright.Still, it stressed me out.I thought about food in the fridge that was most likely bound to rot, and about sewage backing up into my apartment.But I was blessed with a safe bed that night, and I knew that was the most important thing.
On that Sunday morning I got up to go to work, and that presented a problem.I was in the northwest side of the city and I worked in the northeast.Not normally a problem, except on a Sunday at five AM. Two hours later I could catch a bus to Marlbourough transit station.But as it was I would have to walk all the way downtown to catch a train early enough to get me to work on time- if the flood water hadn't shut the line down. So I started down the steep hill on 10TH Street S.W. into Sunnyside. When I got to Fifth Avenue, at the foot of the hill, I heard a car way down by Memorial Drive rev it's motor, and the long screech of tires.I looked up to see a car coming quickly northbound, but after it had gone about a block, it swerved toward the east side of the street.It was followed by a huge bang when the car hit a building. Right away I knew it was bad, even being a few blocks away.I continued walking toward the scene.There was no way around it. I had a cellphone but I noticed that there were already people on the scene when I got there, and the sirens were already filling up the night with what seemed like a demonic howl. I knew the alarm had already been turned in, so I decided not to get involved.If I did, I'd be delayed for hours, and I needed to get to work.I decided I'd call in later as a witness.I wasn't certain what I could offer to enlighten the cops as to what happened, but I'd call in later.As I passed by the wrecked car and building, the first firetruck was just arriving.There appeared to be about five people in the car.All three in the rear seat seemed slumped over, and the red lights on the firetruck panned over the scene.It was still wet on the road, but not raining much, and other emergency vehicles were arriving as I walked past.
On Monday morning, I was still at the residence, on a tiny, hard little bed that was wrecking my back.But at least I had a place to stay.I went off to work that morning too, and because it was a weekday, getting to work was much easier. By ten O'clock I'd unloaded two trailers and was headed home to see what the situation looked like.My street was still all blocked off, but a cop told me I could go into the building to get anything I might need.I was told I'd have fifteen minutes. Inside I could see that river water had reached and entered our front door and gone down into the basement.My suite on the second floor was still high and dry, so I went in, gathered up my guitar, tossed a roast ham and some ground beef into the dumpster and left. The evacuation lasted three more days, but the weather was improving and I had my guitar.Things could have been much worse.I heard news that three people had died in the accident I'd seen.I went in to the police station and filled out a statement. The cop said he didn't think I'd seen a lot that would be helpful, but thanked me for coming anyway.True to his word, I never heard from them again.
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