Little big flood.

While the other parts of the world were having their own natural disasters including north America mainly with those big and nasty hurricanes and parts of Canada with those fires, we had our own little disaster here too a few weeks ago. So I just had to post this so yeah for once this is fairly new stuff. 
Lately for the past few years we've been having lots of things such as floods here. I forgot about the small one we had last year. I remember that day we went to a mall. Not the one that flooded but another one. I had purchased a black stylish hat that day. This year however we got one of those 100 year old floods. It flooded our basement for a second time since our family has lived in this house. The last time was only a few years ago. I think in 2010 was the last time. I suppose we're now going to have these more often now. Sign of the times I guess. 
So anyhow most of the summer we struggled to get some rain so it ended up fairly dry around here. When we did finally get some substantial rain, boy it really rained. And rained and rained until our naighbourhood began to resemble a system of rivers and ponds. After awhile it started to seep in though a wall in the fruit cellar. Later I noticed that when I checked on our sump pump, it was on non stop and I started to get that panicky feeling of "here we go again". Then it started to bubble up through the drain in the floor and that's when I started to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I'm sure, though out the city this was happening people were probably feeling the same way. I think we were pretty lucky for not having a downstairs toilet which would have probably resulted in sewage in the basement as well. None the less I got as many of our things off the floor as fast as I could on to higher ground while my dad tried to go out to look for tubing for our extra pump. After doing all that I could downstairs, I went outside to the porch and took a few pics of the craziness.  (see pics below post)After taking a few pics a neighbour came over with urgency and asked for assistance. There were many cars getting trapped in the rising water that day and that guy's, van was no exception. So along with a few of the guys and me being the only woman we pushed the van up I guess his driveway to safety. So after a bit of socializing with the neighbours I walked back home. Found out my dad came back home without success. The stores were all sold out of hoses. There was only one way out of this. Compromising. My dad had to Macgyver the feed hose that we used in the fish pond for air and water circulation and use that for our extra pump. It was a bit of a mess considering that thing was all full of long strands of green alga and who knows what else but we had no choice. We hooked up the thing, fed it out one of the closest windows to the main sump pump and pumped away. The water finally started to let up around 7pm in our house and the neighbourhood as well. At its peek we had about 3 to 4 inches of rain water in the basement. It was a long day. Tomorrows day would be just as tedious. Removing wet rugs, placing them outside and the arduous task of re-mopping the floor. I had already done that weeks ago and was not happy about this. We were pretty lucky (or unlucky depending on your perspective)over all compared to some of our other neighbours. They had to redo some parts of their soaked basement and its pretty uncertain if insurance would have covered it fairly. (We have pretty lousy insurance coverage here in our humble and normally boring city.) The next day it was pretty evident how the flood impacted everyone in the city with the gargantuan mounds of trash piled high at the end of almost every driveway from flooded basements. To this day, its sill being collected by our diverted garbage and recycling trucks plus extra trucks from Toronto. They finally got to our street just yesterday although they still have the rest of the city to get to. Not easy when only about 10 houses can be cleared of debris at a time before they have to dump the load at some temporary depot. Ironically at our only and last GM plant which closed years ago and was torn down recently. So much for motor city, now rat city, garbage city and a city loaded with lots of sad and grumpy people. No wonder they all want to desperately smoke pot. 
Yup sign of the times.  😒

A view of our flooded park, parking lot and street from my porch. ⇱

 A view of our flooded park, parking lot and street corner from my porch and the corner of our front lawn.
Some guy decided to take a dip in one of the large and apparently deep ponds that formed in the corner of the park. I wonder if he realized that there was a sewer grate there.  ⇱

Our front sidewalk that leads from our porch. You can see the river that was our street. You can see a wake from a passing van. Many people didn't care that they were speeding and that would cause more water to go in peoples houses. ⇱

I liked how the water looked on our trees. Like sparkling diamonds. ⇱

A view from our dining room of the park and street. ⇱

A view from our dining room of the park and street. Another van goes whooshing by. ⇱

A view from my bedroom window. You can see a few cars stuck in the water at the far right. The same spot where me and some guys pushed a van up a drive way. The water was about up to my knees. A few feet worth. ⇱

A Friday that was more like a Monday

A Friday that was more like a Monday is what it felt like. I knew I wasn't going to like that day and was pretty much spoiled for me. Well I don't like dental appointments or any other medical related appointments for that matter but it had to get over with. So I got my annoyance over with and like usual I treat my self with a special snack of some sort. I was going to have an ice cream from the new ice cream place on the corner near by, but my stomach was still upset from a few nights before when I tried out this new spicy chicken. I love spicy chicken or anything spicy for that matter but this was a bit too much for me I guess. But it could have been more severe had I not eaten yogurt afterwords. So instead of the ice cream treat to drown out the dental taste left in my mouth, I got a small box of 20 TimBits verity style. They're basically doughnut holes from a place called TimHortons. I'm sure you've heard about the famous Canadian icon. So I brought them home to share and I though that was the end of it. But guess not. Later that night and as usual, my kitty gets in the mood to go out for a stroll. But before that he likes his play time with me and a meal. As we played in my room on the floor near my bed, I started to smell something strange but somehow familiar. Something burning, like burning wire. I started to get a bit frantic and nervous when I first could not find the source of the noxious smell.  Looked at my outlets, nope. Looked at a power bar, nope. Eventually I looked up thinking it might be somehow the ceiling light. The reason why I thought that was earlier my dad was changing the light fixture in the kitchen that was not working properly. Somehow I thought it was connected. Maybe the wire was damaged by a electrical serge? I started to get scared thinking that maybe there was a smoldering wire in the ceiling that was eventually going to lead to fire. After all I did start to see smoke swirling around my light fixture. The smell was getting stronger and overwhelming to my nose. So I started to open windows despite the furnace being on. But that didn't matter at that point. I also wen to see if the smell was in any other room especially the kitchen. Sure enough it was there. Now really panicking, my dad and I went outside and inside pretty much all over that house inspecting and contemplating. But we really couldn't really find any smoldering wires est. 
Just as well the smells were at that point starting to dissipate after opening the windows but we still weren't sure what happened.  It was only about an half an hour later when my mom went to empty the dishwasher when we realized what had happened. Apparently the dishwasher caught on fire and filled my room and the kitchen with nasty toxic burnt plastic smoke. I spent several days getting rid of that nasty smell. But you can still smell it in the kitchen. But then it could have been worse. Luckily the dishwasher only short circuited when I guess a bit of water got in to the electrical components  and burnt the front panel. Yikes and Yuck! But this might have been avoided if my parents heeded the recall warning for that machine a few years earlier. I hope they learn their lesson. Just too bad they're prone to hard headiness and stubbornness. Oh well. 

This Thursday will be my kitty's Monday since its vet day. He has to get his shots. He will be treated handsomely afterwords with his favorite treats. ;)

To the watering hole

Sunday was a great day for Meetso to take a break from hunting in the great jungle that is our back yard and relax by our busy little watering hole. The water fall babbled while the light from a bright sunny day danced on the water's surface. The koi fish large and small frolicked in the water causing the new addition of water plants to move from their places. A spider's web hung like a shiny chandler just above the water probably constructed last night to catch supper for a spider.

After that I when in to the downstairs kitchen and made my last batch of strawberry jam for the year. I burnt half of my hand from a exploding jam jar. I had freshly boiled strawberry jam poured in to a jar and then when I went to screw the top on tight, it exploded on me and all over. I was burning in pain of course. So luckily I was very close to the sink. So I ran the cold water and placed my hand under the water. I then filled a near by pot with cold water and place my throbbing hand in that. Later my dad came down the stairs to see how my jam was progressing and saw me in my predicament. He handed me a ice pack from the near by freezer and I placed it in to the pot of water and stuck my hand in again. I held it there for at least 15 mins or more till the pain wasn’t that bad. Then next day things were back to normal. Thank God!. This is like the 3d time I had something searing hot fall on my skin. I healed quite quickly with no real residual effects.

Went to a small park-et called Colchester harbor last weak after a drive with my dad. A nice little park-et with a marina and small beach. Really nice, clean and quite private. I managed to take a few pics of the area but not exactly the ones I was hoping to get. They had this fox snake with the thickness of my big tow sunning its self on a rock but wasn't quick enough to capture it on film, the same with the cute family of mallard ducks with there babies because of people shyness. Sigh... Oh well here's some boring pics I took.












BTW last week I just installed some new software so wasn't online for a bit. But now at least it let me know who was trying to attack my computer. Here are the following IP's;
85-89-97-254 kbpauk.ru.
254.139.153.61 dial.jx.zj.dynamic.163dada.com.cn
ool-5471a756.dyn.optonline.net
61.153.224.108
218.106.91.25
219.148.1.66.
211.157.33.40.
To the following who are trying to break in, don’t bother cause I do not keep personal info in my computer only my artwork, so BACK OFF!!! I can report you.
Thank you.